6 THE NUT CULTURIST. 



depleted purses, while their descendants would have 

 blessed them for their forethought. Of course there are 

 other valuable kinds of nuts which thrive over the 

 greater part of the New England States, but I refer only 

 to the two, which were so abundant in the forests that 

 one or both could have been obtained for the mere cost 

 of transplanting. But it is not fair to prate about the 

 remissness and follies of our ancestors, unless we can 

 show by our works that wisdom has come down to us 

 through their experience. 



What is true of the New England is equally true of 

 all the older States, and is rapidly becoming so in many 

 of the newer, little attention being paid to the intrinsic 

 value of the wood or the product of the trees planted 

 along the highways. There are also millions of acres of 

 wild lands not suitable for cultivation, but well adapted 

 to the growth of trees, whether of the nut-bearing or 

 other kinds. But for the present I will omit further 

 reference to the planting of nut trees except on the line 

 of -the highways, just where other kinds have long been 

 in vogue and are still being cultivated for shade and 

 ornament, with no thought, perhaps, on the part of 

 the planter, that both could be obtained in the nut trees, 

 with something of more intrinsic value added. The nut 

 trees which grow to a large size are as well adapted for 

 planting along roadsides, in the open country, as other 

 kinds that yield nothing in the way of food for either 

 man or beast. They are also fully as beautiful in form 

 and foliage, and in many instances far superior, to the 

 kinds often selected for such purposes. 



The only objection I have heard of as being urged 

 against planting fruit and nut trees along the highway 

 is that they tempt boys and girls as well as persons of 

 larger growth to become trespassers ; but this only ap- 

 plies to where there is such a scarcity that the quantity 

 taken perceptibly lessens the total crop. But where 



