54 NUT GROWING 



3. SOIL 



Annual plants like radishes and beets which have 

 been subjected to cultivation for very many genera- 

 tions will adapt themselves to almost any soil rang- 

 ing from heavy clay to light sand. They have be- 

 come tamed, one might say. The common fruit 

 trees have become tamed pretty well, although the 

 Newtown pippin apple and the Washington navel 

 orange remain aristocratic in their insistence upon 

 having the orchardist consult their tastes in the mat- 

 ter of soil. Nut trees on the whole must still be 

 treated as wild trees. Even those like the Persian 

 walnuts, the hazels, and the chestnuts which have 

 been flung far from their original homes have not 

 been subjected to cultivation in such a way as to 

 largely increase their adaptability to widely different 

 kinds of soil. 



Young nut trees of different species should be 

 given, if possible, the sort of soil in which they are 

 known to thrive best when in a wild state. Thfe 

 general principle does not help us in the question of 

 planting orchards upon prairie lands. A good deal 

 of experimentation must be conducted upon certain 

 prairies which in the end may perhaps carry larger 

 nut orchards than are grown elsewhere. 



When transplanting young trees the feature of 

 chemical reaction of the soil is important. Some of 

 the hickories, notably the pecan, dislike very much 

 to start off in soil with acid reaction. Most of the 

 walnuts are still more sensitive than the hickories on 



