Mike Roscoe wrote:

: I'm surprised that no one has remembered the old walnut tree rhyme,
: "A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more you beat them the
: better they'll be." An old farmer told me that in order to
: get walnut trees to crop quickly, people would often bruise the bark
: by hitting with sticks. Whether he was pulling my leg I don't know.

Unripe walnuts must be loosened from the branch by shaking or beating
the tree. That seems likely to be the origin of the rhyme.
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