314 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



The Crop. — "Well-established trees are apt to 

 indulge in the dangerous luxury of over-cropping. 

 Every bough will be furnished and weighted down 

 with nuts. This is all very well for the current year, 

 but the penalty, as a rule, is no more nuts for two or 

 three to come. Now, it is found that the Walnut 

 draws little strength out of the trees until their soft 

 shells begin to harden. Just before this stage is 

 reached, and when a stout needle or knife will pass 

 freely through them, the proper stage for pickling is 

 reached. Proceed, therefore, to thin the crop down to 

 reasonable dimensions, and pickle all the thinnings. 



So soon as the nuts become sufficiently ripe to 

 gather they will begin to fall, and should no thieves 

 fall upon them, the whole crop would be as well to 

 remain till it fell. The process is, however, slow 

 and dilatory, and hence the nuts are helped down by 

 shakings and thrashings with sticks, &c. They 

 are then placed in layers from four to six inches in 

 thickness, until the shells enter the first stages of 

 decomposition. The moment this happens they 

 should be removed before they have rotted suffi- 

 ciently to stain the nuts black. Leave the nuts 

 a day or two to dry, then pack in jars of sand, or in 

 empty jars or flower-pots, and sprinkle them with a 

 little salt in the process of filling. Store in a cool 

 place, or bury in the ground as recommended for 

 Filberts and Nuts. Before use rub or brush quite 

 clean, and the nuts if properly husked and stored 

 will appear at table of a bright, cleanly, nut-brown 

 colour, free from fungoid taint and all impurities. 



The shells used to be in request for dyeing, and 

 are also converted into excellent ketchup. 



Diseases, Insects. — The Walnut on good soil 

 enjoys complete immunity from disease. Two or 

 more caterpillars, however, prey rather heavily on 

 the leaves in some localities. These are the cater- 

 pillars of the wood-leopard and the goat-moth. The 

 fruit are also devoured by various birds ; rodents 

 and tomtits make rapid havoc among the slender- 

 shelled sorts, and no Walnut is shell-proof against 

 rooks and jays. These will clear a large tree in 

 a few hours if not shot or scared away. Squirrels, 

 rats, mice, are also very destructive. The two latter, 

 however, must wait till they fall, and squirrels are 

 not so keen on Walnuts as on Filberts. 



It is scarcely possible to net out rooks, they will 

 cat their way through the strongest and best when 

 Walnuts tempt them through. And those that 

 would enjoy their nuts must subdue their enemies, 

 and care for their trees. 



THE SWEET OB SPANISH CHESTNUT. 

 Our chapter on nuts would hardly be complete 

 were this, in many respects the most valuable of 



them all, excluded. It cannot, however, be said of 

 this as of the Filbert that it may be grown as well in 

 England as in Spain or Italy, for our finest samples 

 are small and poor, contrasted with those huge nuts 

 almost as large as Walnut shells and all that are 

 grown under sunnier climes. Unlike our other nuts, 

 the Sweet Chestnut needs cooking before eating. 

 The sinrplest mode is that of roasting them in an 

 oven, or hot wood-ashes. They are equally good 

 boiled. Either way they are mostly served for 

 dessert in a thick napkin to keep them hot. On the 

 Continent roast or boiled Chestnuts generally form a 

 separate course at dinner. They are also largely 

 used for soup ; stewed in soup, cream, or gravy, or 

 with meat ; and for stuffing fowls, conversion into 

 pies, puddings, fritters, cakes, porridge, and bread. 

 In fact, Sweet Chestnuts are less of a luxury on the 

 Continent than a cheap and substantial article of 

 food. But the crop is too precarious in this country 

 to assume anything of national importance as an 

 article of diet, though it may be enjoyed as a 

 pleasing luxury throughout the larger portion of 

 the Eastern and Southern counties. The tree is 

 highly ornamental, and fairly valuable for timber. 

 It thrives well throughout the greater part of the 

 kingdom, and is one of the most rapid-growing trees 

 we possess, reaching a height of fifty feet and 

 a diameter of from two to four feet in fifty years. 

 Hence it is valuable for game-coppice, though its 

 timber is not very valuable. But few woods grow 

 more rapidly into money or cover as coppice. 

 Hence the Chestnuts, when they ripen, come as an 

 extra over and above the other uses of the trees. 



Like some other trees, notably the Walnut, 

 under favourable conditions, the older the trees 

 the more and finer the nuts. Those who have 

 seen the crop of Sweet Chestnuts on such monarchs 

 as are to be found at the Chantry, and Shrubland, 

 near Ipswich, and many other places, could no longer 

 refuse to include the Spanish Chestnut among 

 British nuts. Not a few of such nuts approximate 

 very closely in size, while they are equally as sweet 

 as those of Spain or Italy. 



Varieties. — There are a great many cultivated 

 varieties on the Continent — over fifty, so it is said. 

 Only a very few have been grown in England. 

 Devonshire Prolific is most fertile, and the most 

 likely to ripen a crop of any that have been tried. 

 Downton or Knight's Prolific is hardly such a 

 free-fruiting variety as the above. There is also a 

 dwarf variety or species named pumila, which fruits 

 in less space. 



Possibly, as more attention is bestowed on the 

 culture of these nuts in England, more of the 

 French and Spanish favourite varieties, such as 



