The following observations are intended to apply only to the northeastern United States, the country lying east of the Rockies and north of the range of the southern pecan. They are intended more for the person who already has his land, or is restricted in his range, than for the one who can range wide for larger operations and will study deeper before deciding.
It is probable that most nuts will grow wherever the peach will. Outside the peach area there is probably not much use in trying to grow the pecan or Persian walnut. Yet it must always be remembered that nut growing in the North is, at present, almost entirely experimental and that anybody may be able to disprove the authorities. We are all experimenting now. By and by it will be different.
In severer climates the chestnut, shagbark, black walnut, butternut, hazel, beech, pine, Japanese cordiformis and hardy Chinese walnuts can be grown or, at least, offer possibilities. In such climates the development of the native nuts by selection and crossing, and the adaptation of alien nuts, deserves, and will repay, experiment.
It is to be supposed, as before said, that the hopeful beginner already has his land. Let him choose the best part of it that he can spare. By "best part" is meant the most fertile, not too wet nor too dry nor, if possible, too hilly to cultivate. Hard pan near the surface, and too thick to be easily broken up by dynamite, is not desirable.
A nut orchard ought to have much the same preparation as an apple orchard. A practical way would be to plow deeply and harrow well in summer and sow a cover crop like rye and vetch or clover. The more stable manure, or other fertilizer, applied the better.
Let the field now be staked off thirty feet apart in squares, or in triangles if preferred. Late in the fall dig the holes and plant nuts, three or four in each hole, two to four inches deep, according to size, and six inches apart. Put a good handful of ground bone in each hill. Unless the soil and subsoil are mellow, so that the long tap roots may penetrate deeply, it would be best to dynamite the holes, using a half pound of 20 per cent or 25 per cent dynamite at a depth of two and a half feet. This is a simple matter and the dynamite companies will furnish materials and instructions. It is also some fun.
There is some danger that nuts planted in fall may be destroyed by rodents, that some will "lie over" and not sprout the first year, or that all the nuts in a hill may make inferior plants, so that some authorities advise putting them in a galvanized wire cage, the nuts only half buried, then covered with a few leaves during the winter and otherwise left exposed to the elements. In the spring they must be taken from the cage and planted in the hills before the sprouts are long enough to be easily broken.
The different kinds of nuts should be planted in "blocks" rather than mingled, to facilitate handling.
These nuts are to furnish trees that are later to be grafted or budded. After they have grown a while the weaker ones are to be removed, as necessary, until only the strongest remains in each hill. When grafted and grown to great size the brave man will thin them out to sixty feet apart. Interplanting with fruits or vegetables may be practised.
As to the kinds of nuts to be planted that depends on what you want to grow. If chestnuts it must be remembered that the bark disease is very likely to attack them, in the East at any rate. Experiments with chestnuts outside the range of the blight are very desirable. The American (Castanea dentata) and European (C. sativa) chestnuts are specially susceptible. The Asiatic chestnuts (C. Japonica, etc.) seem to have a partial immunity, especially the Korean, and it is possible that the native chestnut grafted on these may be rendered more or less immune. It is being tried and is an interesting experiment.