80 THE NUT CULTURIST. 



ing a distorted and ill-shapen tree. Having experi- 

 mented somewhat in this line with variable success, I 

 am not inclined to recommend it, because ten trees can 

 be raised to a bearing age on moderate-sized stocks with 

 less labor, and the results will be more satisfactory. 



Budding Chestnuts. I have frequently tried 

 budding chestnut stocks as described for the almond, 

 and extensively employed with other kinds of fruit trees. 

 But the results of my experiments have been unsatisfac- 

 tory, although buds were set from very early in summer 

 until late in the fall, also on young and old wood ; but 

 so few have taken and remained alive over winter that 

 my personal experience in this mode of propagation will 

 not justify its recommendation to others. Perhaps there 

 is some secret connected with the operation that I have 

 not yet discovered, but which is known to other propa- 

 gators. Of course, budding with semi-dormant wood and 

 buds in spring, as soon as the bark will peel from the wood, 

 is practicable, but there is really nothing to be gained 

 by this mode of propagation over that of grafting. 



Transplanting and Pruning. There is no tree 

 that will bear or withstand more severe pruning than 

 the chestnut. If trees of one or five hundred years of 

 age are cut down, the stumps are sure to throw up an 

 immense number of sprouts from adventitious buds, as 

 these are readily produced at almost any point on the 

 sapwood or alburnum under the bark ; and yet, with this 

 inherent vitality and faculty of recuperation, the chest- 

 nut tree does not naturally, like many other deciduous 

 kinds, throw up suckers from the roots. Keeping this 

 peculiarity in mind, the cultivator has only to use his 

 pruning knife freely upon the trees to secure almost any 

 form desired. But after the trees have become well 

 established, very little pruning will be required, except 

 to occasionally thin out or remove a rambling branch, to 

 secure a well-balanced and shapely head to the tree. 



