it.

But wild berries, crab apples, and elderberries and others, are good
to preserve and find a ready sale if attractively put up; they also
help out the table greatly. Then think of the fun!

In recent years, certain varieties of nuts, like the English walnut,
the pecan, and the hickory nuts have been grown commercially. In the
South particularly, the pecan has been found a good crop to plant on
cotton plantations which have been overworked. In the _Rural New
Yorker,_ Mr. H. E. Vandevan gives an account of an old cotton
plantation of 2250 acres Iying on the west bank of the Mississippi
River in Louisiana. The pecan tree was indigenous to the land, and
the wooded portion of the plantation has thousands of giant pecan
trees growing on it. The previous owners of this plantation had done
all in their power to destroy these trees, but they flourished in
spite of that. Mr. Vandevan, however, saw in the pecan a large
profit, and he has planted ten thousand trees on six hundred acres,
all in a solid block. The trees are set fifty feet apart both ways,
except where a roadway is left. Between the pecan trees Mr. Vandevan
has planted fig trees for early returns, with the intention of
canning the fruit.

The English walnut is grown principally in California. Its value has
been recognized only recently, as all of the nut crops take a good
many years before the trees begin to bear. Nut growing on a small
scale is not of much value to a man with a little bit of land,
except as an additional source of income.

If you find a sweet chestnut tree or a shell-bark hickory or two in
your wood lot, they will well repay protection and careful
cultivation.

If you don't, why--there are great promises in quick maturing nut
trees. There is now an English walnut which is claimed to bear the
third or even the second year after setting out. My own small
experience with these in New Jersey, however, has not been a
success.

CHAPTER XIV

FLOWERS

Every city in the United States affords an opportunity for flower
gardening and nurseries, but a study must be made of the market in
order to know what is best to raise and where to raise it.

The choice of crops depends on the popular taste. The flowers which
are now in greatest demand are the rose, carnation, violet, and
chrysanthemum.

Near every large city there are hundreds of florists with glass
houses, some covering twenty acres or more. There were over 2000
acres of flower la