126 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
Thus from Quebec, through New York and Pennsylvania, southward to 
Florida and the Gulf, along all water-ways, at the favorite camping places, we 
find the walnut growing in profusion. 
Probably from the enmity which existed between the far eastern tribes 
and those to the westward, there were no walnuts planted by Indians in New 
England, although they were abundant upon the Hudson and in the West 
along the valleys of Eastern Nebraska and Kansas. 
THE FOOD VALUE OF THE NUTS. 
Commercially the American walnut has no such value as the European 
walnut possesses. The meat is strong and very oily, while the shell is rough,. 
coarse and bulky compared with the meat within. 
The brown-stained hands of the schoolboy at nut-gathering time shows 
his love for this fruit, but more, however, for the pleasure of an outing in the 
country while gathering them. The green hulls surrounding the nuts contain 
a powerful coloring matter, and in removing these the boy's hands are stained 
indelibly, only being removed as the epidermis is gradually worn off. 
While a comparatively few are collected for home use, and a very small 
number find their way into the country store, the vast majority of walnuts re- 
main on the ground beneath the trees until by drying in the sun, after the 
leaves have fallen, the germ is destroyed and the nuts decay. 
PROFUSION OF SEED. 
Enough seed are produced by a single tree each year, if properly planted 
to produce from one to five acres of walnut forest, and it would not require a 
very large expenditure of money or length of time in waiting to re-clothe a 
goodly portion of land with forest. 
TRANSPLANTING WALNUT. 
Owing to the root character of the walnut, it having a hard woody tap 
root, with but few fibrous roots near the trunk, the trees (as are all nut trees) 
are difficult to transplant, and this should not be attempted except with one 
year’s growth and probably not at all. The nut should be planted where the 
tree is expected to remain. 
True, nut trees are occasionally removed, and some, nursery grown, with 
roots pruned to increase fibrous rootlets, are sent out from the nurseries, but 
this is not practical with the walnut. 
The same root character gives to the walnut a power possessed by few 
trees, that of penetrating hard soils, breaking them up and admitting air and 
moisture, thus hastening soil fertilization to a great depth. 
The walnut never grows in very poor soil with satisfaction. If it happens 
to be planted in such locations, it improves the soil, enriches it by deposit of 
leaves which contain great fertilizing power, as well as by loosening the sub- 
soil and carrying fertilitv to a great depth. 
