76 A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 



the foremost paper in America to advocate nut culture for profit, I thought 

 possibly a few sample nuts, as well as a few notes, might be acceptable at this 

 time, when so much attention is being given to this important and growing 

 subject. 



Mr. Coe has, for many years, been a firm believer in the profitableness of 

 nut culture in New England, and has tested by grafting most of the European 

 varieties and their seedlings that are now grown in this country. While he has 

 had fair success, it was.not until the advent of the Japan varieties that he was 

 fully satisfied that in these we had something that would unite readily with 

 our American stocks, and at the same time give us nuts of extra large size and 

 of high quality. Being satisfied of this, but not fully^ satisfied as to the hardi- 

 ness of the Japans, he, four years ago, grafted some on native seedlings in low 

 land, where the frosts of early Fall and Winter were the most severe and dan- 

 gerous. The growth has been marvelous, and grafts put into a three-inch 

 stock, eight feet from the ground, four years ago, have now formed a strong, 

 bushy head, fully ten feet across, and bore freely this season, after the last very 

 severe winter, when Snyder Blackberries, the most hardy type we have in New 

 England, were entirely killed to the ground in an adjoining field. This cer- 

 tainly tests the hardiness of the Japans. 



Several years ago, Mr. Coe bought the choicest selection of Luther Bur- 

 bank's ten thousand Japan seedlings, and it is not only the largest, but sweetest 

 Chestnut I have ever seen. More recently he has bought two others of Mr. 

 Burbank, and on the wooded hillsides, above the city of Meriden, has grafted 

 an eighteen-acre block of native Chestnut sprouts with these improved Japan 

 seedling nuts. . 



My visit at this particular time was to study the effects of grafting at dif- 

 ferent seasons of the year. Both cleft and crown-grafting are practiced, mostly 

 on stock one to two inches in diameter, four feet from the ground. About half 

 of last Spring's work was done by the middle of April, just as new life was 

 coming into the sprouts, and the remainder later in May, when the leaves were 

 well developed. In the early grafting, not more than twenty or twenty-five 

 per cent, of the scions grew, and these made a growth of from two to four 

 feet; but of the later grafting, more than seventy-five per cent, have grown, 

 although not making so strong a growth this season as the few of the earlier 

 ones which survived. This certainly proves that, if the scions can be kept in 

 good condition, late grafting is the proper thing for the Japan varieties in this 

 latitude. I was not able to obtain any nuts of the very large, sweet Burbank, 

 but of the two others I send a few samples. 



The largest, light-colored one, marked " Early," while not so sweet as the 

 Burbank, I consider of beautiful appearance, and fully as sweet as the average 

 of our American varieties. When we consider that it will mature fully three 



