68 THE XUT CULTUEIST. 



necessary. The soil for the bed should be light, either 

 sandy or loamy, and if not rich, made so by adding very 

 old and fine stable manure, or leaf mold from the forest 

 I prefer the latter, as it is the most natural for all 

 kinds of seedling nut trees. Whatever fertilizing mate- 

 rials are used, they should be placed on or near the sur- 

 face, and never worked in deeply, for our aim should be 

 the production of side or lateral fibers, and not coarse 

 perpendicular roots. Furthermore, seedling nut trees 

 grown on light, sandy soils or in pure leaf mold, produce 

 a far greater number of small fibrous roots than on heavy 

 soils, and this is a decided advantage with those which 

 are to be transplanted. 



Planting the Nuts. When the time arrives for 

 planting, take the nuts from their winter quarters, and 

 after sifting out the sand, sow or drop them in drills, 

 covering about two inches deep with fine soil. With 

 the small native varieties my practice has been to sow in 

 wide drills; that is, those made with the blade of a 

 common garden hoe, and of the same width, the nuts 

 being scattered along the bottom two to three inches 

 apart. 



The soil is then drawn in over them and pressed 

 down with the back of the hoe, or by passing a light 

 garden roller over the surface. If the size of the seed- 

 bed is not limited, or only a small quantity of nuts are 

 to be sown, then the single row would be preferable, 

 because less hand weeding will be needed to subdue the 

 weeds, and for all the larger varieties I should certainly 

 recommend it, because they are of a more stocky growth. 

 The distance allowed between the drills will depend 

 somewhat upon the implements to be employed in culti- 

 vation, as well as how long the seedlings are to remain 

 in the seedbed before transplanting, but from two to 

 three feet will be found convenient for the ordinary 

 modes of cultivation. 



