LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| Fig. | Page. | ||
| [1.] | A California almond orchard, | 18 | |
| [2.] | Budding knife, | 24 | |
| [3.] | Yankee budding knife, | 24 | |
| [4.] | Prepared shoot, | 26 | |
| [5]. | Incision for bud, | 27 | |
| [6.] | Bud in position, | 28 | |
| [7]. | Hard-shelled almond, | 36 | |
| [8]. | Thin-shelled almond, | 37 | |
| [9]. | Beechnut leaf, bur and nut, | 51 | |
| [10]. | Leaves and nut of Castanopsis chrysophylla, | 56 | |
| [11]. | Castanopsis bur, | 57 | |
| [12]. | Chestnut flowers, | 61 | |
| [13]. | Splice graft, | 75 | |
| [14]. | Splice graft inserted, | 75 | |
| [15]. | Stock, | 77 | |
| [16]. | Cion, | 77 | |
| [17]. | Two cions inserted, | 77 | |
| [18]. | One cion inserted, | 77 | |
| [19]. | American chestnut leaf, | 88 | |
| [20]. | Spike of burs of bush chinquapin (Castanea nana), | 89 | |
| [21]. | Spike of chinquapin chestnut bur (C. pumila), | 90 | |
| [22]. | Single bur, nut and leaf of chinquapin chestnut (C. pumila), | 91 | |
| [23]. | Japan chestnut leaf, | 92 | |
| [24]. | Burs of Fuller's chinquapin (one-half natural size), | 97 | |
| [25]. | Fuller's chinquapin, five years old from nut, | 98 | |
| [26]. | Bur of Numbo chestnut, | 101 | |
| [27]. | Spines of Numbo chestnut, | 102 | |
| [28]. | Numbo chestnut, | 102 | |
| [29]. | Paragon chestnut bur (one-half natural size), | 103 | |
| [30]. | Spines of Paragon chestnut bur, | 103 | |
| [31]. | Paragon chestnut, | 104 | |
| [32]. | Four-year-old Paragon chestnut tree, | 105 | |
| [33]. | Open bur of the Ridgely chestnut, | 106 | |
| [34]. | Japan Giant chestnut, | 110 | |
| [35]. | Spines of Japan chestnut, | 110 | |
| [36]. | Chestnut weevil, | 114 | |
| [37]. | Large filbert, | 119 | |
| [38]. | Large seedling hazelnut, | 120 | |
| [39]. | Constantinople hazel, | 129 | |
| [40]. | English filbert orchard, five years from seed, | 134 | |
| [41]. | Varieties of filberts and hazel seedlings, | 135 | |
| [42]. | Extra large hazel seedling or round English filbert, | 136 | |
| [43]. | Filbert orchard struck with blight, fifth year from seed, | 137 | |
| [44]. | Hazel fungus, | 141 | |
| [45]. | Fourteen-years-old pecan tree in Mississippi, | 154 | |
| [46]. | Leaf and sterile catkins of shellbark hickory, | 156 | |
| [47]. | Western shellbark, | 158 | |
| [48]. | Section Western shellbark, | 158 | |
| [49]. | Leaf of pignut, | 161 | |
| [50]. | Bitternut branch and leaf, | 163 | |
| [51]. | Bitternut, | 164 | |
| [52]. | Large, long pecan nut, | 166 | |
| [53]. | Oval pecan nut, | 166 | |
| [54]. | Small oval pecan nut, | 167 | |
| [55]. | Little Mobile pecan nut, | 167 | |
| [56]. | Stuart pecan nut, | 169 | |
| [57]. | Van Deman pecan nut, | 169 | |
| [58]. | Risien pecan nut, | 169 | |
| [59]. | Lady Finger pecan nut, | 169 | |
| [60]. | The original Hales' Paper-shell hickory tree, | 171 | |
| [61]. | Hales' hickory, | 172 | |
| [62]. | Section of Hales' hickory, | 172 | |
| [63]. | Long shellbark hickory, | 173 | |
| [64]. | Shellbark Missouri, | 173 | |
| [65]. | Long Western shellbark, | 174 | |
| [66]. | Fresh Nussbaumer hybrid, | 175 | |
| [67]. | Nussbaumer's hybrid, | 176 | |
| [68]. | Crown grafting on roots of the hickory, | 189 | |
| [69]. | Sprouts from severed hickory roots, | 190 | |
| [70]. | The hickory-twig girdler, | 196 | |
| [71]. | Hickory borer, | 198 | |
| [72]. | Burrows of hickory scolytus, | 200 | |
| [73]. | Persian walnut, showing position of sexual organs, | 204 | |
| [74]. | Bearing branch of English walnut, | 205 | |
| [75]. | Seedling walnut, | 216 | |
| [76]. | Flute budding, | 220 | |
| [77]. | Flowering branch of hybrid walnut, | 228 | |
| [78]. | Hybrid walnut, | 230 | |
| [79]. | Hybrid walnut, shell removed, | 230 | |
| [80]. | Juglans Sieboldiana raceme, | 231 | |
| [81]. | Black walnut in husk, | 232 | |
| [82]. | Juglans nigra, husk removed, | 233 | |
| [83]. | Juglans Californica, | 235 | |
| [84]. | Juglans rupestris, showing small kernel, | 235 | |
| [85]. | Juglans Sieboldiana, | 238 | |
| [86]. | Juglans cordiformis, | 239 | |
| [87]. | Small fruited walnut, | 240 | |
| [88]. | Barthere walnut, | 242 | |
| [89]. | Chaberte walnut, | 242 | |
| [90]. | Chile walnut, | 242 | |
| [91]. | Cut-leaved walnut, | 243 | |
| [92]. | Gibbons walnut, | 244 | |
| [93]. | Mayette walnut, | 245 | |
| [94]. | Kernel of walnut, | 245 | |
| [95]. | Juglans regia octogona, | 245 | |
| [96]. | Cross section, | 245 | |
| [97]. | Parisienne walnut, | 246 | |
| [98]. | Serotina or St. John walnut, | 247 | |
| [99]. | The caterpillar of the regal walnut moth, | 252 | |
| [100]. | The regal walnut moth—Citheronia regalis, | 252 | |
| [101]. | Brazil nut, | 258 | |
| [102]. | The cashew nut, | 260 | |
| [103]. | Litchi or Leechee nut, | 270 | |
| [104]. | Branch of nut pine, | 277 | |
| [105]. | Paradise or sapucaia nut, | 279 | |
| [106]. | Souari nut, | 281 | |
| [107]. | Water chestnut, | 283 |
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
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 continue 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 useful 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 plan, 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 and needs, wars, earthquakes, drouths, floods, and contagious, epidemic and other diseases, become the weapons which nature employs to prevent overpopulation. But we cannot deny that nature does sometimes encourage or permit a somewhat redundant population in certain favorable countries and localities, and then follows a struggle for existence, and food becomes the paramount object in life. To ward off danger of this kind and keep the supply in excess of the demand, is a problem which should seriously engage the attention of every one who takes the least interest in the general welfare of his countrymen, even though the day of want or scarcity of food may be very far distant.