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Nut trees make the best ornament for the lawn, just enough shade 

 for comfort, without killing out the grass, flowers, etc., around them. 

 There is nothing monotonous about them. Each sort has a different 

 bloom or mode of fructification. You say they have no conspicuous 

 flowers. The hardy almond blooms well with me and rivals the peach 

 in size and coloring of its flowers. The fruits of the others, especially 

 the hazels and filberts, give pleasure to the eye and are far more en- 

 during than any ephemeral bloom. Above all, in this utilitarian age, 

 when the food problem is so acute, they should be cultivated for that 

 purpose. It is the easiest and cheapest way of producing protein for 

 building up and sustaining the human body for efficient work. 



When this country can raise enough for home consumption, mil- 

 lions of dollars will be thus saved, not only for public purposes, es- 

 pecially good roads at all seasons of the year, but better yet, the 

 raiser thereof can so embellish and equip his home and surroundings 

 as to keep the country people from swarming into the cities as at 

 present. In fact, the city dweller will be eager to move into the 

 country Utopia, so attractive and profitable will nut growing make it. 



You that are living in this comparatively warm region can easily 

 raise all the nuts of the warm temperate zones, and are not obliged, 

 like me, to search the world over for hardier specimens and more 

 rugged hybrids. Necessity is the mother of invention, and I utilize 

 every warm location around by buildings for the more tender varieties: 

 and I am establishing a thick wind-break of evergreen trees, which I 

 am in hopes will move my latitudinal line two to three hundred miles 

 further south. 



As I am now situated I have six genera, twelve species, and thirty- 

 five varieties of nut producers. 



I would say in closing that I recently read in an insurance pamphlet 

 that statistics showed that the best risks for indemnity companies were 

 persons who were fat, swore some and had a hobby. That is, they 

 were the least likely to go wrong and thus cause loss to those that 

 guaranteed their honesty. The moral is : Grow nuts ; eating them will 

 make one healthy and put on avoirdupois, in cracking them, one will 

 occasionally hit liis finger, causing stronger language than usual, and, 

 as for a hobby, I have found it the best and pleasantest I30ssible. 



