g along down
the centuries without enemies and at the same time with many
peculiarities. Comparatively few of the trees are females, but the tree
grows heartily in this latitude and one may graft male ginkgos in any
quantity from some one female. The nut of this tree is rather too
resinous to suit the American palate, but the Chinese and Japanese
visitors to the Capitol grounds at Washington greedily collect the nuts
from a bearing female tree growing there.

Most of the pine nuts have a resinous flavor, but as a class they are so
rich and sweet that this is not disagreeable. The nuts of the
single-leaf pine and our common pinon, _Pinus edulis_, are delicious
when eaten out of hand and both of these trees are hardy in this
latitude, but they do not grow as rapidly here as they do upon the arid
mountains and under the conditions of their native habitat.

In Europe and Asia pine nuts for the market are cracked by machinery or
by cheap hand labor, and I presume that we may eventually hull some of
the smaller ones as buckwheat is hulled. If the contents of the smaller
nuts are extracted by the Indian method of grinding them up with a
little water and then subjecting them to pressure, the waste residue
will probably be valuable for stock food of the future, very much as we
now use oil cake.

When planting nuts of pine trees I would call the attention of
horticulturists to one very important point. The nuts must be planted in
ground that does not "heave" in the spring time when the frost goes
out. Many of the pine nuts send down a rather slender root at first
without many side rootlets, and when the frost opens the ground in the
spring the young trees are thrown out and lost. Here is another point of
practical importance. Do not plant pine seed where stock can get at the
young shoots in March. The little gems look so bright and green, so
fresh and attractive when the snow goes off that cows and sheep, deer,
squirrels and field mice will all try to collect them. Young pines
should be grown in half shade during their first two years. They will
require weeding and nice attention on the part of a lover who wishes to
be polite to them.

QUESTION: Is there any difficulty in harvesting the crops, do
the cones shed?

ANSWER: With some species the cones are shed before they are
fully opened. They are collected and stored until the nuts can be beaten
out. Other species retain the cones until the nuts have been shed. The
branches