BY ALL MEANS PLANT 

 NUT TREES 



LEWIS AND MARY THEISS 



Great Possibilities in a Somewhat Neglected Crop 

 that May Also be Utilized in Developing the 

 Permanent Landscape and Ornamental Features 



height. 



giHEN it comes to the productive 

 part of the home garden, we plan 

 for length, breadth, and depth, 

 largely ignoring that fourth factor, 

 Some of us, indeed, put up a few 

 bean poles, and use a little of the space 

 above ground as a second story garden as it 

 were. But we might as well raise skyscrapers 

 as two story structures, for the seventh 

 and eighth stories can be just as productive 

 as the second. And we have 

 food plants that are also orna- 

 mental that grow to such 

 heights — the nut trees. 



The autumn, when gardeners 

 and nurserymen alike are not 

 so rushed, is a good time to 

 start this "top" growth, which 

 is eventually to furnish a noble 

 shade for the home, to orna- 

 ment the grounds, and to add 

 delightful variety to the di- 

 etary. Now is a good time to 

 start gardening in the fourth 

 dimension, as we may call it. 



EVERYBODY likes nuts, 

 and most of us would like 

 more nuts than we commonly 

 buy. Without much effort we 

 could raise them on our own 

 grounds and at the same time 

 add to the beauty of our home 

 plots, for few trees are more 

 ornamental. The Black Walnut, 

 with its sparse but lovely 

 foliage; the denser leaved Hick- 

 ory; the spreading Persian 

 or English Walnut; the lofty 



Pecan, as majestic as the Elm; the vigorous, ornamental Japan 

 Walnut; all are trees that would adorn and beautify any 

 planting and satisfy the most exacting landscape require- 

 ments. 



Because of the difficulty formerly experienced in budding and 

 grafting nut trees, nut raising has not been popularized, as the 

 growing of fruit has been. But such improved methods are 

 now in use that nut trees are grafted and budded with as much 

 certainty as fruit trees. Consequently prices for nut trees are 

 reasonable and practically any home owner can now afford to 

 buy one or more. 



Grafting or budding of nut trees is necessary because nuts, 

 like the orchard fruits, do not come true to variety when raised 

 from seed. One of the pioneer pecan growers of Louisiana 

 raised thirteen seedlings from nuts borne by the same tree and 

 no two of them produced nuts alike. Some were twice as large 

 as some others; also the quality varied greatly. Perhaps the 

 most striking discrepancy was in the yields. The poorest 



HAZEL NUTS 



FOR YOUR 



HEDGE 



Thriving in any 

 moderately rich, 

 well drained soil in mild 

 regions and easily pro- %Ej 

 pagated by seed, the Hazel 

 Nut (Corylus) or Filbert is 

 adaptable to a number of uses 

 and deserves to be much more 

 commonly grown than at present. 

 It makes an admirable hedge, 

 decorative in character and bearing 



an abundant crop of small, very palatable nuts. Grosse longue, one of 

 the European varieties popular in this country, here shown 



yielding tree never produced a crop of 

 more than 5 pounds. The most prolific 

 bore at one crop 1 50 pounds. 



Many seedling nut trees never 

 bear, and all are slow in producing 

 ft nuts. A grafted or budded nut tree 

 .-^ will yield as early as a grafted 



or budded fruit tree and will 

 have the general qualities of 

 its parent tree. In our own 

 gardens, four years ago, we 

 planted four English Walnuts 

 — three grafted trees and a 

 much older seedling. This 

 seedling even now shows no 

 signs of bearing, but one of the 

 grafted trees has already ma- 

 tured a perfect nut, one has 

 twice set nuts though none 

 persisted to maturity, and the 

 indications as we write are for 

 some nuts this year. 



Among the hundreds of 

 young fruit trees in our orchard, 

 there is probably not one that 

 has borne earlier than this — 

 in the fourth or fifth year after 

 setting out. It used to be said 

 that the man who planted 

 Northern Spy Apple planted for 

 his grand-children. Planting 

 seedling nut trees was even 

 worse. All that has been 

 changed. Buy from a trust- 

 worthy nursery a good grafted 

 or budded nut tree, take care 

 of it, and in a few years you 

 may reasonably expect to have 

 annual crops of nuts. A friend 

 of ours has two Japan Walnuts, planted twelve years ago, that 

 have borne generously for some years. 



WALNUTS are perhaps the most vigorous growers among 

 the nut trees. The Black Walnut becomes a very noble 

 tree; with its great trunk and lofty top and beautiful, pinnate 

 leaves, it is highly ornamental, especially when hung heavily with 

 nuts in their round, green hulls. The foliage is somewhat sparse, 

 and the shade not dense. The English Walnut casts a much 

 denser shade. It, too, becomes a noble tree, sometimes reach- 

 ing a height of seventy feet at maturity. The Japan Walnut 

 is highly ornamental and grows with almost incredible rapidity. 

 Its nuts, looking somewhat like elongated English walnuts, taste 

 exactly like butternuts. This latter tree, the butternut, is 

 always rather ragged and rusty in appearance, and drops 

 its leaves very early in the fall. The nuts are delicious, 

 but otherwise the tree has little to recommend it for home 

 planting. 



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