46 A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 



ORCHARD CULTURE. 



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Ol FEW GENERAL REMARKS will be applicable to all species. Con- 

 ^* stant care, vigilance and culture are necessary for best results. The 

 distances of planting will vary with different species, according to the sizes 

 and habits of growth. To occupy the ground, in order to tide over the time 

 from setting the trees till their fruiting, it may be planted to any cultivated 

 crop, the fertilizing of which will at the same time nourish the trees until 

 they attain a size that will so shade the ground that the intermediate crop will 

 not succeed; after which the ground should be kept cultivated during the 

 early part of the season and planted to some fall crop of rye, crimson clover 

 or other green crop to be plowed under the following Spring. 



As there is a great variation in the fruitfulness of individual trees of the 

 same species of many nut-bearing trees, even under similar conditions, the 

 question has arisen whether they are bisexual or self-fertile that is, are the 

 flowers of both sexes on the same tree. While probably the principal cause of 

 failure is due to the different dates of blooming of the two sexes, or probably 

 the unfavorable climatic conditions at time of blooming, and to guard against 

 disappointment, we would suggest, as has been proven with some other fruits, 

 for best results, not to plant too large a block of any one variety, but to plant, 

 say, three to five- rows of one variety, and three to five of another, and so on, 

 so as to provide a continuous supply of pollen from those blooming at different 

 times throughout the w r hole blooming period, and thus insure the pollination 

 of the pistillate flowers. 



All suckers should be kept rubbed off as they appear until the grafts be- 

 come well established and heads formed, after which they will require but 

 little pruning, except the suckers that will occasionally appear, and the adjust- 

 ment of the branches so as to form a well balanced head. 



As the nuts of different varieties ripen at different times of the season, as 

 with fruit, it is well to consider this in setting the orchard, so as to have those 



