CHAPTER XIV. 
THE WALNUT. 
Its Culture, Usefulness, and Productiveness.—Value of the Walnut as 
a Crop.—Seed per Acre.—Its Nativity.—Traces of its Antiquity 
and Introduction into Europe.—Recognized Roman Varieties and 
their Names, —Its Modern Cultivation and Increased Varieties. 
—The Black Walnut.— Where Found, Attainable Size, and At- 
tendant Features.— The Butternut.—Climate best Suited to its 
Growth.—General Qualities.—Its Medicinal Properties.—The Eng- 
lish Walnut.—Its Cultivation, Distinguishing Properties, and Fruit- 
fulness. 
Tue walnut is a favorite tree, and very useful. It 
grows admirably in rocky ground, and thrives best in 
land with a yellow subsoil. To prepare the land, fur- 
row out as if for corn, and drop the walnuts, one in a 
hill, four feet apart. Cover lightly with a hoe or plough. 
The seed should be planted soon after it falls from the 
tree, and is best dropped with the hull on. If this can- 
not be done, bury the seed, but by no means allow it to 
dry. Seed is also good dropped in February and coy- 
ered in the spring. The frost cracks the walnut shell, 
and the sprout will start out soon after being covered in 
April or May. Forty acres of walnut timber will yield 
the farmer in ten years more than if the land is planted 
every season in grain. The trees will grow the first 
year ten or twelve inches, the second thirty, and the 
third year four to five feet. The first and second year 
the ground may be planted between the rows with pota- 
toes or corn, and it will not hurt the young trees, wal- 
nut striking a deep root and drawing its sustenance 
from the subsoil. To make the trees bear nuts early, 
