HOMES NEAR TO NATURE 



193 



acteristic. I always say that it is the 

 man's wife who furnishes the civilized 

 part of the family while he is engaged 



in the primal pursuits of agriculture 

 and hunting." 



Upon my remarking that it must 

 cost much to maintain such a place, he 

 said: "It cosis a few thousand dollars 

 per year, hut the money spent on 

 yachting would he lost. The recrea- 

 tion obtained from nut culture at Mer- 

 rihrooke, in addition to its scientific 

 value for the public, should give me a 

 large income from the two hundred 

 acres of orchards when I shall he re- 

 tiring from professional work, so that 

 I look forward to old age with the 

 same zest that the youth looks forward 

 to manhood. It seems to me that 

 every man should aim toward some 

 such goal for the days when his chief 

 activities must cease. 



"It is a wrong idea, however, that 

 many years are required for nut trees 

 to come into bearing. Valuable sorts 

 when grafted upon old bearing trees 

 as stocks will frequently bear heavily 

 by the second year after grafting, and 

 many seedling trees from European or 

 Oriental countries, where they have 

 been long in cultivation, begin to bear 

 at a very early age. 



ENGLISH WALNUTS GROW THRIFTILY. 



A NURSERY ROW OF PECANS. 



The hardy little trees from Indiana are cultivated in 



the nursery for two years before being 



transplanted. 



"The nut market is never fully sup- 

 plied, and many of the best kinds never 

 get so far as even the New York 

 market. Last year this country im- 

 ported more than twelve million dol- 

 lars' worth of nuts and nut products, 

 and we should really have exported a 

 very much larger quantity. The time 

 is near at hand when thousands of de- 

 serted acres in Connecticut will bring 

 farmers the princely incomes now ob- 

 tained by the pecan growers of the 

 south, and by the Pacific coast orchard- 

 ists with their walnuts and almonds." 



Even if Dr. Morris's experiments 



