65 



Return. 

 Receipt, say, 850Ibs. at 33s. 4d. per 



lOOlbs 14 3 4 



Balance, profit 3 3' 



If apples or plums are grown between 

 the nut trees the money returns will be 

 larger, though if they shade the nut bushes 

 the crop of nuts will not be quite so good 

 as if in full sunshine. 



Crops, as well as other things, are in- 

 fluenced by fashion; people either ha^^e 

 not the leisure, or have lost the habit 

 of sitting over " nuts and wine " after 

 dinner, in the way their grandfathers did ; 

 so there is not quite the demand for these 

 nuts that there used to be, and nuts are 

 not planted now as much as, say, fifty 

 years ago. Kent cob and filbert nuts, how- 

 ever, generally fetch a fair price. They 

 are rather irregular in cropping, some- 

 times there being a good quantity, and at 

 other times veiy few. Their annual culti- 

 vation, however, is not very expensive, 

 though they take some time to come into 

 bearing. 



Cobs are chiefly grown because they 

 crop more heavily than filberts, the latter 

 are, however, the nicer nut. 



As the seedling growing from the nut is 

 not " true " to its parent, but inferior, 

 the general method of raising the young 

 plants is from suckers, or by grafting upon 

 stocks of the common nuts, which are 

 planted from 10ft. to 15ft. apart, and are 

 in Kent trained to a shape resembling 

 that of an umbrella point downwards, 

 there being a clear stem of 12 or 18 inches, 

 from which five or six branches spring. 

 These are sometimes pegged down, or may 

 be trained at first by a hoop, to keep the 

 bush open in the centre to air and sun- 

 shine, somewhat in the way red currants 

 are trained. The trees eventually reach 

 six feet, which height they are not 'allowed 

 to exceed, so as to be within reach for 

 pruning and gathering, they are yearly 

 trimmed to encourage fine wood that 

 bears nuts. 



All " wands " or uprigh'-i growing twigs 

 are taken out at the base by a sharp pull ; 

 this is better than cutting them out with 

 a sharp knife, as when tn'-, young buds 

 form and sprout into new shoots, whereas 

 if pulled out or sawn the rough wound 



does not form buds. These wands make 

 good " splints " for packing apples and 

 other fruits. 



An important operation during the 

 winter is to grub out with a mattock or 

 " suckering iron " all the suckers that 

 come up from the roots. 



Shoddy is still largely used for nut plan- 

 tations, applied in alternate years. When 

 the trees are cropping well nitrogenous 

 manures suit well, including nitrate of 

 soda. 



Cob nuts are in flower from early in 

 January to mid-February, the male and 

 female are separate blossoms, the male 

 or pollen bearers being the catkins, the 

 female being pretty little red stigmas, 

 which later on develop into the nuts. The 

 pollen is carried to the stigmas by the 

 wind, it is important, therefore, to leave 

 the pruning of the twigs carrying catkins 

 till they have shed their pollen. Mr. 

 George Bunyard, of Maidstone, told me 

 that in many plantations a variety of cob, 

 known as the " Cosford " is specially 

 planted here and there, as it is a plentiful 

 producer of pollen. 



Pruning cob and filbert nuts is a 

 speciality in Kent, and men who can 

 prune these trees can earn high wages 

 for their work, and sometimes travel to 

 other parts of the country (usually 

 called " the Shires " by their relatives) 

 to prune nut bushes. Careful growers 

 summer prune the trees early in August. 

 Harvesting nuts will be dealt with in 

 another chapter. 



The Walnut (Juglans Regia). 



The walnut is a valuable tree, being re- 

 munerative " when it comes of age," for 

 its nuts, and if cut whilst the trunk is 

 sound its' timber is in great demand for 

 furniture, gun stocks, fretwork wood, etc. ; 

 it is withall a very handsome tree. Its 

 botanical name is Juglans, glans meaning 

 nut, Jovis — of Jupiter; it is thought to 

 have been introduced into Britain by the 

 Komans. In Southern Europe this tree 

 lives 300 or 400 years. At Great Canfield, 

 in Essex, a recent report says there is a 

 tree thought to be 350 years old, the girth 

 of the trunk being 13ft., and the spread 

 of its branches is 100 feet in diameter. A 

 single tree, under the most favourable 



