There is some danger that nuts planted in fall may be destroyed by rodents, that some will "lie over" and not sprout the first year, or that all the nuts in a hill may make inferior plants, so that some authorities advise putting them in a galvanized wire cage, the nuts only half buried, then covered with a few leaves during the winter and otherwise left exposed to the elements. In the spring they must be taken from the cage and planted in the hills before the sprouts are long enough to be easily broken.
The different kinds of nuts should be planted in "blocks" rather than mingled, to facilitate handling.
These nuts are to furnish trees that are later to be grafted or budded. After they have grown a while the weaker ones are to be removed, as necessary, until only the strongest remains in each hill. When grafted and grown to great size the brave man will thin them out to sixty feet apart. Interplanting with fruits or vegetables may be practised.
As to the kinds of nuts to be planted that depends on what you want to grow. If chestnuts it must be remembered that the bark disease is very likely to attack them, in the East at any rate. Experiments with chestnuts outside the range of the blight are very desirable. The American (_Castanea dentata_) and European (_C. sativa_) chestnuts are specially susceptible. The Asiatic chestnuts (_C. Japonica_, etc.) seem to have a partial immunity, especially the Korean, and it is possible that the native chestnut grafted on these may be rendered more or less immune. It is being tried and is an interesting experiment.
The Asiatic chestnut trees are dwarfish in habit, come into bearing early, the nuts are generally large and some of them of pretty good quality. They may be planted as fillers between the trees of larger growth. The nuts may be bought of importers. (See circular on "Seedsmen and Nurserymen".) The small Korean chestnut has been especially recommended.
If you wish to grow the shagbark hickory (_Hicoria ovata_) plant the best specimens of this nut you can get, or the bitternut (_H. minima_) which is said to be a superior stock for grafting.
High hopes are held that that other favorite hickory, the pecan (_H. pecan_) may be grown far outside its native range, and the Indiana pecan is the nut on which these hopes are founded. Seed nuts may be obtained from reliable Indiana dealers, but it is said that some of them are not reliable.