HICKORY NUTS. 181 



noxious insects are enemies of nut-tree seedlings as well 

 as garden vegetables. The seedling hickories should 

 be treated as advised for chestnuts ; that is, dug up 

 when one or, at the latest, two years old, and their 

 cpBtral or taproot shortened to at least one-half their 

 original length, and then reset in nursery rows, and at 

 a distance of twelve to fifteen inches apart in the row. 

 If grown in ordinary upland, the transplanted seedlings 

 will make a better growth if heavily mulched than un- 

 der the usual system of clean cultivation, and it is usu- 

 ally less expensive ; besides, by keeping the surface of 

 the soil cool and moist, we encourage and assist the. pro- 

 duction of fibrous lateral roots, which, as a rule, are 

 none too abundant on seedling hickories, no matter 

 under what conditions or system of cultivation they 

 are raised. 



When the seedlings have grown in the nursery rows 

 two or three years, they will probably be large enough 

 for planting where they are to remain permanently ; but 

 if, for any reason, they are not disposed of, then they 

 should be again transplanted, — the larger roots short- 

 ened, — and re-set in good rich soil. The object of trans- 

 planting is to insure the production of small fibrous 

 roots, and a fi'equent renewal of the same, close to the 

 main stem or stock, as long as the trees remain in the 

 nursery, whether this be two or twenty years. This 

 is somewhat of an expensive operation, but the value of 

 stock thus handled is enhanced far more than the cost 

 of such transplanting, and purchasers are, or at least 

 should be, willing to pay a fair price for such trees. 



It is the natural habit of the hickories, as well as 

 many other kinds of deciduous trees, to produce in their 

 earlier stages of growth^ rather large, deeply penetrating, 

 naked roots, with few small fibers, and in this condition 

 they are not so readily and successfully transplanted as 

 the kinds possessing a more ramified root system. This, 



