The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-03-05
Forest Fruits.


/ Mr. George May Powell, Chairman
of the Forestry Committee, read the fol-
lowing paper on nuts before a recent
meeting of the American Institute:
Among the most interesting and prac-
teal questions connected with Dendrol-
ogy is the cultivation of nuts. These de-
licious forest fruits have long been a
very important element in home con-
sumption. They are destined to be with
us, as they are with neighboring nations,
an important element of export trade.
Nearly all the nut-bearing trees are
among the most valuable for timber on
account of beauty of color and fiber, as
we'll as size and durability. They are
also, without exception, desirable as Or
namental trees or shrubs. The fact that
they are all so convenient TO propagate
by seed planting, instead of transplant
ing, is among the chief reason for giving
this class of trees the front rank in the
forest-creating campaign which is surely
OPCulhS uS ds u hoAAOIs
step in the march of the campaign will
pay. The culture of nut-bearIng trees
will begin to pay with less expenditure of
time than labor directed in most other
directions-pay as nut-culture, at the
same time that wealth of timber for
fuel and manufacturing purposes is be-
ing silently and surely accumulated. In
confederation of this point of quick re-
turns, have the testimony of a gentle
man who planted nuts of the filbert and
the Spanish chestnut on Staten Island,
and two years after moved them to New
Jersey. In five years after transplant
ing they began to bear. We already
ing successfully raised on the Pacific
coast; and as far north as Germantown,
in Pennsylvania, the English walnut is
also believed to have been proved to be
profitable to cultivate for its fruits. The
following weights, measures and prices
of several of the nuts in the New York
market seem not inappropriate to incor-
porate in this paper:
Hickory nuts, $3.50 per bushel; iIberts lie
per pound, 40 pounds per bushel; Italian chest
nuts, lac per pound, sc pounds per bushel;
Grenoble walDuts, 15c per Pound, 80 pounds per
bushel; pecans, 12c per pound, so pounds per
bushel; almonds, 35c per pound, 25 pounds per
bushel; black walnuts, from 75c to S1.25 per
bushel; buttsrnuts, from SIPS to 81 per bushel.
These are wholesale rates. The COM
pactness of value is an important ele-
ment in this count. 1t is type of 9TH
ers yet to enter into the solution of the
vexed transportation question. We put
the hickory-nut at the head of the list
as we believe it is more enphatically
than any other the national nut"
Washington being so fond of them as to
keep them among his private camp
stores, has made them historic. Proba-
bly, no other nut in the world has more
rich and luscious flavor. This quality,
together with its first class qualities for
transportation, has already drawn atten-
tion to it in the markets of Europe. 1t
only needs producing and sending for
ward to take the place, to great extent,
at least, of hundreds of thousands Of
dollars worth of nuts of various kinds
annually imported to Great Britain-a
nation well and favorably known as so
good feeder that it does not stop for
price when it is pleased. We believe
that within a half-score of years choice
varieties of the hickory-nut tree will be
selected and propagated and called by
names, as young Spitzenberg, and Green
ing, and other select kinds of apple trees
are now sold by nurserymen. There are
said to be twenty edible varieties of this
nut now known. If it is true that they
do not produce in kind by seed-plant-
ing, there is probably a greater num-
Der. The best advices we can secure in
dIcate that there is no great difficulty or
uncertainty in prepagating certain var
ieties by budding or grating. By bud
ding close to the ground on two-year-old
seedlings the most satisfactory results
are likely to be secured As an orna-
mental tree ths hickory has few equals.
The depth of color and glossy surface
of its large leaves puts its foliage in the
front rank in respect to beauty. The
rusit effect of its long, shaggy trunk and
its fine form combine other elements al
so destined to make it even more of
favorite than it now is with those who
plant trees for either the beauty the trees
add to their estates, for mercenary or for
esthetical reasons. Thousands of such
hickory trees are thus adding to the at
tractiveness of the landscape. They are
standing, too, in most cases on land
which would otherwise be unproductive
and also performing the part assigned
them by nature as climatic conservators;
and the fruit of many a one of them has
an annual value equal to the net gain
from a dairy COW. 1t does not take
tenth as much ground to grow in as does
the grass eaten by the COW and not
hundredth part the time and labor to
secure the results. Nuts for planting
should be kept in sand in damp, dark
place in a cellar, and with the hulls left
on them. Plant the following spring"
IN. Y. Weekly Times.
THE THISTLE TAx-The Canada
thistle is gradually working its way west
ward, having now reached Iowa and
Kansas. 1t appeared in Indiana and IL
linois several years ago, but vigorous