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As it is now generally conceded that the public domain will, at the present rate of 

 consumption, be entirely denuded of its timber before the end of the present century, 

 perhaps one of the best means to awaken general public interest on the subject will be to 

 endeavour to show that, for those persons who are seeking permanent investment for sur- 

 plus capital, forest tree planting can be prosecuted with as great, or possibly a greater 

 probability of financial success than attends almost any other sound commercial enterprise. 



Judging from our present knowledge of the commercial value of the various kinds of 

 timber best adapted to the climate, and much of the soil of Canada, the cultivation of the 

 Black Walnut offers greater promise for a profitable investment in this industry than, perhaps, 

 any other kind. Notwithstanding the opinion which so generally prevails that the Black 

 "Walnut is not sufiiciently hardy to withstand the extremes of our climate, recent experi- 

 ence has taught vis that it can be successfully and easily grown throughout the greater 

 part of the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and, probably also of Nova Scotia and New 

 Brunswick, where an alluvial, or a deep, rich, loamy, clay soil can be found. Late spring 

 and early autumn frost does not injure the Black Walnut as it does some other varieties of 

 our forest trees. I have known a late spring frost to destroy nearly every leaf on a row 

 of these trees, and in two weeks after the trees were clothed with a new foliage. The 

 blossom buds, however, were destroyed, consequently no fruit was produced that season. 



I have never observed the foliage to be injured by any insect enemy excepting the 

 red-hump caterpillar — notodonta concinna — and only occasionally by it, and this tree does 

 not suffer by the loss of its foliage as many other kinds do. Some four or five years ago, 

 at about this time of the year, one of my Black Walnut trees was completely stripped of its 

 leaves by this caterpillar, and to my surprise, the tree reclothed itself with new foliage 

 before the end of the season so completely that no difference could be observed in its gen- 

 eral appearance from others standing near it that had not been injured. The following 

 season this tree appeared to be as healthy as any other. 



Severe pruning does not perceptibly injure young walnut trees, and if an accident 

 should happen to one whereby it would be permanently disfigured, standing where it 

 might be desirable to have a perfect specimen, I would advise cutting it down to within a 

 few inches of the ground as early in the spring of the year as possible, and allow the 

 stump to throw out a new shoot from out of its many latent buds in the remaining part 

 of its trunk, and obtain a new tree in this way rather than replace it by another. A few 

 years ago I treated several trees in this way that were about two inches in diameter. In 

 three years from that time these trees were really beautiful specimens, standing fx'om ten 

 to sixteen feet in height. 



No amount of heat or cold seem to affect the Black Walnut injuriously. During the 

 summer of 1881 the thermometer on my grounds registered over 90° several times, and on 

 two or three days over 100°, and on one day in January last between 35° and 36^ below 

 zero was registered. Yet the trees this season present their usual healthy appearance, 

 and are bearing a fair quantity of nuts. 



Several persons in the neighborhood in which I reside have lately commenced to plant 

 walnut trees, nearly all of whom are succeeding fairly well, and when a few nuts have been 

 planted in soil suited to their requirements, fine, healthy, and well-developed trees have been 

 the result. Many trees, however, have been transplanted in hard, dry, gravelly, clay soils, 

 and are not flourishing as the owners thereof expected them to do. 



Seeing, therefore, that the Black Walnut, although indigenous to only a very small 

 portion of the extreme southerly part of Ontario, has proven to be sufiiciently hardy to 

 witlistand the extremes of climate peculiar to the Provinces of both Ontario and Quebec ;. 

 that vast areas exist in those Provinces where the soil is quite suited to produce its healthy 

 and rapid development ; that the peculiarities of its habit to produce new foliage when 

 anything occurs to destroy that already produced, and to produce a new growth of wood 

 from near the root in cases of accidents to the tops of young trees ; that the rapidity of its 

 growth equals that of any other tree grown in this country ; that its timber equals any 

 other in value, and that the cash value of well-developed timber which may be grown on 

 a given area, is so much greater than any other, I would urge that its cultivation under 

 proper management may reasonably be regarded as the most remunerative employment 

 in connection with the cultivation of the soil. 



