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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



December, 1912 



flavor, and they are more free from worms. 

 They are harder to crack than the white 

 types, but there is more to be found in the 

 heavy nuts; so there is really no great 

 reason for any decided preference either 

 for one or the other. 



The best shellbarks to plant are the 

 finest nuts of either general type. They 

 should be selected according to size, sym- 

 metry, general healthy appearance, weight, 

 and according to the productiveness of 

 the trees on which they were grown. 

 Always plant the 

 nuts in the fall, 

 about four or five 

 inches in the ground. 

 A little strawy ma- 

 nure spread over the 

 place where the nut 

 has been set will 

 prevent the alter- 

 nate freezing and 

 thawing of the 

 ground that may 

 cause decay. It is 

 not at all necessary 

 to soak the nuts in 

 warm water before 

 planting. The nuts 

 may be planted in 

 nursery rows, two or 

 three feet apart in 

 the row; from 

 which, when they 

 are three or four 

 years old, they may 

 be transplanted to 

 their permanent sit- 

 uations; or else they 

 may be planted just 

 where it is desired 

 that the future trees 

 should stand. 



If the grower in- 

 tends to graft his 

 stock, nursery trees 

 will afford him the 

 privilege of selecting 

 only the more desir- 

 able of the number; 

 but the average man 

 with a farm, who 

 wants good shell- 

 barks, but who does 

 not intend to be- 

 come an expert 

 grower of nuts, will 

 find that the nuts 

 permitted to de- 

 velop from their 

 planting place will 

 give results fully commensurate with rea- 

 sonable expectations. When planted as a 

 grove, the trees can be set 25x25 ft. 

 without danger of crowding when they 

 reach maturity; and this distance should 

 be observed also in single straight rows. 



Trees to be transplanted from the 

 nursery have to undergo, the year previous 

 to their removal, the severing of the tap- 

 root, so that the labor of digging will be 

 lessened. Indeed it is almost impossible 



to transplant a 5-year old shellbark with 

 its natural rooting system intact. It 

 has been claimed that this cutting of the 

 tap-root is an advantage; since the tree, 

 on being robbed of its main sap-artery, 

 will put out several smaller ones. But 

 this belief is seriously doubted; for nut- 

 trees are slow of growth, and they live to 

 a great age. Therefore nature has pro- 

 vided them with a powerful rooting system 

 adapted in every way to supply the urgent 

 needs and to fulfil the great demands of 



As a shade tree the shellbark has many merits and always looks dignified, 

 trees show great diversity of size and shell texture 



such a tree. A seedling shellbark, per- 

 mitted to grow where its parent nut was 

 planted has, under equal other conditions, 

 every opportunity for a surer and speedier 

 growth than one whose roots have been 

 mutilated and whose natural development 

 has been retarded by transplanting. Per- 

 haps there is no tree more liable to balk 

 after transplanting than the shellbark; 

 sometimes it will stand still for years, alive 

 but evincing no sign of growth. This is a 



grave danger and one which should be 

 considered by every man who plants nut 

 trees. 



The grafting of all nut trees is attended 

 with great difficulty and with much dis- 

 appointment — we don't yet know quite 

 how to do it. The pecan appears to yield 

 most readily; yet even in the case of the 

 pecan the labor is so exacting and success 

 so uncertain that grafted stock commands 

 a price that is almost prohibitive. In 

 some cases the hickory and the pignut 

 have grown shell- 

 bark cions; in oth- 

 ers, pecan trees have 

 been used. Im- 

 proved varieties of 

 shellbarks have also 

 been grown on or- 

 dinary shellbark 

 trees. Practically 

 the only successful 

 methods of grafting 

 the shellbark are 

 those of annular 

 budding and tongue 

 grafting of seedling 

 trees two or three 

 years old; the soil 

 about them may be 

 removed for a depth 

 of four or five 

 inches, when the 

 grafts are set and 

 the soil carefully 

 replaced. 



The size and gen- 

 eral perfection of a 

 nut does not depend 

 wholly on the stock 

 from which it 

 comes; for it is 

 greatly affected for 

 good or for evil by 

 the nature of the 

 pollination afforded 

 by neighboring 

 trees. The finest 

 tree may, probably 

 will, yield inferior 

 nuts if pollenized by 

 an indifferent speci- 

 men. Those who 

 have shellbark trees 

 should not hesitate 

 to cut down those 

 of the number 

 which are yielding 

 nuts of an inferior 

 grade. This inferi- 

 ority may occur in 

 size, shape, flavor, or productiveness. Of 

 course, the origin of the flavor of a nut 

 is, and may remain, a mystery. Almost 

 all fruits consist of an edible casing, which 

 surrounds and encloses the seeds or germs 

 of reproduction. But nuts have no edible 

 casings, though they have two outer cover- 

 ings; and the very parts rejected in most 

 fruits as seeds are those which make the 

 nut delicious. Shellbarks sprout from a 

 small cyst-like growth, enfolded against 



The nuts from different 



