NUT CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



WILD AND CULTIVATED NUTS. 



The culture of nut-bearing trees for their fruit in the United States has until 

 recently been confined to narrow limits, both as regards the area devoted to their 

 growth and the number of species brought under cultivation. This is due in part to 

 the abundance of wild nuts, which in many localities have supplied the market demand, 

 and in part to the fact that greater skill is necessary to produce superior nuts than is 

 required in the culture of most other fruits. 



Perhaps the chief cause that has operated to retard interest in this subject has 

 been the impression that the man who plants nut trees does so for his successors rather 

 than for himself. This, however, has not been the experience of the late W. E. Stuart 

 with the pecan in Mississippi; A. T. Hatch with the almond in Solano County, Cal. ; 

 Russell Heath with the Persian walnut in Santa Barbara County, Cal. ; Samuel C. 

 Moon and H. M. Engle in Pennsylvania ; and William Parry with the chestnut in New 

 Jersey ; nor of some others who have achieved success in nut culture after being well 

 advanced in life. Such examples should inspire interest in young men to investigate 

 this subject and to include nut culture in their systems of farming. 



Ever since the colonization of America there have been some individual efforts and 

 interest in the planting of nut-bearing trees near homes for nut production as well as 

 shade. Chestnut, walnut, and hickory trees have been spared in clearing away the 

 forests, and in succeeding years have yielded to their owners abundant crops of these 

 wholesome products of the soil. 



Doubtless to thousands of our citizens whose childhood was spent in the country 

 reference to this subject will tinkle the bells of memory and call to mind pictures of 

 home and youth in the halcyon days of long ago. Even now the supply of native nuts 

 in our markets consists largely of wild nuts harvested by boys and girls who gather 

 them for pleasure; but in many sections the nut harvest is a blessing direct from 

 Nature's hand to the poor, and in others a source of profit to the well-to-do farmer. 



The efforts to establish "orchards" of most of our wild nuts have not passed 

 beyond the experimental stage. This treatise is therefore intended to encourage experi- 

 mental work among growers, and to incite them to investigate the possibilities of their 

 respective regions by planting and testing choice kinds that are likely to succeed. 

 The development of this industry can not be dreamed out ; it must be worked out. Not 

 every man who plants nut-bearing trees will receive rich returns. No large invest- 

 ment in nut orchards should be made in any region until a careful determination has 

 been made of the species best suited to its soil and climate. And even then the 

 enterprise is a mere lottery unless trees of a productive variety are obtainable, the fruit 

 of which will create by its desirable qualities a special demand for the product. The 

 best guide in selecting both the species and the varieties for planting will commonly 

 be the productiveness and quality of product of trees planted or growing naturally in 

 the neighborhood. These seem so important that we can not forbear urging that in 



9 



