NUT-CULTURE 



NUT-CULTURE 



2295 



days these petioles usually separate and fall away, 

 leaving buds which are more readily handled. Other 

 orchardists prefer to leave the petiole in connection with 

 the bud and to transfer both directly to the stock. In 

 any case it is important to make use of one principle, 

 the principle of bringing the bud to a state of rest for a 

 few days. This is best accomplished by placing the 

 green bud-sticks in the ice-house or in cold storage for 

 three or four days. The effect of the cold is to bring the 

 life processes in the buds to a pause, and then when 

 transferred to stocks the buds start off into activity in 

 a more kindly way than when transferred without a 

 resting-period. 



The choice of grafting-stocks is one of considerable 

 importance. Almost any species or variety of nut-tree 

 may be grown upon stocks of allied species and varie- 

 ties, but in dealing with the hickories it is desirable to 

 note the wide variation in character and texture of 

 wood between different species. Thus the pecan, an 

 open-bud species, will perhaps be found to thrive best 

 when grown upon stocks of the bitternut (another 

 open-bud species), excepting when it is more desirable 

 for any reason to place a variety of pecan upon stocks of 

 its own species. The shagbark hickory appears to do 

 best upon stocks of shagbark, mockernut, shellbark 

 or pignut. In chestnut-grafting, the various European, 

 Asiatic and American examples are best grown upon 

 stocks of their own kinds respectively. Some of the 

 Asiatic species, for example, do not make firm ligneous 

 union at the site of an insert upon an American stock. 

 American chestnuts grafted upon European kinds are 

 prone to make excessive growth without firm ligneous 

 union, at least during the first two years. Sometimes 

 wild nut-trees are grafted or budded with particu- 

 larly desirable kinds, and this may be profitably 

 accomplished if the wild trees are well headed back dur- 

 ing the winter time, and new sprouts allowed to start 

 in the spring. Grafting or budding is done upon the 

 new sprouts subsequently. This work demands very 

 much attention on the part of the horticulturist, 

 because the large quantities of new shoots which start 

 out from a mature tree may deprive grafted or budded 

 sprouts of their sap. When the grafting or budding is 

 to be done upon small stocks in the nursery, there is 

 some question as to whether these stocks may be best 

 grown where they are to remain permanently, or 

 whether it is desirable to subject them to cultivation in 

 close form for two or three years, and then transplant. 



There is a tradition among horticulturists to the 

 effect that nut-trees in general are not readily trans- 

 planted. This is not strictly true, but it includes the 

 idea that much more care must be exercised when 

 transplanting species of trees which have not as yet 

 been brought under subjection through many genera- 

 tions of cultivation. The Stringfellow method of 

 severe trimming back of the head and root, without any 

 attempt at saving small fibrous roots, has been the 

 most successful method with some horticulturists when 

 nut-tree stocks were to be transplanted. 



The choice of soil is an important matter in the 

 growing of nut-trees. Chestnuts and hazels, for exam- 

 ple, will thrive in soil that is somewhat acid, while wal- 

 nuts and some of the hickories are insistent upon having 

 neutral or alkaline soil. Species which naturally prefer 

 neutral or alkaline soil will thrive very well as older 

 trees upon soil that is slightly acid, provided that a 

 little lime be added to the soil during the first four or 

 five years of growth of the tree. Nut-trees, for the most 

 part, when grown in orchard form, should be given the 

 character of soil which wild trees of the same species are 

 known to prefer. Lime in the soil is thought to improve 

 the quality of many of the nuts, and in the best walnut 

 orchards of France it is sometimes applied annually, 

 even upon soil which is already neutral or alkaline in 

 reaction. 



Among the nut-bearing annual plants, various species 



of lotus and the water caltrops furnish an important 

 food-supply in some parts of the Orient, but these are 

 not as yet subjected to cultivation, and they have been 

 neglected as sources of food-supply in America, although 

 they are grown here in many places chiefly for their 

 flowers or as curiosities. Large areas of our shallow 

 fresh waters are suitable for growing such crops of the 

 water calthrops and several species of lotus. The 

 peanut, as a nut-bearing annual plant, is being culti- 

 vated successfully over an increasingly large area in 

 different countries, and promises to furnish a per- 

 manently valuable food-supply. 



The nuts of trees and shrubs which are to be planted 

 require treatment somewhat different from that of 

 other seeds. In nature they are prone to await suitable 

 conditions of warmth and moisture which are quite out 

 of the ordinary, before sprouting. In temperate 

 regions the most successful method, perhaps, consists 

 of storing them for the winter in cages made of galva- 

 nized wire about 8 inches deep, sunk about 4 inches 

 beneath the surface of the ground, and the interior of 

 the cages filled with sand to the ground-level. Nuts 

 which are to be grown in the following season are 

 pressed into this sand in rows, closely together but 

 not wholly covered with sand. A loose mulch of leaves 

 is tossed over them and the wire cover of the cage 

 closed in order to protect them against rodents. These 

 nuts are allowed to freeze and thaw during the winter 

 and spring. In the spring the mulch is removed, allow- 

 ing the exposed side of each nut to be warmed by the 

 sun while the buried part is kept moist. Under such 

 conditions almost every nut of species belonging to 

 temperate regions will sprout. As rapidly as the nuts 

 sprout, they are transferred to the nursery row and 

 cultivated for two or three years before being trans- 

 ferred to permanent sites as seedlings or as grafted 

 stocks. 



For illustrations of methods of budding nut-trees, 

 see page 1366, Volume III; also the article Pecan. 



ROBERT T. MORRIS. 



Culture of the different kinds of nuts. 



From the earliest times, nuts have been used as 

 an article of food in North America. The prehistoric 

 tribes left evidences of their use in the specimens which 

 were buried with their remains. When the white set- 

 tlers came, they found several kinds of nuts growing 

 wild and bearing abundantly, and thought to introduce 

 the cultivated nuts of Europe along with fruits and 

 farm crops that seemed to flourish in the virgin soil. 

 But little success seemed to attend their early effort, 

 largely because of the unsuitability of the varieties 

 tested. The sweet almond and the hazels were found 

 to be of this character, and the few experiments with 

 the European walnut and chestnut, where they did 

 succeed, were not followed up by extensive plantings 

 for many years. Nor were any of the native nuts 

 brought under cultivation until very recently. Now 

 there are many orchards and groves of both foreign 

 and native nuts, some of which are already yielding 

 profitable crops. 



The almond (Prunus Amygdalus). 



Among the first nuts to be tested were the cultivated 

 almonds. All the experiments up to the present day 

 lead to the conclusion that the choice varieties are not 

 suited to any section east of the Rocky Mountains, 

 except, perhaps, in southwestern Texas and New 

 Mexico. The close relationship to the peach would 

 cause us to expect that it would succeed wherever that 

 fruit does; but the trees of the choice varieties are too 

 tender to endure any but very mild climates, and the 

 fruit-buds are still more tender. The chief failing, how- 

 ever, is the habit of very early blooming, which causes 

 the crop to be cut off by spring frosts, except in pecu- 



