the confectioners. The ice-cream makers 
also like to buy the kernels by the ton. 
For these reasons an industry is starting 
in the growing of Black Walnuts in com- 
mercial orchards. 
As a result of wide search through 
thousands of wild trees, some 50 or 60 
varieties are now being tested by various 
members of the Northern Nut Growers 
Association. I am offering grafted trees of 
several varieties: 
The Thomas (Map, p. 7, Zone IV, III, 
west of Lake Michigan) has the following 
characteristics : 
(1) It grows about twice as fast as an 
apple tree. 
(2) It bears as soon as most apple trees. 
I have had large-size Thomas Walnut 
trees to bear a few nuts the year after 
setting out. This, however, is unusual. 
(3) The outside of the hull is hard. This 
is an important point. It keeps away most 
of the Walnut beetles. The larva of this 
insect is the unpleasant husk maggot. 
(4) Most of the kernels come out of the 
shells in whole quarters, about ten pounds 
of kernels to the bushel. 
(5) The kernels are of unusually fine 
flavor. 
(6) The tree has proved hardy and 
fruitful in southern Ontario, at Ithaca, 
New York, near Rutland, Vermont, in 
Iowa and in west central Texas. A grower 
at Clyde, Texas, reports eight consecutive 
crops. May be expected to bear as often 
as wild Walnut trees bear, and oftener if 
well fertilized. The Black Walnut loves 
food. 
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. (See price 
list for other varieties. ) 
Butternuts 
The butternut. (Juglans cinera), some- 
times called White Walnut, is at home 
farther north than the black walnut. The 
tree looks much like the black walnut. The 
nut is longer than the black walnut, the 
kernel is not quite so large and the flavor 
is milder. Some prefer it to the black 
walnut and it has many friends in the 
north. 
I have learned how to graft them, 
am testing several varieties, and will 
soon have grafted trees for sale. Watch 
our price list. 
Filberts 
The Filberts include the European, 
called Filbert, and the American, commonly 
ealled Hazel nut. These trees tend to pro- 
duce side shoots below the ground and as- 
sume the appearance of a bush 15-20 feet 
high with their thick tops. They make ex- 
cellent screens in addition to yielding a 
good nut. The Hazel makes smaller 
growth but is an excellent producer of 
good 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 the 
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. 
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