FOR PROFIT. 93 



CHAPTER XIII. 



KENT COB NUTS AND FILBERTS. 



We figure a Kent Cob Nut, as 

 prepared to form a basin-shaped 

 tree. In some counties these are 

 allowed to grow as they please; 

 but freely pruned trees produce 

 the largest and best nuts. The 

 little leg or stem is useful, as it 

 allows the weeds to be cleared 

 away from the under branches. 



These are a special Kentish 

 culture, and the mode of 

 pruning is previously described 

 (in Rochester Paper.) There are frequently upland 

 soils which, to use a common expression, grow stones — 

 loose shattery soil, with a mixture of tentative loam — 

 here they flourish, and although like other things they 

 may do better elsewhere, they there produce a very 

 profitable return ; the only objection to their culture 

 is the time they take to come into full bearing, though 

 the vacant space between the Nuts can be filled with 

 Strawberries, Currants and Gooseberries, and a full 

 return obtained before the Nuts pay their way, which 

 would be in about five or six years. In such bleak 

 situations they could be " topped " by planting standard 

 Plums and Damsons— the one helping to shelter the 

 other ; but in that case the standards should not be 

 planted too thickly — say 48 to an acre. In better soils 

 Pears and Apples can be grown above them, as is 



