My Dear Mr. ——:
It gives me great pleasure to reply as well as I am able to your letter of November 10th. You are in the position of many thoughtful men of the present day in craving the peace and delight of a life that is nearer to nature. You have also a small tract of land in a favored part of our country, and you have been led to believe, by the statements that you have run across in chance sources, that the returns from nut growing may enable you to attain your ambition.
Our president has a place at Roundhill, Va., not very many miles from yours. He is a professor of something like "Efficiency" in the University of Pennsylvania. He is young, aggressive and very efficient himself. His father was, and he himself is, an orchardist and fruit grower. Both he and I have been for some years working at the problems of nut growing. But it is only this year that we seem to have overcome the difficulties of grafting and budding nut trees. We have the greatest faith in the future success of nut growing, but we do not know how long it will be before we shall know just what varieties of nuts to plant ourselves, least of all to advise others to plant, with any certainty of success. For the man, however, who realizes that nut growing in the North is still in the experimental stage, we have no end of information and advice.
The information you have had from interested sources is misleading. Probably you would not live long enough to get satisfactory results from the seedling trees you might plant, even if such results ever came. To get reasonably prompt and certain results from nut trees it is necessary to grow such trees grafted or budded from trees of known good bearing record, just as the same thing is necessary with the common fruit trees.
Your information about the Kentish cob and the filbert is but half the truth. The shrubs will thrive for a time in almost any place. But they have nowhere in the East been a success because sooner or later they are destroyed by a disease. One of our great nut growing wants is a filbert or hazel of good size and quality that has the blight resistant quality of our native hazel.
My advice to you then would be as follows. If it is your idea to make a living by nut growing on your ten acres in Virginia within a reasonable number of years, I do not advise you to attempt it. If you wish to take up nut growing as offering an occupation of the greatest interest, with opportunity for the solution of problems of great importance to mankind, and a fair promise of eventual money profit to yourself or to your heirs, then I should certainly advise you to take up nut growing.
I would not attempt to grow the hazel or the chestnut at present, except in an experimental way. The nuts of best promise for you are the Indiana or northern pecans and the English walnut. But it requires considerable study of the subject before one may take up the practice of nut growing without the probability of making unnecessary mistakes, and unnecessarily losing time and money in repeating the experiences of others.
The wilful misstatements of some nurserymen, and the ignorance or carelessness of others, has hindered the progress of nut growing. Fortunately we have several nurserymen who have made a study of the subject, who are honorable and truthful men, and on whose statements you may rely. The only possible qualification of this statement that I know of is that an allowance for enthusiasm might be borne in mind without risk of harm. I enclose a list of such nurserymen, accredited by this association.
Your letter seems to call for this extended reply which I hope will be of service to you. If I have left anything obscure that you would like to know about, or if I can assist you in any other way, please let me know.
With the hope that you may be able to take up this most fascinating avocation with pleasure and profit, I am