2o8 Commercial Gardening 



nuts are usually beaten from the trees with long supple ash rods, and there- 

 is an impression that this is the best possible way, and that the trees 

 themselves are benefited by the thrashing. Indeed there is an old saying 

 to the effect that 



" A woman, a dog, and a Walnut tree, 

 The more you thrash them, the better they be". 



The husks, if placed in tubs, with a little salt added, and pressed under 

 heavy weights, make an excellent ketchup, the juice being strained off and 

 used neat or diluted with some pure boiled vinegar. 



The Walnut flourishes in a rich sandy loam, and may be raised from 

 seeds which are sown as soon as ripe, or in spring, after being stratified 

 in sand during the winter to preserve the vitality. Besides the Common 

 Walnut the following are also met with: Highflyer, early, thin-shelled; 

 Large Double, with very large double fruits; Thin Shelled, double, early 

 with a very thin shell, and fine flavour. 



2. DISEASES 



Walnut-leaf Blotch (Gnomonia leptostyla). Small brown patches 

 sometimes appear on the living leaves. As a rule these are few in 

 number, and practically do no harm. Now and again, however, these 

 patches are crowded on the leaves, which in consequence turn yellow, 

 and fall quite early in the season. This, of course, materially affects 

 the crop, not only for the present, but also for the following season. 

 If the trees are not too large, spraying with Bordeaux mixture, when 

 the disease is first observed, checks its spread. 



The fungus perfects its fruit on the dead, fallen leaves during the 

 winter, and it is only by means of the spores produced in these fruits 

 that the young leaves can be infected the following season; hence it is 

 advisable to have all such leaves removed when they fall. This may 

 appear to be impracticable advice, yet it is just as well that the facts 

 should be known, whether the advice is followed or not. 



Walnut-leaf Spot (Ascochyta juglandis}. This fungus forms greyish 

 blotches up to ^ in. across on living Walnut leaves. These patches become 

 dead and dry and fall away, leaving holes in the leaf. As a rule but few 

 patches are present on a leaf, and the injury is slight, but every now and 

 again there is an epidemic, when the leaves fall early in the season, which 

 means badly matured and dwarfed shoots. The remedies suggested for 

 the previous disease are applicable in the present instance, only the fallen 

 leaves need not be troubled about, as the fungus has been carried away 

 on the dead pieces of leaf that dropped out before the leaves fell. 



[G. M.] 



