ll I hired a man to watch and stand by each tree as
the binder passed. It was impossible for me to be there. The man who cut
the oats in his own stubborn way went alone and cut everything as he
went, trees and all. My heart was nearly broken! I started again. I
bought nuts of good varieties from all over. I decided to make a little
nursery this time then plant out after the trees got bigger. Just as I
got this started nicely the war came. I also had a fruit farm where I
now live besides also planting some grafted stock here. My nursery,
seventy-eight miles away on my fifty acres, I had to leave as gas was
rationed and I was forced to sell, so remaining there are about one
hundred trees which I shall watch. My best trees died but I kept going
on planting every year. Today, after all the calamities I had, I have
around two hundred trees living.

This year I expect two bushels of heartnuts; about two bushels of
filberts; some extra nice ones that ripened early, large and well
filled; about two bushels of black walnuts, some very promising. Besides
these I have about fifty trees of the Carpathian walnuts from which I
have gathered about two quarts of nuts. My oldest tree is ten years old.
One I grafted on black walnut stock and it is a very large nut. I
gathered five nuts from this. The graft is now five years old. Hundreds
of nuts started; nearly all dropped off. Possibly as the tree gets older
it will do better as I have planted several other nut trees not far away
to help with cross pollination.

I have some good sized butternuts and I gathered about 17 quarts of
these so I expect to have enough nuts to supply my daily needs from now
on from my own plantings. After twenty years of hard work and with an
outlay of at least $1,000, my trees, as they grow up around me, are like
children to me. They supply me with food. My nervousness was cured by
them and my health has returned.

My worst enemy here with filberts is they start to grow too early, then
a frost comes and they are done after a week or two of nice weather.
Even though we have this trouble we gathered nearly two bushels from 25
trees which are eight years old.

Our lowest temperature here was 20 below zero a few years ago. My
Carpathians did not seem to mind that nor did the heartnuts. From now on
I am planning my own little nursery and do my own grafting as well. I
top work my young trees that show poor nuts.

Nut Growing in New Hampshire

L. P. LATI