Juglansregia.

Varieties

Common Duck Nut; Ha-tif; Highflyer; Double; Tardif; Yorkshire. Of these Highflyer and Yorkshire are best. - London Hort. Soc. Catalogue.

Propagation By Seed

Sow in drills twelve inches apart and two inches and a half deep, and the nuts six inches apart. This may be done in October, or the nuts preserved in dry sand until February. They will come up the same spring, and, by the end of summer, the young plants will be half a foot or more high, which, after having two years' growth in the seed-bed, plant out in the nursery. Previously, when taken up, shorten their tap roots ; but preserve their tops entire, and plant them in rows two feet and a half asunder, and about eighteen inches distant in each row. Here they are to remain a few years, training them with single stems, till five or six feet high, then transplant them where they are to remain.

Those intended principally as timber trees, as well as to bear fruit, should be always planted out for good when from four to live feet high; or, if the nuts were planted at once where the trees are designed to remain, without transplanting, they would assume a quicker and stronger growth.

By Grafting

Mr. Knight first succeeded in this operation, and the following directions accord with his mode: -

"The shoot to be grafted must be cut above the place where a young shoot is pushing; this shoot must be preserved, and the scion must be placed opposite to it, being fitted in the manner of whip-grafting, care being taken that the inner barks coincide. When the buds of the scion begin to swell, the point of the shoot left opposite on the stock must be pinched ; and when the graft has fully burst into leaf, and is consequently in a condition to appropriate the whole of the sap, the shoot on the stock may be then dispensed with.

"The scions should be taken off in March, and their ends laid in the ground till required for use, as above mentioned." - Gard. Chron.

Soil

It prefers a deep loam, though it will succeed on all light moderately fertile soils, provided they are well drained.

Planting

Walnut trees should never be planted nearer to each other than sixty feet. They require no pruning.

Preserving The Fruit

It is ripe in October, and should be allowed to hang upon the tree until the outer covering begins to crack. In this state, when the tree is shaken, many of the walnuts as they fall will roll out of the husk. These should be gathered into a basket, separate from those that retain their covering ; the latter should be laid aside for a few days, until the husks burst, and they can be taken out with ease. The great object is to prevent them from becoming mouldy; they should, therefore, be wiped clean and dry, and laid on a shelf, in a dry place, where they can have a free current of air, until all tendency to mouldiness is overcome. Great care must, however, be taken that they are not over dried, for that will cause shriveling. When sufficiently dry they should be put into boxes in layers, alternately with bran, fine dry sand, or shreds of cloth, and kept for use in a cool dry situation. By this means they will retain their moisture and flavour, and the film will with ease peel off. - Gard. Chron.

Taking The Fruit

There is an un-gallant distich which says -

"A woman, spaniel, and walnut tree, The better are, the more well thrash'a they be." But in the third instance most certainly it is "a vulgar error." Walnuts should be literally gathered or shaken from the tree, for none other bleeds more freely if wounded: and no result of practice or suggestion of science can point out why the walnut tree, contrary to all others, is benefited by having its branches bruised and broken.