The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1911-11-23
Nut GroWing
in Minnesota.

: BY C. p. Barns, Extension Di-
vision, Minnesota Asricui-
!. tursl College.
:. :. + !. i. \ :. Z + \
THE sound of dropping nuts has
been heard this fan, in Minnesota as
elsewhere. with unusual frequency
and in places where it has heretofore
but seldom fallen upon the ear. And
where the listener has appreciated the
value of the signal, and has made
haste to gather up the abundant shay
barks, butternuts and black walnuts,
and the searcer chestnuts. his reward
has been ample. For not only do nuts
afford royal feast, but the prices
they bring in city markets have, been
for number of years exceedingly
high Shagbark hickories have retailed
at 10 cents a pound, or from rs cents
to $3.50 peck; butternuts at Is
cents and upwards, and black walnuts
at from 40 to rs cents peck. Chest
nuts have readily brought 20 cents
quart, or S15O peck.
In view of these figures, at which
the nuts from few trees will bring
enough to build a silo or make some
valuable additions to the dairy herd,
one recalls with keen regret the reck-
lessness with which so many nut trees
We're few years ago cut down for
timber or used as firewood. 1t will
take so long to replace them. And
yet the demand for their replacement
is growing yearly as the study of the
comparative values of foods is pursued
in our schools, and nuts are found to
hold the very highest place. The
trees are also exceedingly valuable for
timber
The choicest of the nut bearing
trees, capable of enduring the Mime
sofa climate, is the shagbark hickory,
often called the shellbark Some per-
sons have imagined the shagbark and
the shellbark to be two different va
rieties, but this idea has its only foun-
dation in the fact that different trees,
of the same kind, often produce nuts
differing greatly in size and quality.
In sheltered locations, and in protect
ed groves, the shaghark will do well
in all parts of Minnesota south of Ait
kin county; particularly in the south
east portion, where, in good soil, it
will reach the nut bearing stage in
about forty years Mr.. H. A. Fair
child of St. Paul, who raised on
nearby farm what is now very lucra-
tive grove, attributes many failures by
others to the removal of the taproot
in transplanting. 1t is probable, too,
that in many instances it is to the dry
ing out of the ground in winter, rather
than to extreme cold, that the dying
of trees must be attributed. The hick
DRY merits the same care, to protect it
against drouth, that is bestowed on
an apple tree.
The butternut and black walnut are
hardy in the larger portion of Mime
sofa; but, like the hickory, they will
respond to protective care. The
chestnut is more tender, and needs
proportionately more protection; but
the high market value of its product,
after it reaches the bearing stage,
will justify the cost of this, at least
in the southern tiers of counties.
After it reaches the bearing stage"
There's the rub-not only with the
planting of the chestnut, but with all
the other trees named. So few men,
comparatively, can plant any of the
nut trees here named, with the expec-
tations of living to "eat the fruit there
Of" that most of us are willing to let
some other man do it. But work for
posterity is the divinest form of hui
man endeavor: and all of us have been
so largely the beneficiaries of work
done by our "forbears" that we but
pay debt when we give ourselves
to what is one of the best develop
ments of the altruistic spirit, and plant
groves for the use of generations yet
unborn. Meanwhile the propagandists
of the good roads movement will do a
double beneficient work if they will
urge the planting of nut trees along
the sides Of the road as it is built, ex-
cept, of course, where the character of
the road be such as to make shade
undesirable