The Shellbark, the Best Nut for the Farm 

 and its Value in the Landscape 



By Archibald Rutledge, 



Pennsyl- 



TH E progress of 

 nut culture is 

 necessarily slow, 

 and it is attend- 

 ed with many difficulties; but when its 

 rewards do come, they are so fine that 

 they should prove a constant encourage- 

 ment for the planting of greater areas in 

 trees and for further and more systematic 

 efforts to develop new species or to perfect 

 the old ones. 



The pecan is, of course, the finest native 

 nut of North America; though the limited 

 area in which it flourishes renders it un- 

 suitable for general culture. In spite of 

 claims to the contrary, it is doubtful if 

 the pecan will ever be brought in the North 

 to that state of perfection which it attains 

 in the South. During the past few years 

 a great deal has been done to increase a 

 general interest in pecan growing, and 

 certain companies have taken advantage 

 of credulous buyers by selling them bonan- 

 za pecan farms, farms that are guaranteed 

 to realize fabulous sums in a short time. 

 All such beliefs are mistaken; no man can 

 make even a reasonable profit from grow- 

 ing pecans who does not have the right 

 stock, planted in the right soil, the safe- 

 guard of intelligent and honest manage- 

 ment, and that knowledge of horticulture 

 without which the best orchards are liable 

 to prove disappointments. Without wish- 

 ing to discourage those who have become 

 enthusiastic over pecans, it should be said, 

 in justice to their interests, that an invest- 

 ment in one of the recently far-heralded 

 pecan orchards is hazardous at best. 



The most satisfactory of our native nuts 

 — most satisfactory because it is the most 

 widely distributed, because it is easy for 

 the average man to grow, and also because 

 it is more likely to come true to seed than 

 its relatives — is the shellbark or shag- 

 bark hickory. Of course, all shellbarks 

 are hickories, but the true hickories are 

 not shellbarks. The shagbark, as its very 

 name would indicate, is quite easily 

 recognized among the forest trees by the 

 peculiar trait which it has of shelling or 

 of shedding off its bark in long strips, 

 especially as it attains age. The lumber 

 to be had from shellbark trees is not so 

 tough, so flexible, or so durable as that 

 obtainable from the hickory; and so, 

 while for that purpose the shellbark is the 

 less valuable, it usually attains a more 

 noble and stately growth. The nuts from 

 the hickory are of no commercial value; 

 those from the shellbark invariably bring 

 excellent prices; and with the increased 

 use that the candy manufacturers have 

 found for them, there is every probability 



that this price 

 least maintain 

 height. 



Shellbarks 

 market from 

 lars a bushel, 

 the t i m e of 



will rise, or at 

 its present 



bring in the 

 two to four dol- 

 depending o n 

 year when sold 

 and also on the relative productiveness of 

 the trees during the season. Two dollars 

 and a half a bushel is the price that can gen- 

 erally be counted on with certainty by the 

 grower. A good full-grown tree will yield 

 about two bushels of shelled nuts. The 

 yearly income, therefore, from a grove of 

 shellbark trees, or from single specimens, is 

 easily estimated. The trees bear every 

 year, though they alternate light and heavy 

 crops; blooming after all danger of frost 

 is past, they are seldom if ever exposed to 

 the menace of extreme cold. 



As a tree, the shellbark is one of the 

 largest of those found in the Eastern 

 forest; and, where not crowded, it attains 

 unusual beauty and symmetry, its long 

 graceful branches often clothing the entire 

 stem, sweeping downward and far out until 

 they touch the ground. These fine trees 

 frequently reach a height of seventy feet 

 and more, and have a diameter at the 

 base of three feet. Therefore, aside from 

 their commercial value, they are beautiful 

 as ornamental and shade trees, having 



If given room to develop the shellbark makes a 

 grand specimen tree 



195 



character, dignity, and the 

 excellent recommendation 

 of long life. 



Most of the shellbarks 

 seen in the market come 

 from the states of the 

 Middle West, from Southern New York, 

 from Pennsylvania (probably the greatest 

 state in the Union in the production of 

 these nuts), from the Virginias, and from 

 Tennessee. The shellbark is found native 

 as far north as Massachusetts, and as far 

 west as the Mississippi; throughout its 

 range, it appears to prefer the more mount- 

 ainous regions. It is rarely found in the 

 tidewater region of the Atlantic Coast; 

 though since both the hickory and the 

 pecan thrive there, it is reasonable to be- 

 lieve that the shellbark might be made 

 to grow along the coast if it were once 

 established. 



Every farm should have its nut trees. 

 Every country home with space for a tree 

 should have the same. Black walnuts 

 will be there as a matter of course; but 

 shellbarks should be planted and given 

 some attention, at least during their first 

 years of growth. A fencerow can be lined 

 with them without interfering seriously 

 with growing crops on either side. The 

 trees will thrive in any soil that is not too 

 heavy or rocky. They delight in a rich 

 porous soil. Because most of the forest 

 trees from which shellbarks for the market 

 are gathered are found growing along rivers 

 and creeks, it has been erroneously sup- 

 posed that the trees are natural lovers of 

 the water and thrive only near it. It is 

 true that they do well there, but they also 

 do well in many other situations far from 

 water; probably the reason for their preva- 

 lence along streams is to be found in the 

 fact that the nuts from which the trees 

 sprang were floated and lodged along the 

 banks. Fine shellbark trees will grow miles 

 from water, and the absence of a stream 

 is no drawback to planting. 



There are many varieties of shellbarks, 

 but they may all be classified according to 

 two general types: the small, thin-shelled, 

 white nuts; and the large heavy nuts, 

 brown in color and thick of shell. There 

 are several variations of these two types. 

 The smaller varieties are usually the more 

 esteemed; because, relatively, they are 

 meatier. But it takes a great number of 

 these to make a bushel, and the gathering 

 of them is often tedious; also they seem 

 more liable to suffer from attacks of the 

 weevil, that lays its eggs in the blossoms, 

 and the eggs develop inside the nuts. The 

 larger nuts run, of course, fewer to the 

 bushel; their meats are of fine size and 



