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into the soil two or three inches. When planted out the year after, 

 the base buds are removed, as is done in the case of the gooseberry, 

 so as to get a clean stem. They are not allowed to sucker, but are 

 grown in the form of low bushes, branching out about two feet from 

 the ground. 



Filbert. Cob. 



A distinction is made between the cob and the filbert. The 

 cob-nuts are rounder, and are not covered ; while the filberts (full 

 beards) are entirely covered with long husks. 



THE WALNUT (Juglans regia). 



This nut, incorrectly called " English walnut" and "Madeira 

 nut"; introduced from Persia. It forms a handsome spreading 

 tree, bearing crops of large and excellent nuts enclosed in a simple 

 husk. In the fertile Lower Blackwood and Warren districts of the 

 South- West, walnuts grow to great perfection, and its more extensive 

 cultivation deserves in this State more attention than it has 

 hitherto received. Fine young trees from the Warren nuts are 

 grown at the Forestry Department State Nursery at Drakes- 

 brook. The nuts are stratified, and when they begin to germinate 

 .are planted in nursery rows, where they are generally left for 

 three years before planting out. There they grow in size while 

 the roots also attain good development. When planting out, the 

 tap-root is severed with the spade and the stem cut back to four or 

 five feet, irrespective of branches. The trees should be planted about 

 40 feet apart on deep free loam. They begin to bear at the age of 

 six to eight years, and. continue bearing regular and increasing crops 

 of nuts for a great number of years after. When planting, soft- 

 shell, heavy nuts alone should be selected. As the plantation is so 

 wide apart, and as the land suitable for the walnut trees must be 

 deep and moist, it is found profitable for the first few years to grow 

 root and other crops between the rows, or to interplant smaller, 

 earlier fruiting trees, which, after a period of ten or twelve years, 

 can be removed to make room for the larger walnuts. 



The same tree bears both staminate buds, which develop into 

 catkins, and pistillate ones, which are terminal, and produce the nuts. 

 These are gathered from the ground as they drop off the trees, or 

 the operation may be hastened by jarring the branches lightly. 

 After gathering, the nuts are exposed to the sun for a few days, until 

 the husks a.re dry enough to be torn off. The shells may be bleached 



