poses. It carries its flavor right thru 
the oven; other nuts do not. This 
gives it a market with the makers of 
nut bread, and 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 commercial orch- 
ards. 
As a result of wide search through 
thousands of wild trees, some 50 or 60 
varieties are now being tested by vari- 
ous members of the Northern Nut 
Growers’ Association. 
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, 
but the tree is weak and I expect it 
to be superseded by its hybrid (but- 
ternut x heartnut) offspring, the Buart 
nut which is a vigorous beautiful pro- 
ductive tree (see page 15). 
Filberts and Hazels 
The Filberts include the European, 
called Filbert, and the American, com- 
monly called Hazel nut. These trees 
tend to produce side shoots below the 
ground and assume the appearance of 
a bush 15-20 feet high with their thick 
tops. They make excellent screens in 
addition to yielding a good nut. The 
Hazel makes smaller growth but is an 
excellent producer of good nuts. The 
American hazel is a vigorous grower, 
hardy in the north, precocious and pro- 
ductive. The nuts are mostly small, but 
large ones have been found and propa- 
gated. 
The Persimmon 
Captain John Smith when exploring 
Virginia was much impressed by the 
excellence 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 coun- 
try, also by oposums, raccoons, dogs, 
and every animal on the farms. I can- 
not understand why so good a fruit, 
16 
so productive a tree, and one so easy 
to grow has been neglected so com- 
pletely by the horticulturists. Perhaps 
it is because the tree is a veritable 
pest, growing wild, as it does on the 
fields, which it holds because no ani- 
mal will eat its foliage, and the tree 
itself keeps on coming after much cut- 
ting off of suckers and even sprouts 
up from the roots after digging. It 
grows wild from New York City to Kan- 
sas 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. Cer- 
tainly the farmers who have fought the 
trees and tried to kill them will attest 
their easiness to grow, although unfor- 
tunately it is not a particularly easy 
tree to transplant. 
The fruit of a good American Per- 
simmon like the varieties I sell is de- 
licious. 
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 almos* 
make a balanced ration if eaten with 
nuts and greens. 
You should have two varieties for 
cross pollination, and the fact that 
they are thriving in Connecticut and 
in southern Iowa and Geneva, N. Y., 
seems 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 ex- 
actly draw the northern range ‘imit. 
In the attempt to make them as hardy 
as possible, I am growing my trees on 
seed from Nebraska. 
The Pawpaw 
Perhaps you never heard of a Paw- 
paw. Well, if not, it is time you did, 
and if you have not it shows how com- 
pletely we Americans have swallowed 
European agriculture whole and neg- 
lected the things that were at our very 
door. 
The Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a 
fruitful lowland tree that grows from 
New York to Kansas, and from Ala- 
bama to southern Ontario. If you have 
a yard of any size you should have one 
in it for its sheer beauty. Its compact, 
firm-looking corrugated foliage has a 
dark richness not given by any other 
tree known to me. If you get one on 
your lawn you will certainly have some- 
thing that is unique in your neighbor- 
hood and unique among trees. In ad- 
