320 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



berts, the sweet, hard-shelled almond, and chestnuts. All these find 

 their natural home on rugged steeps, and all are profitable, especially 

 the filbert and chestnut. 



The walnut wants fertile soil, the richer the better, so that its cul- 

 tivation on a large scale necessitates the use of good land, and the 

 question of comparisons of profits comes in. 



The hickory and pecan will flourish on land too wet for corn, wheat 

 and other cereals, but must not be planted where lands are too fre- 

 quently overflowed, or where water stands too long, but they will stand 

 a good deal of water. They are mostly found in the wild state along 

 streams in rich alluvial bottoms, though like the sycamore, whose roots 

 love water, they are sometimes found on dry, hilly land. 



WHEN TO PLANT. 



If transplanting trees, do the work whenever you are ready in 

 spring or fall. If there is any difference it is, perhaps, in favor of 

 spring, so far as certainty of life is concerned, but then the weather is 

 generally so much better and the average farmer has so much more 

 spare time in the fall, it is safer to advise fall planting as the advice is 

 then more likely to be followed. 



Nuts may also be planted in spring or fall, though it is less trouble 

 to plant the nuts in the fall as soon as gathered, and thus save winter 

 care and handling. Trees planted in fall need a little more protection 

 by mounds or mulching, and nuts planted in fall must be protected 

 from squirrels and other rodents. 



The time in fall or spring to plant nuts or trees of course depends 

 upon the season and the location. No iron bound rule can be laid 

 down on this point. March or April for spring, and September, Octo- 

 ber and first half of November for fall, will hit most seasons. 



HOW TO PLANT. 



One great bug-bear in the way of nut tree planting has been the 

 idea that they could not be transplanted without great labor and risk. If 

 men go to the woods and dig up trees several years old with long tap 

 roots which must necessarily be cut off, the tree will die unless it has 

 extra care. Nut trees from the nursery where they have been properly 

 handled are no more difficult to grow than the peach, apple or pear. 



The cheapest, and probably the best way for the farmer to grow 

 nut trees is to gather or buy nuts in the fall, being careful to get the 

 best obtainable of each variety, put them in a rich bed of earth three 

 to six inches apart in rows twelve to eighteen inches apart, cover them 

 about twice the depth of the diameter of the seed, and when the 



