8 
J. F. JONES, LANCASTER, PA. 
Gathering Kngjish Walnuts from a two-year 
tree in my test orchard. 
Age of Bearing 
One of the big advantages of 
budded or grafted nut trees over 
seedlings is their early bearing 
habit. Generally speaking, the 
budded or grafted trees begin bear¬ 
ing in one-third of the time re¬ 
quired for seedling trees. We 
often have the improved English 
and black walnut trees to bear the 
third year and sometimes the sec¬ 
ond, and they may be counted upon 
to begin bearing nicely by the fifth 
year. The heart nut- bears even 
younger, and it is not uncommon 
for these trees to bear a few nuts 
the second year. 
The grafted pecan trees are no 
exception to the rule and bear in 
one-third of the time required for 
seedling trees. Visitors here the 
past fall, many of whom have been 
closely allied with the northern nut 
industry, expressed surprise at both 
the quality and the quantity of nuts 
borne on the young trees in my 
test orchard. 
The hybrid hickories have 
proven early bearers and heavy 
croppers, exceeding my own esti¬ 
mates of them made earlier. These 
trees, like the pecan, arc of rapid 
growth and quickly make trees 
large enough to bear profitable 
crops. 
The Supply and Prices of Trees 
As announced several years ago, my yearly plantings of nuts and nut 
stocks was greatly reduced due to the difficulty of getting labor and to other 
difficulties encountered in growing and selling these trees under “After-thc- 
War” conditions. Digging the deep rooted nut trees is very slow and labor¬ 
ious work and men do not like to do it. This has weighed heavily against 
us in getting labor even at a high wage. As a result of this retrenchment 
policy, my supply of trees, while of better quality, is much smaller than 
formerly and, with the increased retail demand, the supply of most trees 
is entirely inadequate and will not go around. The only trees that I have 
any large stock of at this time arc pecans. This is due to having a large 
stock of young seedlings of these on hand when the retrenchment policy was 
put into practice. While all of these trees may be needed for retail orders, 
I shall be glad to quote quantity prices on them while they last. Those 
wishing to plant nut orchards now should take advantage of the situation 
and plant their pecan orchards. Unless conditions change, these trees will 
probably not be grown in quantity hereafter, and in any case, it will take 
several years to work up a stock of them again, and those planting now can 
consider themselves fortunate in getting the trees to say nothing of the time 
gained in earliest planting. 
