The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1882-12-09
The Nut.Besr,ng Trees.


am led 10 say word on the subject
of nut-beariOg trees, because now is the
time for dong the work of planting the
nuts. and because | noticed IN late issue
Il correspondent of yours recommends plant.
ing the sweet chestnut without the limita-
tons, which should always attend such
advice. For slaty, gravelly, potash soils,
or almost any soil having selfdraining
subsoll, the sweet chestnut will prove q
success but for those soils having a stiff,
blue, yellow or white clay hard face, or
subsoll, though starting off and growing
vigorously tor u few years, 1t Will die some
time before reaching the bearing age. In
continental Europe, 1t grows with vigor IN
the gravelly sands, where 1t lives two or
three centuries and acquires very remarka.
BILE size; but 1t perishes inevitably IN stiff
calcareous soils. 1t has attained cOnsid-
cradle size in Jacksonville and vicinity in
this state, and also in Quincy, the former
situation affording gravelly and we'll
drained subsoil and the latter probably
also: but II may be safely said of the many
attempts elsewhere made, there have been
fifty failures to one success.
The merits of the black and white wal
nuts are 80 well known, and the ways to
manage them are so well understood, little
need be said concerning them. The nuts
of both are as sure to grow as cane, and
where the seedlings-the tap root having
been cut the spring they are year old
are then suffered to stand second year
they may be transplanted as readily AZ
young apple seedlings.
AS to the pecan and the hickory, they
have been almost wholly neglected be
cause of their supposed slow growth and
the difficulty of handling them while they
are seedlings. So far as the pecan is con-
cerned, 1t is quite mistake, my expert
ence being they are rs readily transplanted
as black and white walnuts, and besides,
the roots seem to have the power of max
ing second growth of tap after the re-
moval of the parent, like some of the soft
wooded trees. If hickory and pecan nuts
are planted IN nursery not too close to-
gethcr, and then being suffered to reach
the age of five or ten years, are root pruned
with that serviceabe implement the tree.
digger and then suffered to stand two or
three years thereafter, both may be trans,
planted with reasonable hopes of success,
the average season, and with considerable
certainty in cool wet years like the present.
The writer has black walnuts forty feet
high and sixteen inches trunk diameter,
the seedlings of which were set out in 1859:
pecans ten years younger, twice transplant
ed, which blossOmed last spring and will
probably bear another year; and last, but
not least, small nursery of fifteen years
old hickorles, root.pruned in 1879, four OF
the largest of which were successfully
transplanted IN April last. They all made
good start, have kept their foliage fairly
well, and have every reason to think they
Will make good growth next year and IN
time become large and handsome and what
Is better, profitable trees.
Before the invention of the tree digger"
root-pruning on an extensive scale was diff
ticut and costly, and where seedlings were
TO be transplanted on a large scale, 1t had
to be done while they were young, but now
roOt.pruned seedlings of every kind may be
kept IN the nursery until they have attain.
ed some age, and then be transplanted with
safety.
1t seems to me there is fortune for q
man of enterprise who will plant the nut
bearing trees on good strong soil, give
them thorough cultivation, rootprune a,
from five to ten years old and then put
them on the market. Nothing limits the
demand for young oaks, walnuts and hick
cries, to be used tor shade, shelter and or
nameHt, but the general conviction thai
they are exceedingly difficult to transplant
and make live-and there is no better way
for an enterprislng young man to start on
prosperous and honorable career, then &c
demonstrate to the world that fhe oaks, the
walnuts and the hlckOrles will yield to
sklltul cultivation and handling.
Champaign, Ill. Is. |. j.