303 
may be compared to Western Australia, their bearing has not been 
satisfactory, except in the cooler and moister situations. It would 
seem, therefore, that the localities best suited to the filbert and cob- 
nut in this State would be the moister and cooler Southern dis- 
triets. The soil must not be water-logged, but moist. The plants 
may be set at distances 10 to 14 feet apart. Propagation from 
nuts does not produce reliable varieties, and for that reason layers 
made in the spring are preferred, shoots two or three years old 
being simply notched with the knife, and pegged 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 feeet from the ground. 
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. 
Tue Watnut (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 exten- 
sive 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 Hamel. 
The nu‘s 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 male or staminate buds, which de- 
velop 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 
