THE CANADIAN H0RTICULTTIRI8T. 



181 



numbers being cut down for firewood 

 everywhere. 



In clearing a farm for pasturage some 

 years ago I left all the hickoiy-trees, of 

 which tliere were a great many, some of 

 them of very large size. I found great 

 differences in the size and quality of the 

 nuts. Some were very large, with veiy 

 thick shells and but little meat in them, 

 others nearly as large with compara- 

 tively thin shells full of meat of a finer 

 flavor, while others bore small or me- 

 dium-sized nuts of inferior value. 



The hickory, from its upright, grace- 

 ful habit, its quick growth and valuable 

 qualities, is one particularly suited for 

 roadside, lawn, or grove planting. It 

 requires a similar rich soil to the black 

 walnut, or rocky hillocks with good soil 

 among the stones, on which it will 

 attain a large size, bearing early, and 

 will prove very profitable to those who 

 plant it largely. The nut must be 

 planted where the tree is to stand, as 

 owing to its large tap-root it will not 

 stand ti-ans{)lanting from a seed-bed, as 

 I have found by experience. 



The Pecan (carya olivceformis ) is a 

 variety of the hickory, with oblong- 

 shaped nuts, a thin shell and more deli- 

 cate flavor. I have not heard of its 

 being grown to any extent in the North- 

 ern States, its natural habitation being 

 further South ; but I have no doubt it 

 would grow well wherever the hickory 

 grows. It is equally hardy here, and 

 grows fully as fast and strong as the 

 hickory. Some yeai-s ago I planted 

 some of the nuts in my garden in the 

 Fall. They grew the following Spring, 

 but being too close together I removed 

 all but one and planted elsewhere. 

 Like the hickory they did not stand 

 transplanting, and dwindled away. The 

 one left grew very fast till it attained 

 two feet in circumference, when it sud- 

 denly blighted just as it wivs coming 

 into bearing and died back. Supposing 



it had been injured by the Winter, or 

 unsuitable to the climate, I thought it 

 would not succeed so far North, but I 

 afterwards found that my neighbor had 

 placed a number of baiTels of coal oil 

 against my fence, which had leaked so 

 much that two years after in digging 

 I found the subsoil perfectly saturated 

 with the oil. This had killed the roots 

 of the tree on that side. On cutting 

 back the tree to a shoot on the sound 

 side it has since grown fifteen feet, and 

 bids fair to become a good-sized tree. 

 The pecan is well adapted for a shade 

 tree or for planting for profit. 



The Sweet Chestnut (Castanea 

 Vesca), is one of our largest and hand- 

 somest trees, and is very profitable whwi 

 grown on suitable soil. It is very pro- 

 lific — the nuts, which are easily gath- 

 ered, falling to the ground when ripe, 

 and selling at high prices in any 

 quantity. It will only grow on light, 

 sandy soils, with gravelly subsoil, where 

 it attains an immense size. A friend 

 made as much from a tine grove of 

 gigantic trees near his house as he did 

 from the rest of his farm of fifty acres. 

 His trees were near enough to over- 

 shadow the ground so that grass would 

 not grow, and he kept it clean and 

 smooth, so that the nuts could be gath- 

 ered once or twice a day, as they fell. 

 The timber is also valuable and veiy 

 lasting. 



The European or Spanish Chestnut 

 is said to be the same as the American, 

 but larger fruited. It has been greatly 

 improved by cultivation, and is now 

 nearly as large as a small hoi-se-chestnut, 

 but is not BO sweet or fine-flavored as the 

 common American variety. In Spain, 

 the southern parts of France, Italy, and 

 the adjacent countries, sweet chesnuts, 

 either raw, boiled or roasted, or ground 

 into flour, form a common article of 

 diet. It is not, however, the wild 

 chesnut which furnishes the nuts that 



