Perhaps, as the result of this training early in life, a new interest among the farmers will emerge and some of our sins of omission will be remedied. As a planter of trees for the future, the American farmer, both of yesterday and today, has notoriously, thoughtlessly, and disastrously failed both his children and himself. By all standards, he should be the first-ranking tree planter of the land. As a matter of fact, it is practically impossible to interest the average farmer at all. State experiment stations and forestry departments make some effort to stimulate interest in the planting of trees by furnishing seedling stocks of forest trees at nominal prices and by issuing occasional bulletins. However well intentioned and, within their limits, well done these bulletins may be, the fact remains that in proportion to their numbers, farmers are still not notable planters of trees. Perhaps one reason for this failure is that most of the literature upon the subject seems aimed at lumbermen, and not at farmers. As to the bulletins which are aimed primarily at the farmer, examples of advice on forestry which is given in these rather too specialized and somewhat near-sighted publications are typically of the following kind: "Fence off the woodlot and never pasture it," "Use your best land for field crops; your waste land for trees." "You are interested in nuts? You can not have nuts and timber, too."
It is evident that these rules are prepared by foresters--not farmers. Is it any wonder that the inquiring farmer finds them rather frustrating?
It should be remembered that practices which are valid and helpful in the care of an already existing forest or woodlot where mature growth is periodically harvested and where young sprouts are encouraged for replenishment may be of little use in the management of an entirely new planting of certain kinds of trees where cultivation, at least for a time, is necessary. Deep-rooted trees, for example. Such rules have been of little use to me in my own planting of American black walnuts upon an Ohio farm. Indeed, to have followed them would have been disastrous.
My planting is not large. It is modest enough to be within the power of nearly any farmer. It has been treated as a farmer would treat it, without too much pampering. We now have a few more than three thousand trees planted upon forty acres. Most of them are now fifteen years old. Here are some of the things we have learned in fifteen years from our trees: