A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 21 



As thorough and careful culture of this nut has not been reported by its 

 propagators as is reported for the Almond and Madeira by their propagators, 

 yet the nut shows decided improvement under the care and the attention 

 given it. 



The Shag-bark Hickory is not receiving any orchard culture, yet it is 

 among the collection of nut trees, and from the native forests there are now to 

 be had some very large, thin-shelled nuts of superior quality. 



The Chestnut of sweetest flavor is the wild nut of the American forests. 

 Selections of the largest and best of these are reported from many localities, of 

 which not a few have been planted by amateurs. The larger nuts of Japan 

 and Italy, having less flavor, are more in cultivation than the American varie- 

 ties, yet when the American Chestnut shall have received the care and culture 

 which have been given some other nuts, it is safe to anticipate a corresponding 

 hastening of maturity, and improvements of size, etc. 



This nut may be best prepared for market by bathing in scalding water as 

 soon as gathered, and thoroughly drying till all surplus moisture is gone, so 

 that moulding is avoided. The method is to place say a bushel of nuts in an 

 ordinary wash tub and on these pour water boiling hot, in quantity sufficient to 

 just cover the nuts an inch or two; the wormy nuts will float on the surface 

 and are removed; in about ten or fifteen minutes the water will have cooled 

 enough to allow the nuts to be removed by the hands; at this stage of the pro- 

 cess the good of scalding has been accomplished (the eggs and larva of all 

 insects have been destroyed, and the condition of the " meat " of the nut has 

 been so changed that it will not become flinty hard in the further curing for 

 winter use. Yet in this condition the nut is in no wise a " boiled Chestnut.") 

 The water is drained off and the nuts being placed in sacks, in such quantity 

 as will allow their loose spreading at about two inches thick, the sacks are 

 frequently turned and shaken up as they lay spread in the sun or dry house. 

 When surplus moisture is driven off, so that risk of moulding is avoided, the 

 nuts may be packed in barrels or otherwise stored for winter. It will be found 

 that such nuts are quite tender, retaining for a long period much of the quali- 

 ties that make them so acceptable in the fall. Of course, nuts that have been 

 scalded will not germinate. 



Nuts that have been selected for planting, and no nuts of any kind should 

 be planted that have not been selected for superiority of size, flavor or thin- 

 ness of shell, are best cared for by planting in the fall in boxes of soil; their 

 conditions of depth in the soil, and moisture from mulch, etc., to be as close a 

 pattern of nature in the forests as possible, the object of the box being to 

 faciliate the record kept and to prevent mice and moles from disturbing the 

 nuts till the tap root has started growth in the spring. These boxes of imbed- 

 ded nuts are settled in some protected spot of earth where pigs, squirrels, 



