INTRODUCTION. 3 



incentives has made us careless and indifferent in regard 

 to a day of need, which in all probability will come to 

 us sooner or later ; but whatever the cause, the fact re- 

 mains that we have been spending millions annually on 

 worthless articles and sentimental problems and projects, 

 which have brought us neither riches nor honor ; in 

 truth, to use a homely phrase, we have been following 

 the bellwether in nearly all of our rural affairs and pur- 

 suits. As a natural result we are spending millions for 

 imported articles of everyday use which might easily 

 and with large profit be produced at home, and in many 

 instances the most humiliating part of the transaction is 

 that we send our money to people who do not purchase 

 any of our productions and almost ignore us in commer- 

 cial matters. I am not referring to those products ill- 

 adapted to our climate, nor to those which, owing to 

 scarcity and high price of labor, we are unable to produce 

 profitably, but to such nuts as the almond, walnut and 

 chestnut, which we can raise as readily as peaches, 

 apples and pears. There certainly can be no excuse for 

 the neglect of such nut trees on the score of cost of 

 labor in propagation and planting, because our streets 

 and highways are lined and shaded with equally as ex- 

 pensive kinds, although they are absolutely worthless 

 for any other purpose than shade or shelter, yielding 

 nothing in the way of food for either man or beast. 

 Can any one invent a reasonable excuse for planting 

 miles and miles of roadside trees of such kinds as elm, 

 maple, ash, willow, cotton wood, and a hundred other 

 similar kinds, where shellbark hickory, chestnut, wal- 

 nut, pecan and butternut would thrive just as well, 

 cost no more, and yet yield bushels of delicious and 

 highly prized nuts, and this annually or in alternate 

 years, continuing and increasing in productiveness for 

 one, two or more centuries. Aside from the intrinsic 

 value of such trees, they are, in the way of ornament, 



