10 WOOD AND GARDEN 



of them nearly two inches thick. Some shoot almost 

 upright, but two or three in each stool spread outward, 

 with quite a different habit of growth, branching about 

 in an angular fashion. These are the oldest and 

 thickest. There are also a number of straight suckers 

 one and two years old. Now when I look at some 

 fine old nut alley, with the tops arching and meeting 

 overhead, as I hope mine will do in a few years, I see 

 that the trees have only a few stems, usually from 

 three to five at the most, and I judge that now is the 

 time to thin mine to about the right number, so that 

 the strength and growing power may be thrown 

 into these, and not allowed to dilute and waste itself in 

 growing extra faggoting. The first to be cut away 

 are the old crooked stems. They grow nearly hori- 

 zontally and are all elbows, and often so tightly locked 

 into the straighter rods that they have to be chopped 

 to pieces before they can be pulled out. When these 

 are gone it is easier to get at the other stems, though 

 they are often so close together at the base that it is 

 diflScult to chop or saw them out without hurting the 

 bark of the ones to be left. All the young suckers are 

 cut away. They are of straight, clean growth, and we 

 prize them as the best possible sticks for Chrysanthe- 

 mums and potted LUies. 



After this bold thinning, instead of dense thickety 

 bushes we have a few strong, well-branched rods to 

 each stool. At first the nut-walk looks wofuUy naked, 

 and for the time its pictorial value is certainly lessened ; 



