476 GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 



Nuts in the garden or orchard and enjoy a profitable pastime, but 

 careful attention must be given to the trees in the early stages of 

 growth. Nuts, like other fruit trees, succeed well in good soil. In 

 Kent the Cob and Filbert trees are first favourites, and excellent 

 prices are obtained for the Kent Cobs; indeed the Kentish trees, 

 owing to the attention received, frequently bear when others fail. 

 The beginner may grow quite as good Nuts as dwellers in Kent, and 

 at no great cost. It is useless to plant hedges and allow them to 

 grow in their own way. The pruned trees are not so pleasing in 

 appearance in winter as a pyramid bush Apple or Pear tree, but they 

 are quite as profitable. Once the trees have assumed their correct 

 shape they do not give much trouble. 



The trees are raised mostly from layers, and this is the best system 

 to obtain a true stock, as though at times seedlings come true they are 

 not trustworthy. In the Kent Nut-fields the trees do not always occupy 

 the whole space ; the trees or bushes are trained low, and there are 

 rows of standard Plums or Apples at distances of 30 feet to 40 feet 

 apart, and these trees, in addition to being valuable for their crop, act 

 as a protection to the Nuts when in flower in spring. No one who 

 can grow good Plums or stone fruits need hesitate about planting Nuts, 

 and though they like a deep and well-drained soil, in some parts of 

 Kent there are excellent trees on banks in rough, poor soil, which, 

 however, in many cases, is top-dressed with quick acting fertilisers. 

 Excellent crops are produced. 



The beginner should purchase stock from a good source, and 

 select the best kinds. As these trees begin to grow early in the season 

 autumn planting is advised. When planting leave the trees 10 feet 

 apart. Fifteen feet is sometimes allowed, and then there is none 

 too much room; but almost everything depends upon the soil and 

 variety. Some kinds require greater space, and when 20 feet is given 

 between the rows dwarf bush fruits may be planted. The smaller 

 space is preferable between the trees in the row, and give, say, 31 feet 

 to 40 feet clear space for standard fruit trees. On the other hand, when 

 15 feet is allowed, and bush Currants, Gooseberries, or even rows of 

 Strawberries are grown between the trees, when the Nut bushes need 

 more space it is an easy matter to destroy the bush fruits. It may 

 appear strange to the beginner to be told that trained and regularly 

 formed Nut trees are far more profitable than the rougher type seen 

 so frequently in gardens. Those who intend to make Nuts profitable 

 would do well to study the two systems. Trees in a garaen are often 

 merely a thicket or hedge of growth and a few Nuts appear at times. 

 Then there is a fair crop on that portion of the trees exposed to the 

 light. The Nut, on the other hand, is not at all fastidious as to soils, 

 and rarely fails when hard pruned year after year, so that the restricted 

 branches are like an old Apple tree cut hard back yearly and only spur- 

 growth allowed to develop. 



The trees are in many cases kept quite open in the centre, or what 

 may be called cup-shaped. Some, however, are more spreading and 



