Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Fifth Annual Meeting: Evansville, Indiana, August 20 and 21, 1914
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Fifth Annual Meeting: Evansville, Indiana, August 20 and 21, 1914
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
On my farms in Irish Valley, Northumberland County, Pa., I have planted
a Paragon chestnut tree every forty feet along the public highways and
driveways making a total of 769 trees. These trees range in age from
four to ten years old.
A mile in this country is 5,280 feet, and if chestnut trees are set
forty feet apart, which is allowing sufficient room for them to grow
during an ordinary lifetime, we get 133 trees per mile in a single row.
Two rows may be planted, where the roads are wide enough, one on each
side, and then we get 266 trees per mile. I can estimate the crop when
the chestnut trees are twenty years old at two bushels per tree, or 532
bushels for a double row per mile. At the moderate price of $4 per
bushel, we would realize $2,128 for the crop on a double row, with a
fair assurance that the yield would increase steadily for the next
hundred years or more, while the cost of gathering and marketing the
nuts is no greater, and in many instances much less, than that of the
ordinary grain crops. At the expiration of the first half century one
half of the trees may be removed, if they begin to crowd, and the timber
used for whatever purpose it may best be adapted. The remaining trees
would probably improve, on account of having more room for development.
The chestnut thrives best in light, well drained soil, and those
containing a large proportion of sand or decomposed quartz, slate and
gravel; but it is rarely found, nor does it thrive very well, in heavy
clays or limestone soil where the limestone rock comes near the surface.
It is true that chestnut groves, and sometimes extensive forests, are
found on hills and ridges overlying limestone, but a careful examination
of the soil among the trees will show that it is a drift deposit
containing little or no lime. I find in Pennsylvania the chestnut tree
grows from the banks of the Susquehanna River to the tops of the
mountains.
In planting the chestnut tree it should never be planted any deeper than
it was in the nursery rows. If planted any deeper it is certain death to
the tree, as I find that the earth placed around the trees above where
it was in the nursery rows scalds and destroys the tree. Here is where
the great mistake is made in planting out the chestnut tree, and this I
have found out by practical experience. It is far better to plant it one
inch less than it was in the nursery than to plant it an inch deeper.
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