On 30/8/07 16:32, in article , "BAC"
wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
. uk...
On 30/8/07 15:04, in article , "BAC"
wrote:


"Uncle Marvo" wrote in message
...
In reply to BAC ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

I have no idea who or what you are referring to, there, so cannot
comment, except to say anyone advocating unmerited physical violence
to anyone, regardless of gender, is barking up the wrong tree, in my
view. Unless doing so humourously, as in quoting the old "Women, dogs
and walnut trees, the more you beats them, the better they be's"
rhyme, perhaps :-)

I don't think it works with dogs



I suspect it's equally ineffective with all three ...


Actually,, I've always wondered why it's supposed to work with walnut
trees.


So have I, and, personally, believe it belongs in the 'myths and fables'
category. However, I once heard old Bob Whatsit on Gardener's Question Time
claim that beating walnut trees was reserved for the timber producing
phenotype, not the nut producing one, and it was thought that bruising and
scarring the bark introduced distortions to the timber, which increased the
value of the grain pattern for gun-stocks and the like. Whether that's true
or not, I don't know.

The nut tree is Juglans regia but I don't know what the other would be.
AIUI, the one we grow in UK is not considered as good for the timber because
we chose stock more for its fruiting.

I've just googled it and found a report from someone in France claiming that
beating their walnut trees increased the harvest.
http://radio.weblogs.com/0136203/2004/09/12.html

I'll go and give one of ours a quick bashing tonight and see if it helps.
It's finally produced at least 3!

They could be right, of course, but OTOH the idea the conditions were simply
better for walnuts the following year seems much more likely to me.

I used to think that they beat walnut trees to make walnut whips, but that
was a very long time ago ...


Aaaaaah! ;-)


--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'