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NUT -CULTURE 



NUTTALLIA 



Planning the Orchard. There are two ways to make 

 a pecan orchard. One is to depend on seedlings. If 

 really choice nuts are planted there is a reasonable 

 prospect of securing trees bearing somewhat similar 

 nuts, and many follow this plan. The other is to de- 

 pend on budded or grafted trees instead of seedlings. 



There is also a division of opinion as to the advisa- 

 bility of planting the nuts where the trees are to stand 

 and rearing them for a year or more in a nursery. Both 

 ways are good, but each has its advantages. If the 

 former of these plans is followed, then two or three nuts 

 should be planted where each tree is to stand and a 

 cedar or cypress stake driven at the spot. Pine stakes 

 are said to induce worms to attack the little pecan trees. 

 A still safer plan is to enclose the little seedlings in 

 narrow boxes about afoot high, made of cypress boards. 

 This secures them from the depredations of rabbits, 

 which sometimes prove very destructive. By this plan 

 there is no labor or danger of loss by transplanting. 

 All but one of the trees should be removed after two or 

 three years' growth. If the nursery method is followed, 

 the transplanting should be done at one of these ages. 



Propagation. Grafted or budded trees are far pref- 

 erable to seedlings, because of the certainty of the va- 

 riety, convenience of gathering the nuts at one time, and 

 the advantage of having an even and high grade to sell. 

 The same difficulty is met with as in case of the chest- 



1497. Cocoanut. 

 The most important of tropical nuts. 



nut the trouble and expense of securing grafted or 

 budded trees. However, it has been found that both 

 these methods of propagation are reasonably successful 

 in skilful hands. Either the cleft-, tongue- or bark-graft 

 will succeed, but all styles do better on small stocks 

 just below the surface of the soil than above. Ring- and 

 plate-budding are much more successful than the shield 

 method. They have been profitably used in nurseries of 

 young seedlings and on sprouts on large trees. 



Planting and Cultivation. The distance for planting 



should be not less than 50 feet between trees, because 

 they get to be very large. It might be well to put them 

 half that distance and cut out half when crowding be- 

 gins. Thorough tillage will pay abundantly and should 

 never be neglected while the trees are young. Farm 

 crops, such as corn, cotton and potatoes, may be grown 

 between the trees until they begin bearing, which is 

 from 10 to 15 years from planting. Then the ground 

 may be seeded to grass. See Hicoria and Pecan. 



THE COCOANUT (Fig. 1497). Where Grown in Amer- 

 ica. There is comparatively little territory on the con- 

 tinent of North America where the cocoanut will grow; 

 viz., a small portion of Florida and the warmer coast 

 regions of Mexico. In the warmer parts of California 

 the climate does not seem to be sufficiently humid. In 

 the vicinity of Lake Worth, Florida, there are many 

 bearing trees, and along the east coast and adjacent 

 islands from there to Key West, and as far north on the 

 west coast as Charlotte Harbor, there are many thousands 

 of cocoanut trees growing. In central Florida the cli- 

 mate does not seem to be suitable. Proximity to the sea 

 in all countries seems to suit the cocoanut. It will 

 flourish in almost any soil, although the richer the bet- 

 ter, but a warm and humid atmosphere is indispensable. 

 Origin of Cocoanut- Growing in America. The oldest 

 cocoanut trees in Florida were probably chance seed- 

 lings which came from nuts that washed ashore from 

 the sea long years ago. Such trees are very rarely 

 found. There are also a few old trees that grew from 

 nuts planted by settlers at Key West and other places 

 along the coast. The chief cause of the impetus to co- 

 coanut-growing was the wrecking of the Spanish bark 

 Providencia laden with cocoanuts on the beach near 

 Lake Worth, Florida, Jan. 9, 1878. Many thousands of 

 the nuts were gathered from the surf and planted for 

 many miles up and down the coast. The trees grew so 

 'rapidly and began to bear so soon, usually at from six 

 to eight years from seed, that visions of wealth tempted 

 many more into planting groves. One near Biscayne Bay 

 consisted of about 4,000 acres, in which were 300,000 

 trees. Another at Cape Sable contained 42,000 trees, and 

 there are many more of less extent. 



Present Status. Gold waves and occasional frosts 

 have injured many of the cocoanut trees, in some cases 

 killing them outright. In general, the trees bear good 

 nuts in reasonable quantity, but in a business way the 

 industry is uncertain, owing to danger from frosts and 

 the cheapness of imported nuts. As an interesting 

 novelty, the cocoanut in southern Florida is an eminent 

 success. See Cocos. 



There are three American publications devoted to 

 nuts: "Nut Culture in the United States," 1896, being a 

 bulletin of the Division of Pomology, U.S. Dept. Agric. ; 

 Fuller, "The Nut Culturist," 1896; Parry, "Nuts for 

 Profit," 1897. H. E. VAN DKMAN. 



NUT-GKASS. Mentioned under Cyperus. 

 NUTMEG. Treated under Myristica. 



NUTTALLIA (Thomas Nuttall, professor of natural 

 history at Philadelphia; author of "The Genera of North 

 American Plants" [1818], "The North American Sylva" 

 [1842], etc.). Sosdcece. A genus of 2 species of north- 

 western American plants, one of which is the Oso Berry, 

 N. cerasiformis . This is a shrub 6-12 ft. high, with 

 white, 5-petaled fls. It is one of the earliest shrubs to 

 bloom in spring. It is rarely cult, in the East and of 

 doubtful hardiness, but is esteemed in England, where 

 it is compared to a flowering currant. Botanically, how- 

 ever, it is nearer Prunus than Rubus. Generic charac- 

 ters are: fls. polygamo-dicecious ; calyx between top- 

 shaped and bell-shaped, deciduous; petals broadly 

 spatulate; stamens 15, in 2 rows, 10 inserted with the 

 petals and 5 lower down on the disk lining the tube; 

 filaments very short; carpels 5: drupes 2-4, oblong. 



cerasif6rmis, Torr. & Gray. Oso BERRY. Shrub or 

 small tree, 2-15 ft. high: Ivs. broadly lanceolate; petiole 

 2-4 in. long: racemes shorter than the Ivs.: fls. K-l in. 

 across: fr. blue-black, 6-8 lines long; flesh bitter; stone 

 somewhat compressed. Moist places, Calif. Gn. 34, p. 

 78. G.C. II. 19:309: III. 19:489. -Said to "exhale a 



