File:Spring 1899 - Parrys' Pomona Nurseries (1899) (20559908281).jpg

Title: Spring 1899 : Parrys' Pomona Nurseries
Identifier: CAT31283884 (find matches)
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Parry's Pomona Nurseries; Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection
Subjects: Nursery stock New Jersey Catalogs; Fruit trees Seedlings Catalogs; Fruit Seedlings Catalogs; Trees Seedlings Catalogs; Plants, Ornamental Catalogs
Publisher: Parry, New Jersey : Parrys' Pomona Nurseries
Contributing Library: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library
Digitizing Sponsor: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library

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Parrys' Pomona Nurseries, Parry, New Jersey* 15 NTJT CULTURE, continued. 4 feet high, trees are heavily laden with nuts of enor- mous size, measuring 4 to 6 inches around and running 3 to 7 in a bur. Their early bearing and great productiveness of such enormous nuts are the wonder and admiration of all who see them. The value of Chestnuts and pro- fits of their culture depend very »—^ MUCH ON THEIR EARLY RIPENING, as Jag large Chestnuts marketed in Septem- ^«*q ber and early October will bring $10 to $15 per bushel, while late in Octo- ber and November the price will drop to 16 or $8 per bushel. Our Japan Mammoth has the fortunate feature of maturing very early, without the aid of frost to open the burs, and is hardy in northern New York. Chestnut Culture. The following paper was read before the Gloucester Countv Farmers' Institute, November 19, 1897, by Charles Parry, of Parry, Burlington county, N. J.: " There are annually imported into the United States from southern Europe many thousand ^CS1 pounds of Chestnuts. Over t^j* vV\* one and a half millions of v^<*^ dollars are paid every year by this country for imported nuts, of which a consider- able portion are Chestnuts. Every pound of these Chest- nuts could and should be grown at home. There are some imported articles, such as tea and silk, for instance, that had better be grown abroad. Although we have soil and climate well adapted to the production of these staples, yet the labor cost is so great in these articles that it is good economy to avail ourselves of the cheap labor of other countries and produce them abroad, employing our own labor in a field that will return many times what it would in tea or silk. "This does not apply to the production of Chest- nuts. There are very few farm products that will yield so large a return for the capital and labor employed as Chestnuts. And we should not only supply our own markets, but should export enough to supply England, Germany and northern Europe. Why is it that farm- ers are so slow to avail themselves of the possibilities of this crop? It must be because they do not like to make money easily. They will spend time, labor and money growing melons, that must be picked and mar- keted every day, and sometimes twice a day, to prevent spoiling, and then, if they are not sold promptly, will spoil anyway. Such crops which, after they have been grown at great expense, are liable to be swept away by millions of lice, or, if the crops are full, are liable to sell at a price that leaves the farmer in debt. Crops of this kind, I say, farmers delight in; yet they especially avoid Chestnuts, a crop that has none of these disad- vantages, and will pay many times better; a crop which, when once planted, is there certainly for many genera- tions, and will annually yield an immense revenue without cultivation, without manure, almost without care, being in this respect like a government bond, from which you annually clip coupons, leaving the principal untouched to go on producing revenue indefinitely. « Suppose farmers could secure a contract from a grain merchant to take all the corn they could grow every year at $3 per bushel. They would tumble over each other to secure the contract, and would put their
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JAPAN MAMMOTH CHESTNUT TREE, four years old, at Pomona Nurseries, producing: four quarts of mammoth nuts. whole farms in corn. Yet they must plant and culti- vate corn every year, and this, too, at the busiest time of the year. While Chestnuts will yield as many bushels per acre as corn and sell for more, they are planted once in a lifetime and the improved varieties will hardly sell as low as $3 per bushel for a generation to come. In addition, Chestnuts may be grown on ground so hilly and broken that it would hardly grow corn at all. "Another advantage of this crop is, that the only work required on it, the gathering and marketing of the nuts, comes at a time of year, September and early October, when most other farm work is not so pressing. Nuts are not perishable, like melons. If not gathered to-day, to-morrow or next week will do. Neither must tfiey be sold as soon as shipped, but can be kept for days, put in storage for weeks, or shipped thousands of miles to a better market. Again, at this time of year, when the receipts of the farm are apt to be light, Chestnuts makes a welcome addition to the market returns. "Many farmers are not yet ready to plant their level fields in Chestnut trees, but on most farms there are ravines and hillsides well adapted to Chestnut culture, and on eveiy farm there are lanes, headlands and road- sides which, if set in Chestnuts, would pay as well or better than the best cultivated land on the farm. What an amount of food would be produced if all the maple and other shade trees along our roadsides were bearing Chestnuts! The Chestnut furnishes ample shade and at the same time yields a valuable food. At the present prices of Chestnuts they are more of a luxury than a

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