and but one of the shagbark hickory to be had. Of
chestnuts there are more and, in the South of course, plenty of pecans.
But pecan growing in the South is another story. If you order chestnuts
be sure that they do not come from a nursery infected with blight. Get
young trees because they are more easily established.

Order from two to four of each variety. Fewer than two gives too small
an allowance for mortality and more than four, besides the not
inconsiderable strain on the pocket, will divide your attention too
much; for you have got to give these trees the care of a bottle baby.

Set them sixty feet apart if you have the room. If not set them closer.
Better closer if that means better care. They may be set in the fall but
probably spring is better, as early as you can get them in. Follow the
instructions of the nurserymen closely. Digging holes with dynamite is
probably good practice. Put some bone meal in the soil around the roots
but no strong fertilizer. Some soils need lime. Tamp the soil about the
roots with all your might. It cannot be made too firm.

Then water them all summer, or until August if they have made a good
growth. Give them all they can drink once a week. Sink a large bar about
a foot from the tree and pour the water into the hole, as much as the
soil will take.

Keep up cultivation and a dust mulch or, if you cannot do this, mulch
with something else. Mulching doesn't mean a wisp of hay but something
thick or impervious. Six inches of strawy manure, grass, vines or weeds;
an old carpet, burlap, feed or fertilizer bags or even newspapers, held
down with stones or weeds or earth, all make good mulches.

These trees ought to grow and, whether you ever succeed in grafting your
seedlings or not, you should have at least a small orchard of fine nut
trees.

The second summer with the trees will be something like the baby's.
Worms may bother them. Look out for bud worms and leaf-eating
caterpillars. Give them all the water they can drink in the dry dog
days. Nurse them, feed them and watch them and they will grow up to
bless you. Some of them may bear as early as apple trees.

These trees, and such scions as, from time to time, you may obtain
elsewhere, are to furnish your propagating material.

The plan just described may be modified in various ways, but the general
principles are the same. Instead of planting the nuts in their permanent
positions they may be put in nursery rows where they may