A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 



NUT CULTURE FOR NEW YORK. 



By Prof. H. E. Van Dcman, before the Western New York Horticultural 



Society. 



THE many classes of fruits that may be successfully grown within the 

 bounds of the Empire State, perhaps there is none that is more neglected 

 by both market and amateur growers than nuts. For ages before the country was 

 settled the natives have gathered wild nuts from the forests, and, since the 

 \vhite man has taken possession, he has done little so far to improve upon 

 nature's methods of their culture. But there are good reasons for being encour- 

 aged to push the culture of some of the native wild species and also to plant 

 some of the foreign kinds. 



Chestnuts ^ tlie nat * ve s P ec i es > the common Chestnut, Castanea 



dentata, is perhaps most promising of good results. 



There are thousands of trees bearing nuts of more than ordinary value, standing 

 in open fields, that have been left because of this fact. Some of them bear nuts 

 of large size, others are very productive, and all are of much better quality than 

 nearly all of the foreign varieties, although smaller, and hence, less popular in 

 market than the latter. Occasionally, trees are found which bloom abundantly 

 but do not bear. Such cases occur nearly always where the trees stand alone 

 and their barrenness is thought to be attributable to the staminate and pistillate 

 flowers not coming to perfection at the same time, or to the impotency of their- 

 pollen; because, where two or more trees stand near each other, it rarely 

 occurs. 



Very little attention has so far been given to the production of choice seed- 

 lings or to the propagation by grafting of the best chance seedling varieties. 

 Both of these methods could be practiced with decided advantage. There has 



