Dendrology 87 



are more desirable for this purpose than for wood and 

 timber for the farm. Walnuts are easily grown from seed. 

 They have the habit of sending straight down a very long 

 and persistent tap-root very early in life, so that they are 

 difficult trees to handle successfully in planting. It is 

 always advisable to plant the seed in the place where the 

 trees are desired, and if there is danger of squirrels digging 

 out the nuts and eating them, it is well to coat them with 

 tar or anything that will keep squirrels away. If safe 

 from mice and squirrels, the nuts may be planted in the 

 fall. Otherwise they will need to be kept in moist sand 

 in a cold place all winter and planted in the spring as soon 

 as the ground is free from frost. 



The hickories 



The hickories are very widely distributed in North 

 America. Most of the species are very valuable for their 

 wood and some are valuable also for their fruit. Almost 

 every native farm woodlot will have some species of 

 hickory. If not, trees of a desirable species can easily 

 be grown by planting seed where the trees are desired. 

 Not all the hickories produce edible fruit. Some are very 

 bitter to the taste, while some others have a very heavy 

 and much chambered shell, so that the kernel is small 

 and difficult to extract. As a rule, hickories in the northern 

 states with a heavy divided husk inclosing the nut have 

 edible fruit. The husk usually separates from the nut 

 naturally at the time the nuts come from the trees. Of 

 all the hickories, the pecan hickory is the most valuable 

 for the fruit. Second-growth hickory is a common name 

 for young hickory that has grown rapidly from the seed 



