hunting country. While this young stock is supplying manure
for the soil it is increasing in value. Our program is expensive because
time needed in the nursery and orchard prevents us from growing grain,
but when you start you can grow grain. We shall soon be having stock to
sell each year which will add to our income.

While these crops are contributing to our keep, our time is used in
developing the slower-bearing, permanent tree crops, 600 mulberries for
hogs and cattle, 350 honey locusts, nearly a 100 persimmons, 50 oaks, 50
Chinese Jujubes and 90 filberts, all going well. To this we added in the
spring of 1947 5 acres of Persian and black walnuts with chestnuts
interplanted in the row. These are our future feeds for a bigger and
cheaper hog, cattle, sheep and poultry feeding program, as well as
providing food and cover for wild life. We have yet to plant 5 acres of
mixed hickory, hicans and pecans interplanted with over 100 seedling
persimmons and a six acre boulder field of black walnuts interplanted
with chestnuts and a 5 acre sandy field of chestnuts interplanted with
filberts.

The rest of the farm will be in nursery, hay and cereals. Now hold in
mind these vital factors. To get rich just planting a farm of nuts or
any other one crop is a delusion, with the bankers eventually holding
the bag, the soil and owner taking a licking. Nature is a balanced
force, soil undisturbed is a delicately balanced flour barrel of never
ending life. Learn of nature how to protect this soil, that shallow
insulation board between man and disaster.

After feeling our way over 3 years this is what we found best in
handling trees. In the meadow where we planted honey locust, and on a
rocky knoll with oaks, the first year we applied a shovelful of night
soil and a light mulch of leaf compost. The second summer we mowed,
raked, and forked the hay to the tree in a wide circle. It was amazing
the life activity that was created under this mulch by the next spring.
Mice were controlled by pulling the mulch 3 inches from the tree in
early fall and with poisoned wheat under the mulch. In the spring of
1947 we mulched a 4 to 5 ft. circle around each tree with manure two or
three inches thick. You should see the trees growing. One-half was mowed
for hay and on the other half electric fences were put up along the tree
rows and the field was pastured. We planted the walnuts and chestnuts in
a sod of natural white clover and timothy. Walnuts we