12 NUT CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



with tree uuts, and especially with the American chestnut, and found that though 

 very dry, after having been spread out on a shelf near a fire for mouths, such nuts, if 

 placed in ice water and kept at a low temperature for three or four days and then 

 placed in damp sand, would grow about as well as fresh nuts kept moist. By this 

 plan 1 succeeeed in starting the different species of chestnut, black and white walnuts, 

 almonds, hazelnuts, and many species of acorns, etc., and have succeeded in sprouting 

 them quite late in the spring. But it is necessary that the water be kept constantly 

 cold until the nuts have absorbed enough to be saturated. This will take from one to 

 two weeks for walnuts, peach stones, and other hard-shelled nuts." 



A test of this method made at the Division of Pomology was partially successful. 

 Pecans and Persian walnuts gave a fair percentage of success, but no chestnuts 

 sprouted ; few of the hazelnuts thus treated sprouted even after lying in the ground 

 an entire year. 



PLANTING. 



Whatever advantage in theory may be secured by planting the nut where the tree 

 is to stand, the prevailing practice in the United States is to start trees in the nursery 

 rows and transplant them later to the orchard. To insure an even stand and good 

 start the soil of the nursery should be as thoroughly prepared and as well enriched as 

 for a garden crop. Planting should be done in rows not less than 4 feet apart if the 

 trees are to remain longer than one year. The distance in the row and the depth of 

 planting should vary according to the size of the tree and character of the seed. In 

 general nuts should not be planted closer together thaii 8 inches nor covered deeper 

 than 1J or 2 inches, though some of the slow-germinating walnuts and hickories may 

 be safely planted deeper. If the nuts have sprouted before planting, the protruding 

 radicle, which is the first evidence of growth, should be pointed downward in planting. 

 If they are to be planted where the trees are to stand, the soil should be thoroughly 

 prepared for a distance of several feet at least about the proposed site of the tree, and 

 preferably over the whole area planted, if the land can be cultivated in ordinary hoed 

 crops. Several nuts should be planted a few inches apart and with the same careful- 

 ness as in the nursery method, in order that there may be a choice of trees when the 

 time comes to remove all but the one that is to be saved. 



Cultivation of the young trees either in nursery or orchard should be thorough 

 and careful, that they may be neither choked by hardened soil or weeds nor injured 

 by the careless use of tools. It should not be continued later in the summer than is 

 customary with young fruit trees in the same region, as injury from the winterkilling 

 of immature wood may result. 



BUDDING AND GRAFTING. 



Some experienced propagators think it advantageous to transplant nut trees 

 several times in the nursery rows before budding or grafting, while others report 

 satisfactory results without such expense and delay. 



The methods of bud propagation practiced on nut trees differ slightly from those 

 commonly practiced by fruit growers, but the underlying principles are the same. 

 The work is generally done while the trees stand in the nursery row, though there are 

 many instances recorded of the successful top grafting in the orchard of some species 

 and of the winter root grafting of others. With the exercise of care and good judg- 

 ment there seems to be no reason why satisfactory results may not attend these meth- 

 ods of perpetuating improvements in many, if not all, nut-bearing species. Experience 

 counts for as much here as elsewhere, and further experiment is necessary to determine 

 the particular methods of budding and grafting that will succeed best with different 

 species under different climatic and soil conditions. . 



