THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



185 



GROWINGS NUT-BEARING TREES. 

 I have found the safest plan for pro- 

 curing nut-bearing trees is to grow 

 them myself in my own garden. They 

 are as easy to grow as any fruit tree, 

 and will require but little care. They 

 will sometimes succeed if transi)lanted 

 from the forest, but there is no certainty 

 about it, and I would not recommend 

 the plan. If the trees are purchased 

 from a nurseryman, they should never 

 he more than two yeara old, and if boxed 

 and shi])ped long distances, they should 

 be but one year old tiom the nuts. In 

 .saving the nuts to plant, they should 

 never be allowed to dry in the least. 

 The fresher they are from the tree the 

 more certain they are to grow. To 

 keep them fresh, place them in damp 

 sand or moss as soon as gathered ; this 

 applies especially to hickoryuuts and 

 chestnuts. Black walnuts and butter- 

 nuts will remain fresh for some weeks 

 on account of their thick outer shuck. 

 But none of them will grow if allowed 

 to become dry. If the ground can be 

 got ready for planting in autumn, it is 

 well to put them in the rows in the 

 vegetable garden where they are to 

 grow for the first two years. All of the 

 four kinds mentioned .should be planted 

 in rows three and a half or four feet 

 apax't, and five or six or eight inches 

 apart in the rows, and all about three 

 inches in depth. If the ground can not 

 be got ready in autumn, place the nuts 

 in a shallow box of sand, and bury them 

 in the garden. 



The bottom of tlie box must be loose 

 enough .so the water can run out. I 

 lost a barrel of walnuts once that I had 

 saved for seed, from the barrel liolding 

 water, and the nuts becoming water- 

 soaked. 



Many recommend [)lanting the nuts 

 where they are to grow permanently. 

 But I think we ai-e too apt to neglect 

 them, and I would not recommend such 

 a coui*se except for a plantation that is 

 2 



to be left permanently for timber. 

 Then they may be planted the same as 

 com and cultivated in the same manner 

 until they shade the ground, and are 

 able to hold their own in spite of the 

 grass that may come in. 



Whether planted in autumn or in 

 spring in the garden they should be 

 cultivated as soon as the young trees 

 make their appearance. They should 

 be kept perfectly clean the first sum- 

 mer and also the second summer. Some 

 of the nuts may not come up until the 

 second spiing. When they are two 

 years old they ai"e ready to transplant. 

 It is best to wait until early in spring, 

 however, to do this work. The ground 

 should be thoroughly ploughed and 

 leveled. A crop of potatoes upon sod 

 ground is a good i)reparation. Select 

 the largest, straightest trees in the rows 

 for your own use. If an}^ of jthe trees 

 have grown puny and crooked from the 

 first, throw them away. They will 

 never ovei-take their more thrifty neigh- 

 bors. 



The trees will begin bearing in from 

 six to eight years from the time they 

 are transplanted, and will increase in 

 height at the rate of one and a half to 

 two feet each year, for the first twenty 

 years at least. The walnut and chest- 

 nut will gro\v the most rapidly, the 

 butternut next and the hickory slowest 

 of all. They will need no pruning ex- 

 cept to form the heads from four to six 

 feet from the ground, and to cut out 

 any limVjs that may become crossed or 

 broken. 



I kni)\v of no mon; enjoyable thing 

 about a farmer's house than a small 

 orchard of nut-ljeaiing trees. An acre 

 or two ilevoted to this purpose, will do 

 as much to keep the boys and girls at 

 home while young, and to make the 

 memory of the old liome blessed in after 

 lile, as anything that I could name. 



There is no reason why every farmer 

 or farmer's boy should not have a few 



