46 NUT CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



except occasional pruning, is necessary. My experience leads nie to make the follow- 

 ing suggestions: First, any land tliat will grow corn will grow walnuts. Second, they 

 thrive best on low, damp soil (not, of course, where water stands around them). 

 Third, nuts should be left on the ground, not in piles, until the husk has rotted off. 

 Piling is apt to result in heating the nuts. After the husk is off they can be stored 

 until used. Fourth, for planting, either spread on the ground and cover with light 

 mulch, so they can freeze readily, or plant at once where wanted to grow. Fifth, 

 plant about 2 inches deep, 4 feet apart in rows that are also 4 feet apart, so they can 

 be cultivated like corn. If seed is scarce or expensive, make the rows 8 feet apart and 

 put a row of corn between. Sixth, trim them every year, with the purpose in view of 

 growing tall, straight trunks. Seventh, cultivate until trees are high enough for their 

 shade to prevent weeds from growing. Eighth, when they have become so large that 

 they crowd one another, thin them out, saving most vigorous and straight trees as 

 much as possible. Ninth, I want to impress everyone who grows walnut and timber 

 trees with the importance of frequent trimming. But trimming must be done for a 

 purpose, and with intelligence. The object sought is a tall, straight trunk. Too much 

 trimming retards the growth, therefore never cut off a limb unless that limb is turning 

 the body to one side, or is growing faster than the upright body, in which case, I think 

 it preferable to prune the branch enough to retard its growth and let the upright 

 trunk get a start. Tenth, don't think you are too old to plant trees; if you are 50 

 years old you are liable to live to see each tree worth $50, and perhaps to have sold $50 

 worth of nuts off of each tree. Eleventh, never transplant a walnut or hickory tree. 

 Their long taproot makes it almost impossible to do this without injury. You will get 

 a tree quicker by planting a nut where you want a tree, and will have much less work 

 about it." 



PROPAGATION. 



From the fact that but little variation has been found in either size of nut or thin- 

 ness of shell, there has been but little incentive to propagators, and but little has 

 been done in propagating the black walnut except by the growing of seedlings. It is 

 sometimes used as a stock for the Persian walnut, and for this purpose it is likely to 

 have increasing value in the future. 



So far as reported, we infer that both ring budding and cleft grafting at the collar 

 of stocks one or two years old are methods reasonably sure to succeed. W. N. Irwin, 

 of South Salem, Ohio, reports gratifying results in shield budding the Taylor black 

 walnut on ordinary 1-year-old seedling stocks. The scions were cut late in the fall, 

 stored in an ice house, and thus held back till the stocks would peel readily in the 

 spring. From the dormant scions, buds were cut in the ordinary shield form, and 

 with the wood left in the bark, to which it was firmly attached, they were set in stocks 

 near the ground, and securely tied with bast. In about ten days thereafter the union 

 with the stock was sufficient to warrant cutting off the stock just above the bud, 

 which insured a rapid growth. This method of holding buds dormant and inserting 

 them in the spring has long been practiced on the peach and other fruit trees where 

 the fall budding in nursery rows fails to "take." By its practice, rows of varieties 

 otherwise badly broken may be restored in the nursery, and in growth such restored 

 spots will be scarcely legs than the average of the fall buds at the end of the growing 

 season. 



CHOICE WILD VARIETIES. 



GOBDON. Specimens from E. D. Buford, Bedford City, Va. Size large; form 

 cubical, slightly conical at each end; shell of medium thickness; cracking qualities 

 good; kernel light-colored, plump; quality excellent. The tree is from a nut planted 

 by John Gordon, a Revolutionary soldier, and has now a trunk 3 feet in diameter 

 and a spread of 60 feet in its branches. 



