456 
March 15, 1924 
W* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
sional plant breeders that the country must look for 
most of its horticultural advances. The creation 
of new plants is an art more than a science, and 
experiment station workers are primarily scientists 
who are developing methods rather than the actual 
origination of new varieties. With all kinds of 
plants, improvements will come most easily from 
those who are most familiar with the material, who 
grow plants for the pure joy there is in it, as well 
as profit, and have the enthusiasm and patience of 
the painter or sculptor. Many amateur breeders 
have been discouraged at the start because their 
J. F. Jones in his test orchard, Lancaster Co., Pa. The 
tree is a top-worked heart nut, grafted only three years. 
Notice the nuts. Fig. 157. 
efforts seem to produce no results. This may be 
due to the fact that they have not taken the trou¬ 
ble to find out what has already been learned as to 
how heredity works, and really a great deal of 
valuable information is available which will save 
many wasted efforts. 
MORE WORK NEEDED_Much remains to be 
done to adapt our fruits and flowers fully to the 
many varied soils and climates in this country, to 
make them better in quality and more useful. To 
see one crying need one has only to look at the 
bramble berries. Raspberries and blackberries are 
fine fruits that are becoming increasingly popular 
but who likes to work with the prickly things: 
Mother nature put thorns on plants to keep off 
browsing animals. Man has put the thorns on the 
barbed wire fences to keep animals in their place; 
they are no longer needed on plants. Enough thorn¬ 
less plants have been produced from spiny ances¬ 
tors to know that it is possible to have varieties 
which are fully productive, lack nothing in quality 
and at the same time do not puncture our hide, 
ruin our clothes and spoil our disposition when we 
go near them. 
Finally, if one is inclined to look at the great 
difference in financial reward between the inventor 
of a mechanical contrivance and the originator of 
new plants let him remember that “he who has won 
a richer fragrance from the violet or gained a deeper 
crimson from the rose; who has made the green 
grass greener or caused the yellow heads of wheat 
to bend with greater bounty on their stems; who 
has added to earth’s beauty and usefulness, even 
though it be by the addition of one single scarlet 
berry, has done the work of God and must need 
partake of His great joy when spreading bands of 
blessing o’er the world He sees the glory of Ilis 
handiwork and calls it good.” d.f. jones. 
Connecticut. 
Nut Culture in the North 
Part II 
H AZELS AND FILBERTS.—The American hazel 
is so small that few people care to bother with 
it, although Mr. Rush has perfected a fine bearer 
and grower near Lancaster, Pa. The European fil¬ 
bert yields an excellent nut of large size and thin 
shell, but is not totally resistent to the blight. The 
filbert with a little attention will prove to be an ex¬ 
cellent small crop as a side line, and fine for orna¬ 
mental purposes ’for clumps and large informal 
hedges. 
PROSPECTS IN NUTS—The incentive to plant 
nut groves is twofold. Nuts carry about 3,000 cal¬ 
ories food energy, whereas meat carries only about 
S00 to the pound. Nuts are full of life-giving vita- 
mines. The day is fast coming when nuts will be 
used in isolated places of living and on exploration 
trips to maintain a more balanced ration, as they 
are the only vitamine carriers that can be packed 
so easily without danger of spoiling. About $25,000,- 
000 worth of walnuts were used in the United States 
in 1922, and when we remember few are used except 
in pastry, what will the consumption be when peo¬ 
ple learn to use them as a proteid? A lady near my 
home has a tree of English walnuts in her yard. 
This year she gathered six bushels and sold five 
bushels for $12 per bushel. The profits of an Eng¬ 
lish or black walnut grove run very high. Mr. Rush 
of Lancaster, Pa., has a grove of 25 trees, mostly 
grafted, and bearing well every year. Of course they 
are sometimes caught by the frost, but so is fruit, 
and one wouldn’t think of not having fruit orchards. 
LESS WORK THAN FRUIT.—Second incentive 
is the small amount of work required to keep a 
grove in shape, as they take very little pruning after 
one has shaped it as desired after the second or third 
year. After groves are established pests will ap¬ 
pear in greater force, but there are not as many 
known pests to nuts as there are for fruit. The 
caterpillars are the worst enemies at present, and 
if destroyed at first they give little trouble, but most 
people wait until they have done a lot of damage 
before fighting them. 
PLANNING THE ORCHARD.—In laying out an 
orchard be sure to get the trees far enough apart. 
50 by 60 ft., or 60 by 60 ft. is best, but as this seems 
to leave so much space between, planters like to 
plant closer, to their sorrow in later years, when the 
trees start to crowd each other. To offset this evil 
we advise planting fruit as fillers. If one cares to 
farm the ground between the hills, no harm will be 
done to the trees, provided the team does not run 
over them or nip the young leaves. Sixty by 60 ft. 
makes 12 trees to the acre, and anyone who cannot 
afford to lose the income of a few acres of land for 
a grove would do well to follow this policy. But the 
thing I hope to see in the future is an assortment 
of species and varieties of nuts planted SO ft. apart, 
apples at 40 ft. as fillers, then peaches as 20-ft. 
fillers, a small group on every farm, and as the fruit 
dies out the tall and spreading nut tree will take 
possession. If one can get the labor, a commercial 
orchard of this type would be a wonderful invest¬ 
ment. As the fruit sprays are a benefit, although not 
a direct necessity to the nuts, they could be sprayed 
with the fruit trees. In planting an orchard or 
grove, always aim to let the cold wind play on the 
grove in order that the sap is held dormant as late in 
the Spring as possible, to insure from an early bloom 
and a late freeze. The English walnut is doing well 
in the climate where the sweet cherry will winter, 
although they sometimes freeze back when quite 
young. The black walnut is more hardy and will 
thrive much farther north, although English wal¬ 
nuts are bearing in Ontario. The pecan will thrive 
in the North, but the great drawback is they require 
such a long season to mature that in many places 
the freeze catches them before they are ripe. It is 
believed to be unwise to consider them for commer¬ 
cial purposes, as they never will grow as large a nut 
as is grown in the South. The sliagbarks and hybrid 
hickories are very hearty, and grow well in the 
North. 
SOIL.—Soil requirements for either walnut is a 
neutral soil; they can stand a little alkali, but no 
acid. If the soil is acid it is advisable to use a 
little lime. Shaly or rocky soil is good, and any of 
the nut trees do well on sandy soil, but they must be 
fed. The ideal soil is limestone soil with a clay sub¬ 
soil. The one great requirement of a nut tree is 
food, especially when young. As anyone knows, a 
plant producing 25 bushels of nuts must get food 
from somewhere. One great trouble with planting 
is people do not tamp the earth about them solidly. 
In planting, mix a couple of quarts of bonemeal or 
tankage or some of each with the dirt, then after 
pruning all the broken roots off, fill a little loose dirt 
in the bottom of the hole; set the tree and stamp the 
dirt in against the tap-root good and hard, about 
like you would in setting a post. Never use manure 
in the hole, but be sure to use a heavy mulch around 
the tree. This keeps the roots warm and gets the 
sap in shape to start business early in the Spring. 
If they are mulched every year with good rich ma¬ 
nure they will make three times the growth of an 
uncared-for tree. The mulch also helps to retain the 
moisture during the dry Summer months. After 
planting, if the nurseryman has not pruned the top, 
cut it off, leaving about 18 to 30 in. above the graft. 
This seems hard to do, but the trees always do best 
if the head is cut back enough to give the roots a 
chance to establish themselves before the top starts. 
After the second year one can prune it into the 
shape that suits his taste. If planting in the Spring, 
don't plant if the ground is wet, and never use water 
in planting, as that cakes the soil around the roots 
and they cannot get started. If planting in the Fall, 
the frost will loosen it if packed when too wet. An¬ 
other good plan is to leave a depression around the 
tree, to catch all the water possible. Never cover 
the graft in planting. 
THINGS TO GUARD AGAINST.—Don’t let any 
of your own or your neighbor’s ideas of proper tree 
planting swing you from planting them according 
to instructions. Many people fail to get their trees 
to grow because they know more about planting 
than the experienced nut nurseryman and follow 
their own petty ideas. 
Don’t forget either to cultivate or give a heavy 
manure mulch. 
Be sure to buy from a nurseryman of high reputa¬ 
tion, as very often they try to persuade you into 
buying seedling trees because they can't propagate 
them, which is about as sensible as persuading you 
to plant seedling apple trees. 
Then be sure to get grafted or budded trees. 
Don’t put off planting your grove; do it now. The 
reason that nuts have not amounted to much in the 
Six-year-old pecan tree in Lancaster Co., Pa. It bore 
a few dozen tliin-shelled and fine-flavored nuts last 
year. Fig 158. 
past in the North is because of the lack of good 
varieties. They are available now, so grasp the op¬ 
portunity. JOHN W. HERSHEY. 
Pennsylvania. 
Judge Barsum of Auburn, N. Y., has sentenced 
three men to prison for stealing chickens—two. to five 
years. The men claimed they had been drinking and 
did not know they were taking hens! That liquor is too 
thin. 
