Instructions in gardening for ladies

by Mrs. Loudon

The Walnut can hardly be mentioned without bringing with it a host of classical recollections. The Greeks dedicated this tree to Diana, and held fêtes under its shade; and the Romans called its fruit the nut of Jove. In modern times its wood has obtained rather an unpleasant kind of celebrity, as being generally used for making the stocks of muskets. In villages and country places, however, the walnut recals more agreeable associations; as its noble leaves and spreading branches render it a delightful tree for shade; and formerly it used to be frequently found at the doors of cottages and farm houses.

There are several kinds of walnut-trees cultivated for their fruit; all varieties of one species, and differing principally in the hardness or comparative softness of their shells. Walnut-trees are generally propagated by sowing the nuts; and if the young trees are planted in a light, sandy, and well-drained soil, they will grow rapidly, and bear at an early age.

The custom which prevails among the country people in some parts of England and France, of beating a barren walnut-tree to make it bear, is efficacious, as the beating breaks off the points of the too luxuriant shoots, and makes them send out those short spurs which alone produce fruit; though the end would be attained with more certainty by pruning. A decoction of walnut-leaves and husks is said to be very efficacious in protecting plants against insects, if sprinkled on the leaves.

The nut of the black walnut (Juglans nigra) is so hard as to be of little use for the table; and only two or three of those of the hickories can be considered as fruit. The best of these is the peccane nut (Carya olivæ formis), of which Washington is said to have been so fond that he was rarely without some in his pocket, which he used to be continually eating during his campaigns. The white hiccory (Carya sulcata), the outer rind of which is very thick, is also good to eat.

The sweet chestnut is frequently called the Spanish chestnut, because the best sweet chestnuts were formerly brought to the London markets from Spain. The tree can, indeed, scarcely be considered as an English fruit-tree; though some of the chestnuts sold for the table are grown in Devonshire. In France, chestnut-trees are more common; and they are divided there into two kinds: the chataigniers and the marroniers; the former bearing about the same relation to the latter as the crab does to the apple. The best chestnuts in France are those called les marrons de Lyons. The sweet chestnut is a native of Asia; but it has also been found in the north of Africa and North America. It is always propagated by seeds, and thrives best in a deep sandy loam; it will grow in even the poorest gravel, but it never does well in either a calcareous soil, or a stiff clay.

There are several celebrated chestnut-trees of enormous size and great age; the most remarkable of which are the Castagna di Cento Cavalli on Mount Etna, and the Tortworth chestnut in England. Till within the last eight or ten years it was believed that the wood of the chestnut was good timber; but it has lately been discovered that it is absolutely worthless, except while quite young: the wood that was supposed to be chestnut, having been proved to be that of the English chestnut oak (Quercus sessiliflora). The wood of the chestnut, when the tree attains a large size, becomes what the English timber-merchants call shaky, and what the French call dialled; that is, instead of forming a solid log of timber, the trunk when cut down is found to fly off in splinters, or to divide into a number of angular pieces, as if shivered by a blow from the centre.

The filbert is only a variety of the common hazel; and it is supposed to derive its name from the words “full beard,” in allusion to the length of its husk. The varieties of the hazel are indeed divided into two classes: those with long husks which are called the filberts; and those with short husks which are called the nuts. All the varieties grow best in calcareous soils, like those of Kent; in which county the best nuts grown in England are raised. When either filberts or nuts are grown in gardens they are generally planted in rows from five feet to ten feet apart from each other in the row, according as they are wanted to grow high, or to spread. Filberts are generally propagated by sowing the seeds, and nuts by suckers, which the trees throw up in abundance. “The principal art in the culture of the filbert as a fruit-tree,” says Mr. Loudon in his Arboretum Britannicum, “consists in training and pruning it properly, as the blossom is produced upon the sides and extremities of the upper young branches, and from small young shoots which proceed from the bases of side branches, cut off the preceding year. The tree requires to be kept remarkably open, in order that the main branches may produce young wood throughout the whole of their length. In the filbert orchards about Maidstone, the trees are trained with short stems like gooseberry-bushes, and are formed into the shape of a punch-bowl, exceedingly thin of wood.” When the trees are pruned, care is taken to eradicate all the suckers. Filberts are always kept in their husks, and if they lose their colour and appear black or mouldy, their appearance is renovated by the dealers, by putting them into iron trays pierced with holes, and gently shaking them over a chafing-dish full of charcoal, on which a little powdered sulphur has been thrown while the charcoal was red-hot.

The Constantinople nut, or Colurna hazel, is a large handsome tree, and the American hazels are shrubs grown occasionally in plantations, but not cultivated in England for their fruit.

The almond is in fact a peach-tree, with a fruit having a leathery pericardium instead of a fleshy one; and what are called almonds are the kernels of the stones of this fruit. The bitter and sweet almonds are varieties of the same species; and there are several other varieties differing principally in the degree of hardness of the stone. The other part of the fruit is in all the varieties quite worthless; except for the prussic acid it contains. The prussic acid used in medicine is, however, made principally from the kernel of the bitter almond, though it does not exist in that of the sweet variety. Almond-trees are propagated by grafting either on almond or plum-stocks; they are frequently planted for the beauty of their flowers, which appear before the leaves, but they are seldom grown in England for their fruit; most of the almonds sold in London being imported from Italy or Spain. The Jordan almonds, which are considered the best, are brought from Malaga. The almond requires a dry soil, either sandy or calcareous; and the situation should be sheltered, as the branches are brittle and apt to be broken off by high winds. When the stones are sown, care should be taken to press the sharp ends downwards. The young plants will not bear transplanting, as they will send down tap-roots two feet long the first season.

Fruit-shrubs.—The principal fruit-shrubs grown in gardens are gooseberries, currants, and raspberries; to which may be added barberries and cranberries.