o that I never expect to
see any fruit from them again. Whereas, on the other hand, my hickories,
black walnuts, butternuts and hazel-filberts have not even lost a leaf.
Wonderful to relate and almost unbelievable my large pecan tree, over
forty feet in height, and a foot in diameter, is as hale and hearty as
ever.

August 15th last I picked and cracked some of my improved butternuts and
hazel-filberts, and found the kernels large, full grown and normal in
every way. Whereas I have not an apple or pear fit to eat, no, not even
a berry either.

I set out my butternut years ago in the position of honor in front of my
house, and it has merited it ever since. The kernels came out in halves
and often times whole. I have given away many of the nuts for planting,
even as far away as Kew Gardens, England. Money could not buy the parent
tree. I would not exchange it for the best cattle ranch in Colorado, the
best wheat farm in Kansas, or the best cotton plantation in both the
Carolinas. It is self-sustaining, does not require any subsidy from
Uncle Sam, or any twenty-five thousand dollars a year official to
regulate it. It is better than any dollar nowadays, always worth 100 per
cent in gold instead of 61 cents, as is our government kind. The reason
is, God rules it, instead of a mere man with any combination of the
alphabet you can make.

It is the same with my improved hazel-filberts which grow tall and rank
and bend down to the ground with their branches heavily laden with
large, well-filled nuts.

My Thomas black walnuts are doing well, as also my Sier's hybrid
hickories; both are perfectly hardy but not bearing this year as it is
the off year for them. The butternut and hazel-filberts have never an
off year but, like the "brook," go on forever. My English walnuts with
some protection passed the winter in perfect safety. But the almonds,
though protected as well, fared very poorly, showing that they are not
near so hardy as the former.

The other kinds of nut trees that I have mentioned, even to the pecan,
withstood the rigors of the winter with no protection whatever.

My true filberts fared rather poorly but are coming up lustily from
below the snow line and will, I think, be as good as ever if the past
winter does not repeat itself.

What does this all mean? It means that we should plant more nut trees
instead of so many fruit trees, especially the apple, which has proven
more liable to cold injury than even the