NUT -CULTURE 
•pected that California will, within a few years, produce 
all that our home markets require. 
Propagation and tillage.-the larger number of bear- 
ing trees are seedlings, but those grafted or budded 
with choice varieties are far preferable, and such trees 
will form the walnut orchards of the future. The dis- 
tance for the trees to stand apart in the orchard is from 
25 to 50 feet, according to the vigor of the variety and the 
richness of the soil. Clean tillage is best for the trees 
until they reach bearing age, when the ground may be 
seeded to some grass that does not make a compact sod. 
If hoed crops are grown between the trees until that time 
it will do no harm and economize the space. Almost no 
pruning is needed for this tree, except to keep the 
branches from getting so low as to interfere with tillage. 
See walnut. 
THE chestnuts.-american species.-like the wal- 
nuts, our native chestnuts are not so desirable for mar- 
ket purposes as those from foreign countries. The wild 
American chestnut, castanea Americana, is richer in 
quality than any foreign kind,but the size is less than half 
that of the introduced nuts. Throughout the larger part 
■of the eastern United States, and extending into lower 
Canada, there are untold millions of native chestnut 
trees, yielding a wealth of nuts that find ready sale in 
the markets, so far as they are gathered; but the prices 
are only about half those of the large cultivated and im- 
ported product. At the present time there are but few 
;attempts made to cultivate this species. Some of the 
■choice varieties with the largest nuts are being collected 
for experiment, and there is reasonable prOspect that by 
.hybridization and selection of seedlings we may yet 
have varieties combining the vigor and hardihood of the 
wild trees with the characteristic natural sweetness and 
large size of the foreign nuts. 
The chinquapin, c. pumila, is the smallest of the 
•chestnut family, in size of both nut and tree. Rarely is 
it anything more than a mere bush. It has rarely been 
•cultivated, although the bushes are productive and the 
nuts of good quality. 
European species.-the Old World chestnut, C. sal- 
iva, has been under cultivation almost as long as his- 
tory goes. It was brought to America in the first 
■century of its settlement by Europeans; but not until 
within the last 25 years has there been more than an 
-occasional tree found on our shores. The accidental 
finding of a chance seedling, which was finally named 
Paragon and sent out to the public about 1887, and the 
bringing to notice of the Ridgeley shortly before that 
time, were the means of exciting the first general inter- 
est in chestnut culture in America. Both these kinds, 
.and a great many more named varieties, are now being 
propagated and scattered far and wide. 
large size but not as sweet as our native chestnuts, and 
generally have bitter skins. The trees are of robust 
character and very productive, but more tender than our 
Japanese Species. - About the time that the European 
■species was becoming popular in America attention was 
•drawn to a number of seedlings from nuts that had been 
brought from Japan during several previous years. The 
most of them were larger than any that had been known 
.before, either in this country or in Europe. Many of 
them are now named and widely distributed. Some of 
the smaller varieties are exceedingly early in ripening. 
Nearly all of them begin to bear at an early age and are 
even more productive than the average of the European 
species. In quality, the nuts of most of them are not 
quite so sweet as the European kinds. The habit of 
growth is less vigorous than that of other chestnuts. 
From these two foreign species we have all of our varie- 
ties that, up to this time, are worthy of general cultiva- 
tion. They vary from seed much as do most other im- 
proved varieties of fruits, etc., and grafting and budding 
must be practiced, which are exceedingly difficult to suc- 
■cessfully perform on the chestnut, as is the case with 
.all other nut trees. They will both unite fairly well 
with our native stocks; although sometimes the union 
is imperfect and the top breaks off. 
grafting.-the most successful method of propagat- 
ing nut trees, so far as the writer has experimented or 
learned otherwise, is late bark-grafting. This requires 
that the cions be cut before there is any possibility of 
they are all of 
1099 
the buds starting, and put in some very cool place until 
after the stocks have begun to leaf out. The stocks are 
then cut off as for cleft-grafting, but the bark only is 
split with a knife for an inch or more at the top of the 
stock. The cion is trimmed to a long wedge, all from 
one side. The point of this wedge is introduced under 
the bark at the top of the slit and gently forced down 
until the cut surface of the cion is even with the top of 
the stump. It is then tied fast with a string and the 
wound securely waxed. Large trees may be thus top- 
worked in their branches with considerable success. 
Small stocks should be grafted just under the surface 
of the ground and banked nearly to the top of the cion. 
stump groves.-in several cases large tracts of chest- 
nut stump lands have been grafted over to the improved 
varieties of the foreign species with good success. All 
other trees should be cleared away and only two or three 
of the strongest sprouts left on each stump. These 
should all be grafted and allowed to grow until it is sure 
that there will be a sufiicient stand, when those that are 
not needed should be cut away. In future years more 
may be cut away to give the remaining trees ample room. 
Chestnut orchards.-the best results are said to be 
attained in chestnut-culture by planting grafted trees 
on open land, about 25 feet apart and in regular orchard 
form. This plan admits of giving the trees good tillage 
until they have attained large size, when grass may be 
sown and stock allowed to graze it, except when the 
nuts are falling. Such orchards are said, by those who 
have tried them in comparison with grafted sprouts, to 
yield more than twice as much per acre. Well-drained 
sandy or shallow lands are the best for the chestnut. 
weevil.-the worst feature of chestnut-culture is the 
weevil. In some cases the nuts are so badly infested 
that they are practically worthless. The eggs from 
which the larvae develop are laid by a long-snouted 
beetle while the nuts are growing, and by the time they 
are mature the most of them are either hatched or 
nearly ready to hatch. By treating the nuts with the 
fumes of bisulphide of carbon the eggs or larvae can all 
be destroyed. scalding with boiling water for about 
ten minutes will also kill them, but it also destroys the 
germinative power of the nuts and necessitates drying 
them. See castanea and chestnut. 
THE pecan (hicoria pecan).-in the Wild State. - 
Of all our native nuts the pecan is the best Its nat- 
ural habitat is the lower mississippi basin, from Iowa 
to the Gulf coast, but it « ill grow equally as well in any 
climate and soil of approximately the same character. 
The tree is almost as hardy as any of the other hickories, 
except some of its more southern varieties. In size the 
tree varies from medium, on land of ordinary fertility, 
to gigantic proportions on the rich river and creek bot- 
toms. The nuts vary in size and shape from round and 
1/2 an inch in diameterto oblong and 11/2 inches in length. 
The kernels are exceedingly rich and sweet, and the 
shells usually thin. Pecans are found in all confec- 
tionaries, and bring almost as high prices as any of the 
imported nuts. The largest and thinnest shelled varie- 
ties are found in Louisiana and Texas. Millions of 
pounds are gathered annually in those states and sold 
people of moderate means. under cultivation.-the decrease of the wild prod- 
uct from the cutting down of the trees, and the better 
prices obtained from large, thin-.shelled nuts, have in- 
duced the planting of pecan orchards. The nuts sprout 
readily, and the trees are of easy growth, with reason- 
able care, in proper soil and climate. In Texas there is 
one orchard of 11,000 trees planted on 400 acres and grown 
from the best nuts procurable. In Florida there is another 
of 4,000 grafted trees on 100 acres. There are many 
smaller orchards planted in nearly all the states from 
Virginia to Missouri and California, southward. The 
line of 40° north latitude is about the limit of success- 
ful pecan culture, and the region from 35° southward 
is much better. The nuts do not fill and ripen well 
where the growing season is short. 
It has been learned that by cutting back the tops of 
wild trees (thus causing an abundance of sprouts), and 
then budding in August or September, large trees may 
be quickly transformed into such as will produce the 
highest grade of nuts. 
