NUTS, WALNUTS, AND CHESTNUTS. 



313 



J. r. maxima has shells of enormous size and thick- 

 ness, thus reducing the kernel to disappointing 

 dimensions. The shells of this sort are often used 

 as jewel-cases, &c, but the quality of the nuts is far 

 inferior to the common sort. 



J. tenera, or Late, hardly opens its flowers, nor 

 develops its leafage, until the end of June, thus 

 enabling it the better to escape spring frosts. The 

 nuts are well filled, and of medium size, but do not 

 keep so well as some of the others. 



The Highflyer is an early variety of the highest 

 quality, that is generally grown in East Anglia in 

 preference to all others. 



The Yorkshire is a fine large nut that fills well, 

 and with a larger kernel than the so-called maxima. 



The Dwarf Prolific fruits freely from five to eight 

 feet high, the nuts are also of good size and excellent 

 flavour. 



The Thin-shelled is perhaps, on the whole, the 

 very best of all Walnuts ; shell thin and tender, 

 and the kernels of the highest flavour. Of the so- 

 called common Walnut there are also many varieties, 

 varying very much in quality, as most of them are 

 raised from seeds, and these come more or less true. 

 Fortunately the Dwarf Prolific and the Late Walnut 

 are reproduced true from seeds. 



These, and other favourite strains, can be pro- 

 pagated by grafting and budding: for the modes 

 of thus reproducing Walnuts see general article 

 on Propagation. Practically few growers attempt 

 to propagate Walnuts unless by raising them from 

 seeds. Sow the seeds either in the autumn or 

 spring, in drills three inches deep, and eighteen 

 inches apart, placing the nuts from three to six 

 inches asunder. The nuts will soon spring up, and 

 the seedlings must be kept clear of weeds throughout 

 the summer. Leave them a second year in the seed- 

 beds, then line them out in rows two feet or a yard 

 apart, and nine inches from plant to plant. Here 

 they remain till fit to plant out in their permanent 

 quarters, which will hardly be till they are five or 

 six years old. 



Walnuts are mostly trained to single stems from 

 three to five feet in height, and allowed to assume 

 the form of round-headed trees. Should an excess 

 of branches or much irregularity of growth be pro- 

 duced, these may be thinned out, or moulded into 

 shape ; but, unless in the case of the Dwarf Prolific, 

 which may be fruited when the size of a Filbert, 

 very little pruning or training is attempted. Fer- 

 tility, however, may be greatly hastened as well as 

 heightened, by subjecting the more choice strains 

 of Walnuts to annual liftings and root-prunings 

 from the first. Planted where it is to grow into 

 fruit or timber, the common Walnut will seldom 

 fruit till twelve or more years old; but sown in 



seed-beds, and annually lined out, worked plants, or 

 those fixed varieties that come true from seeds, will 

 fruit much earlier. 



Planting. — The Walnut is mostly planted singly 

 or in lines and groups, either in the park or the 

 orchard. It forms an ornamental tree, with male 

 and female flowers on the same plant, often closely 

 intermixed. Being one of our latest trees to leaf 

 and bloom, it escapes spring frosts far better than 

 the Filbert and Hazel-nut. The tree being excep- 

 tionally long-lived, and fruiting more freely as it 

 advances in age, it should have a good depth of 

 suitable soil. The Walnut thrives best on cal- 

 careous loams resting on a dry bottom, and, if such 

 can be had a yard or more in depth, they will prove 

 admirable for its permanent cultivation. The trees 

 should not be closer than from twenty to eighty feet, 

 fifty being a very good average for ordinary soils. 

 Groups may be planted having larger spaces between 

 the groups. If planted in parks, spaces from six to 

 seven feet in diameter, and three deep, should be 

 thoroughly prepared by trenching, and the replace- 

 ment of indifferent soil with the best available. Trees 

 from six to eight feet high are mostly planted in 

 grazing meadows, made secure to stakes, and pro- 

 tected from stock with guards. It is found that 

 the trees make much more progress if the surface 

 of the roots is kept fallow for several years after 

 planting. 



General Cultivation. — Few trees need so 

 little, and get less. The natural habit is all that 

 can be desired for fertility or ornament. If grafted 

 or budded plants are employed, of course it will be 

 needful to see that the wildings do not overrun 

 the cultivated varieties from suckers or shoots from 

 below the union. It is a mistake to head down 

 the trees at planting ; unless too large, they should 

 be left intact. This will throw them into fruiting 

 earlier, and make them more fruitful, checking 

 growth. Another caution should be given. A 

 popular error prevails that the more Walnut-trees 

 are beaten — that is, broken about in the gathering — 

 the more fruitful they become. On the contrary, 

 the fewer leaves and branches broken in gathering 

 the crops, the better for the quality and bulk of all 

 succeeding crops. When, after many years of fruit- 

 fulness, Walnuts begin to hoist signs of weakness, 

 the trees may be rejuvenated by removing the worn- 

 out soil down to their roots, and replacing it with 

 a rich compost of two-thirds meadow-loam, and one 

 of well-decomposed farmyard manure. Should the 

 roots be found in a dry state, a thorough soaking of 

 weak manure-water, or sewage, applied before or 

 during the process, will powerfully assist them. 



