well fertilized. 'I"he Black Walnut loves 
food. 
The Stabler (V and favored locations 
in IV; IIT, west of Lake Michigan) is 
not so rapid a grower, but most of the 
kernels come out in complete halves, 
and some of the nuts of this remarkable 
tree yield the kernel in one piece—that 
is to say, the tree often bears two kinds 
of nuts. This is a truly remarkable tree. 
It is also a very beautiful ornamental 
with a distinctly tropical appearance. Put 
one in your yard and you will have an 
interesting feature. Its nuts will be dif¬ 
ferent from anything your neighbors have. 
While 1 recommend the Stabler very 
strongly for lawn use because of its beau¬ 
tiful foliage, symmetrical appearance, and 
truly remarkable nuts, I do not recom¬ 
mend it for commercial planting because 
the Thomas variety will bear more nuts. 
Also the Thomas tree is by no means so 
beautiful as a lawn tree. 
I think enough of the Thomas variety 
to have planted dozens of the trees in my 
bluegrass pastures, and I have topworked 
other dozens along the fence rows and 
glades, where they have grown up on an 
abandoned farm that I have bought and 
use for a pasture. 
The Black Walnut is not particular as 
to soils except that it does not share the 
Pecan ability to thrive with wet feet. It 
will grow on your dry hill tops and is not 
fussy about lime or the absence of it. 
It responds greatly to fertilizer. Roll it 
on—-horse manure, cow manure, hen 
manure, chemicals. Roll it on and watch 
the tree develop dark-green foliage, long 
new twigs, clusters of nuts. 
<! 
The Persimmon 
Captain John Smith when exploring 
Virginia was much impressed by the ex¬ 
cellence and value of the Persimmon and 
praised it in his writings. From that time 
to this it has been eaten freely by every 
generation of humans that has lived in 
the Chesapeake country, also by opos¬ 
sums, raccoons, dogs, and every animal 
on the farms. I cannot understand why so 
good a fruit, so productive a tree, and one 
so easy to grow has been neglected so 
completely by the horticulturists. Per¬ 
haps it is because the tree is a veritable 
pest, growing wild, as it does on tin* 
fields, which it holds because no animal 
will eat its foliage, and the tree itself 
keeps on coming after much cutting off 
of suckers, and even sprouts up from the 
roots after digging. It grows wild from 
New York City to Kansas and South 
nearly to the Gulf. Many of the wild trees 
load themselves with fruit almost to the 
breaking point. 
A United States Department of Agri¬ 
culture bulletin reports that it is the most 
nutritious fruit, excepting the date, grown 
in the United States. Certainly the farm¬ 
ers who have fought the trees and tried 
to kill them will attest their easiness to 
grow, although unfortunately it is not 
a particularly easy tree to transplant. 
The fruit of a good American Persim¬ 
mon like the varieties I sell is delicious. 
It is a very satisfactory yard tree, good 
to look at, of cylindrical form, spreading 
not more than about 25 to 30 feet even 
when 40 or 50 feet tall. In the fall the 
Persimmons will almost make a balanced 
ration if eaten with nuts and greens. 
From a number of good natives I offer 
the following : 
Early Golden has ripened September 
25tli, here at Round Hill, Va., whether 
there had or had not been frost. Some 
years they keep on ripening for two 
months. My trees have borne five con¬ 
secutive heavy crops. If you taste one you 
want a saucerful. (V questionable at 
northern edge east of Ohio.) 
Kansas. This is an unusually hardy 
tree. A native of Kansas, it has survived 
for years at Williamsburg, Iowa, when 
apples, peaches and pears froze to death. 
My cions of this variety came from Iowa. 
(V, and IV, west of Syracuse, N. Y., and 
III, west of Lake Michigan.) 
My experience with this tree is that I 
might almost call it infernally productive. 
I grafted a wild one in the pasture,and the 
next year it was hanging full of fruit, 
and it has been so every year since, 
literally staggering under its load. 
You should have two varieties for cross 
pollination, and the fact that they are 
thriving in Connecticut and in southern 
Iowa would seem to indicate that they 
are safe trees to grow as far north as 
northern Pennsylvania and the southern 
shores of the Great Lakes, but I cannot 
exactly draw the northern range limit. In 
the attempt to make them as hardy as pos¬ 
sible. I am growing my trees on seed 
from Missouri and Iowa. 
Persimmons will get by in poorer soil 
than any other crop 1 know, hut don't be 
stingy with them. Spring feeding only. 
18 
