28 



from a commercial standpoint. Some of the trees have borne and 

 some have not. We have come to the definite conclusion that in order 

 to succeed with nuts^ it is necessary to go to the country. You may 

 not be aware of it but the atmosphere of St. Louis is about as bad as 

 any of the other cities in this country. Peihaps it will improve. This 

 smok^' atmosphere is not a good thing for nut trees. It often blights 

 the blossom. Many trees and shrubs that formerly bloomed do so no 

 longer. Consequently we have gone thirty miles out of the city and 

 acquired some ground on the Merrimac *River where we are going to 

 grow nuts. We have four or five kinds of soil, and everj^ exposure 

 and wlien you come back to St. Louis a'l-.iin for your meeting, I liope 

 to be able to show you a ver}' vigorou? and well established nut or- 

 chard of a size to make it interesting. 



I cannot go into the real environmental problems from the stand- 

 point of tlie soil at this time. Most of us have the idea that soil is a 

 sort of a sponge through which water flows. We pour in fertility 

 having no relation to the various environmental factors of the natural 

 soil. The question of tillage or rover crops I had hoped to touch 

 upon because I wanted to ask some questions myself about that. There 

 seems to be a good deal of difference of opinion as to cultural prac- 

 tices. Grass seems to be distinctly harmful. You will howevcer have 

 to plow under some sort of humus crop before you go back to clean 

 cultivation. 



THE FARTHEST NORTH IN U. S. NUT CULTURE 

 By Z. H. Ellis, Fair Haven, Vermont 



It seems a far cry from a small town in faraway Vermont to this 

 the Metropolis of the Middle-West, with twice the population of my 

 whole state. Nearly a century ago two uncles of mine left their native 

 town, mine as well, for the then wild, uncultivated prairies of Illinois, 

 only a few miles from here. One of them of a speculative turn of 

 mind, gathered up the peltry of his region and traded it in at this, 

 then a frontier post. Later on he traded mules and horses at New 



