1098 



NURSERY 



NUT -CULTURE 



such is not the case. The chief difficulty seems to be a 

 physical one. Lands which are devoted to nursery stock 

 for one crop, which is from two to five years, becomes 

 void of humus, and the digging of the stock when the 

 land is wet or unfit to be worked tends to impair the 

 physical character of the soil. Experiments have shown 

 that commercial fertilizers will not always reclaim lands 

 which have been treed, whereas barn manures and green 

 crops mav go very far towards revitalizing them. As a 



1496. View in an American appie-tree nursery. 



result of inability to grow vigorous stock on treed land, 

 a large part of the nursery stock of the country, partic- 

 ularly fruit trees, is grown on rented land. On the 

 nurseryman's central grounds a variety of stock may be 

 grown, chiefly ornamentals, but the larger part of the 

 commercial fruit stock is farmed out to persons who are 

 willing to rent their land for this purpose and who will 

 give the requisite attention to the growing trees. 



The nursery interests of this country are represented 

 in a strong organization known as the American Asso- 

 ciation of Nurserymen, which holds a movable annual 

 meeting in June and publishes a report. There are also 

 societies representing geographical regions. At the 

 present time, there is one periodical devoted to the 

 nursery business, "The National Nurseryman," pub- 

 lished monthly at Rochester, N. Y. The American cur- 

 rent book writings devoted specifically to the business 

 are Fuller's "Propagation of Plants "and Bailey's "Nur- 

 sery-Book." L H B 



NUT in common language usage is any hard-shelled 

 fruit which will keep for a more or less indefinite time 

 without special efforts at preservation. In a botanical 

 sense, a Nut is a hard and dry indehiscent 1-seeded 

 fruit in which one or more ovules have been suppressed 

 by abortion. In this sense, walnuts, hickory-nuts, 

 acorns and cocoanuts are Nuts, but almonds, peanuts 

 and Brazil-nuts are not. L jj g 



NUT, AUSTRALIAN. Macadamia ternifolia. 

 NUT, CHILEAN. Gevuina Avellana. 



NUT-CULTURE. 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 settlers 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 efforts, 

 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 conclu- 



sion that the choice varieties are not suited to any section 

 east of the Rocky mountains, except, perhaps, in south- 

 western 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, however, is the habit of very early 

 blooming, which causes the crop to be cut off by spring 

 frosts, except in peculiarly favorable localities. There 

 are differences in the ability of the varieties to endure 

 cold and in time of blooming, even where they are 

 counted a success. Not until seedlings were grown and 

 tested, from which selections were made of suitable 

 kinds, did the growing of this nut prove profitable. 



Regions and Methods of Culture. At the present time 

 the culture of the almond is confined chiefly to California, 

 and to some extent in Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Arizona and 

 New Mexico. Fair crops of almonds of the highest 

 quality in all respects are grown there. There are single 

 orchards in California of hundreds of acres in extent. 

 The crop of 1899, in that state, was estimated to be about 

 50 car-loads of 20,000 pounds each. It is thought that the 

 production of new seedlings will still further overcome 

 the weak points already mentioned, and materially ex- 

 tend the culture of really choice varieties. The methods 

 of planting and cultivation of the soil are about the same 

 as for the peach. Twenty feet is a good distance apart 

 for the trees in rich soil. Unlike the proper treatment 

 for peach trees, the almond tree should have but little 

 pruning, owing to a different habit of the fruiting 

 branches. See also Almond. 



THE WALNUTS. American Walnuts. The kernels of 

 all species of the walnut family are liked because of 

 their rich and delicious flavor; but some of them are so 

 small and difficult to get out of the shell that they are 

 of little or no commercial value. Our native black 

 walnut, Juglansnigra, and butternut, J. cinerea, are of 

 this character. At present there are very few trees of 

 either species that are grown for their nuts ; but there 

 are some prospects of improvement in this direction. 



Asiatic Species. Within the last 25 years there have 

 been introduced from Japan two new species of walnuts, 

 J. Seiboldiana and J. cordiformis, and from Manchuria 

 one, J. Mandshurica. These make beautiful and stately 

 trees, but the nuts of all but J. cordiformis have too 

 thick shells to be of much value. See Juglans. 



Persian Species. The Persian walnut, J. regia, which 

 has long been called English walnut and by several 

 other titles, has been cultivated for many centuries for 

 its thin-shelled and richly-flavored nuts. It is a native 

 of Persia and the regions about the Caspian Sea. The 

 Greeks and Romans took it to southern Europe before 

 the Christian era. It was brought to America in the 

 early settlement of the country, but did not succeed 

 everywhere, and the few trees that survive in the 

 eastern states have been mostly neglected. Some of 

 them have borne nuts abundantly and others have not. 

 Unproductiveness has generally been due to the iso- 

 lation of the trees and the inopportune times of the 

 blooming of the flowers of the two sexes. These isolated 

 trees are scattered over the eastern states from New 

 York to Georgia, and rarely beyond the Appalachian 

 mountain chain, because of the more uncongenial 

 climate there. Whether or not there will eventually be 

 orchards of this nut in the eastern United States is 

 doubtful. , 



Regions of Siiccessful Culture. On the Pacific coast 

 the Persian walnut is a great success. True enough, 

 there are some failures, but they are mostly due to lack 

 of proper pollination, a matter which can and will soon 

 be generally understood and overcome. There are ex- 

 tensive orchards already in bearing, and with the 

 advantages which are now being afforded by the intro- 

 duction of the best varieties from Europe and the 

 origination of improved seedlings, the walnut industry 

 is sure to rapidly advance in that region. The soil of 

 the richer valleys of the Pacific slope is just what is 

 needed, and where there is an abundant supply of water 

 a few feet under the surface there is no need of irriga- 

 tion. But in poor, dry soil it is folly to expect success. 

 The crop of California, alone, in 1899, was about 550 

 car-loads of 20,000 pounds each. It is confidently ex- 



