The nut culturist : a treatise on the propagation, planting and cultivation of nut-bearing trees and shrubs, adapted to the climate of the United States ...

No special amount of prophetic acumen is required to foresee that the time will soon come when the people of this country must necessarily place a much higher value upon all kinds of food than they do at present, or have done in the past.In this we are pre-supposing that in the natural course of events, our population will cont?nue to increase in nearly the same ratio it has since we assumed the responsibilities of an independent nation.The very existence of animal life on this planet depends upon the quantity and quality of available food, and while some sentimentalists may assume to ignore and even attempt to deprecate the animal desires of their race, nature compels us to recognize the fact that there can be no fire without fuel, and the great and use- ful intellectual powers of man are the emanations of the animal tissues of a well-nourished brain.The brawny arm that rends the rock and hurls the fragments aside, gets its power through the same channel and from the same source as those of other members of society, whatever the nature of their calling ; for mankind is built upon one universal and general |)lan, varied though it may be in some of the minor details of construction.We certainly have no cause to fear that the theories of Malthus, in regard to the overpopulation of the earth as a whole, will ever be verified in the experience of the human race, because with necessity comes industry, also the inventions of devices to enable us to avoid just such dangers, and if these fail to keep pace with our wants 1 incentives has made us careless and indifferent in regard to a day of need, which in all probability will come to us sooner or later ; but whatever the cause, the fact re- mains that we have been spending millions annually on worthless articles and sentimental problems and projects, which have brought us neither riches nor honor ; in truth, to use a homely phrase, we have been following the bellwether in nearly all of our rural affairs and pur- suits.As a natural result we are spending millions for imported articles of everyday use which might easily and with large profit be produced at home, and in many instances the most humiliating part of the transaction is that we send our money to people who do not purchase any of our productions and almost ignore us in commercial matters.I am not referring to those products illadapted to our climate, nor to those which, owing to scarcity and high pi'ice of labor, we are unable to produce profitably, but to such nuts as the almond, walnut and chestnut, which we can raise as readily as peaches, apples and pears.There certainly can be no excuse for the neglect of such nut trees on the score of cost of labor in propagation and planting, because our streets and highways are lined and shaded with equally as ex- pensive kinds, although they are absolutely worthless for any other purpose than shade or shelter, yielding nothing in the way of food for either man or beast.Can any one invent a reasonable excuse for planting miles and miles of roadside trees of such kinds as elm, maj)le, ash, willow, cotton wood, and a hundred other similar kinds, where shellbark hickory, chestnut, wal- nut, pecan and butternut would thrive just as well, cost no more, and yet yield bushels of delicious and highly prized nuts, and this annually or in alternate years, continuing and increasing in productiveness for one, two or more centuries.Aside from the intrinsic value of such trees, they are, in the way of ornament.THE ]S^UT CULTURIST.in all seriousness, if it is not about time that our farmers and rural population generally began to count their worthless and unproductiye possessions, in the form of roadside and other shade trees -which have probably cost fully as much to secure, plant and care for during the few or many years since they were set out, as would have been expended upon the most beautiful and valu- able nut-bearing kinds.If our ancestors were at fault in the selection of trees for planting, we need not expect that posterity will excuse us for continuing and repeat- ing their folly, especially when our dear-bought experi- ence should teach us better.CHAPTER II.THE ALMOi^D.Amygdalus, Totcmefort.Name supposed to be de- riyed from amysso, to lacerate, because of the prominent sharp, knifelike margin of one edge of the deeply pitted, wrinkled nut.Martins, an Italian botanist, suggests that the name came from the Hebrew word sliahacl, sig- nifying vigilant, or to awake, because after the rigors of winter the almond tree is one of the earliest to hail the coming of spring, with its flowers.The common Eng-