NUTS.
More attention to the cultivation of nuts, would add materially to our domestic luxuries. There are so many nuts in market, that are the spontaneous productions of other countries, or raised where labor is cheap, that we can not afford to raise them as an article of commerce. But a few trees of the various kinds, would be a great addition to every country residence. We could always be certain that our nuts were fresh and good. A small piece of ground devoted to nuts, and occupied by fowls, would be pleasant and profitable. English walnuts do well here. We have varieties of hickory nuts, native in this country, which, to our taste, are not surpassed by any other. Chestnuts are easily grown here (see our directions elsewhere in this volume). Butternuts, filberts, peanuts (growing in the ground like potatoes), and even our little forest beechnuts, are easily raised.
The dwarf chestnut of the Middle and Southern states is decidedly ornamental in a fruit garden. Its qualities are in all respects like the common chestnut, only the fruit is but half the size, and the tree grows from five to ten feet high. In all our landscape gardens, and in all places where we retain forest trees for ornamental purposes, it is better to cultivate trees that will bear good nuts. The varieties of nut-bearing trees, interspersed with evergreens, make a beautiful appearance.