Had one fraction of the money spent on advertising by the
industries most responsible for using up trees - the paper,
housing, and furniture industries - been channeled into
blight research and reforestation, these trees could
probably both have been saved.
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Be that as it may, not only the furniture and paper
industries, but also you as a farmer owe nature a few
trees. And your farm will only be the better for repaying a
bit of the debt. Filberts will give you a much quicker
yield than walnuts, but plant both where possible, along
with as many other varieties as you can. It's pretty hard
to harm anyone or anything by planting a tree, particularly
a nut tree.
Because of the alphabetical order the following trees got
themselves put into, the first couple may lead you to
despair of getting any nuts at all. Please read to the end
before you decide not to take even a nutcracker along to
the country.
ALMOND
The almond, as you can tell by comparing one in its shell
with a peach stone, is a close relative of the peach. Both
belong to the greater rose family. Almonds come in bitter
and sweet varieties. For the nut bowl the sweet are grown
almost exclusively.
Although almonds will grow wherever peaches thrive, they
bloom almost a month earlier and thus are often subject to
spring chill. This means in many areas of late springs the
tree can be grown only for decorative purposes. There's
nothing wrong with that, however. If peaches grow, and if
you have the space, why not try an almond tree?
Plant in early spring. Just treat it like a peach tree.
Unless, of course, you want to heat your orchard the way
some commercial growers do where the chill is too much for
the blossoms. It's really not worth the work, however. Your
almond tree won't miss the nuts much, even if you do. And
on a northern slope the light will make it blossom a little
later. Even if it's likely that your springs are too late,
you might have an almond or two after all.
BEECHNUT
Here's a nut tree from which you'll never get many nuts.
But it's a beautiful tree, and a boost to your wildlife.
Plant a couple of extra beechnuts on your "back forty" for
your children to make hand-hewn heirloom furniture from
when they have a homestead of their own.
The tree is very hardy and will grow in almost any soil but
that with poor drainage. However, since it is a
taproot-dependent tree, you have to transplant it early.
Also keep competing growth away from it for the first
couple of years. Then you can let it go wild. Dormant oil
spray in early spring, before the tree gets growing, is a
good idea, but a hundred-foot-tall tree is a bit hard to
spray, so you'll have to give up eventually.
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