212 THE NUT CULT CRIST. 



have been, and many still are, living witnesses of the 

 fact that varieties of the Persian walnut will thrive in 

 this latitude, certain horticultural authors and essayists 

 have continually asserted the contrary. 



Mr. F, J. Scott, in his superb and voluminous work. 

 "Suburban Home Grounds," in speaking of this species 

 of the walnut, says, p. 351: "Though greatly valued 

 in England and on the continent for its beauty, as well 

 as for its nuts, its want of hardiness in the Northern 

 States, and lack of any peculiar beauty in the South, has 

 prevented its culture to any great extent in this country. 

 South of Philadelphia it may be grown with safety.'' 

 'This seems strange language to have come from such an 

 eminent authority as the late Mr. Scott, inasmuch as he 

 must have passed a hundred times within sight, if not 

 in the very shadow of the rows of old walnut trees grow- 

 ing at Manhattanville, when going from New York city 

 to Newburgh, where he studied landscape gardening 

 under the lamented A. J. Downing, and to whom the 

 work from which I have quoted is dedicated. It is quite 

 evident, however, that our author, like many others, 

 failed to see things that should have interested him. 



As an offset to Mr. Scott's idea of the northern 

 limit for the successful cultivation of this nut, I may 

 refer to the work of Mr. George Jacques, "Practical 

 Treatise on Fruit Trees, Adapted to the Interior of 

 New England," published at Worcester, Mass., 1849. 

 In referring to the European walnut, p. 238, he says : 

 " It is perfectly hardy on Long Island, and to the south 

 of New York, and as far north as the city of Charles- 

 town in this State (Mass. ), where there may be seen, in 

 the enclosure of a residence on Harvard street, two fine 

 trees of this kind, either of them much taller and larger 

 than our large-sized apple trees. We have eaten nuts 

 from these trees well ripened and fully equal* to any of 

 those imported. The trees often bear a crop of some 



