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Show Crres for jfooti rointcttcn MAKING trees that now are valued only for their wood produce food is a hobby of J. Russell Smith, professor pro-fessor of industry in tho University of Pennsylvania. ,rVc now have reached the state in our industrial development when wc need largo areas of land put to trees that will produce many crops of useful fruits, nuts, beans or other annual or occasional occa-sional crop before tho final crop of wood," he says in American Forestry. For-estry. "A tree is no poorer for the fact that it has supported fifty or a hundred crops of nuts, fruit or beans. "The grent need of American agriculture agricul-ture to-day is not primarily things for men to eat but things for the beasts to cat Our domestic animals eat many times as much ns wo do, and trees, whether attended to by horticulturist or forester, can undoubtedly be made to yield vast amounts of fornge if care and attention are directed to that object r-Tnir np t-rrn.tMrrlq of tlio nork crown in Portugal is produced by the acorns of the cork oak and evergreen or ilex oak. There arc many other trees thnt might Join the oaks and mako a scries of crops that would supply a surprising proportion of the needs of domestic animals, ani-mals, especially sheep and swine. "With this idea of crop forago in mind and with the added fact that with the rising prico of meat wc arc steadily increasing our consumption of nuts nnd are importing them by the millions of dollars a year, it becomes evident that foresters havo been giving us, particularly particu-larly farmers, bad advice in merely advising ad-vising us to raise wood. There is littlo doubt that this idea of fruit harvests as well as wood harvests should havo its proper place of beginning on the farmer's farm-er's woodlot "Under tho present system of land utilization most of tho Appnlacbia has no economic future except in forests. Yet wo have the very stimulating example of Corsica, where similar mountain Blopcs ' as Bteop as n house roof, and even steeper, are clothed for miles in a continuous con-tinuous expanso of trees which look strangely like a forest. Yet every tree is a grafted chestnut Every ncro is ns valuable as good com lnnd in Indiana, nnd scattered aloug the magnificent macadam roads are tho substantial stone villages of tho numerous population, thnt supports itself in comfortnblc prosperity from the combined income of chestnuts, chestnut wood nnd tho by-product of pasture and a small garden patch. The chestnut industry has continued in Corsica Cor-sica for centuries. "Even tho young mau who plants an oak treo has littlo reason to expect to live to utilize the timber from its trunk. Yet most of our oaks have specimens that will bear fruit in from three to seven years when grafted upon the suckers growing up around the stumps of their own or allied specimens. Thus instead of having tho forest fire follow the lumberman lum-berman he should be followed by the tree grafter, converting mediocre oaks into prolific oaks, mediocre hickories into good shngbnrks, wild persimmons into fruitful fruit-ful persimmons, average black walnuts into thoso few excellent ones thot will furuiBh kernels in whole quarters, ever bearing mulberries in place of tho prolific pro-lific but quick ripening wild variety. "The process of establishing crop trees need not he limited to the conversion of wild trees. Many of the fruit yielding trees aro ensy to transplant, and some of tVirm violrl mi5rLIv rsnrvinllr tVirv mul berries, which fruit wild at tho height of a man's head. Specimens of the selected 'ever bearing' varieties will actually bear in the nursery row. Tho mulberry is 'so highly prized by the pig, so easy to transplant and so prolific thnt it is probably the easiest point of approach ap-proach to tho farmer who wishes to experiment ex-periment along these linos. "The practice of the Corsican mountaineers moun-taineers is suggestive of a proper method of handling the technical question of getting a stand of trees and keeping it, and at the same time utilizing the byproduct by-product of the pasture. Tho Corsican goat, whose milk makes such good cheese, browses in the chestnut forests r.nd keeps -down most of the undergrowth. under-growth. When a Corsican sees a chestnut chest-nut tree which in five, ten or twenty years is likely to bo ready to go to tho pulp mill ho goes off to his little nursery, digs out a ton foot chestnut and plnnts it near tho one which it is to succeed. He puts two stakes to keep it from being ridden down by the goats. When it is established, in two or three years, he grafts it. When the old monarch by -which it stands finally comes down it is ready to spring promptly into rapid growth and the fullest possible utility of the vacated light, space nnd fertility. It is true that the natural way to propagate a chestnut is to graft the suckers that grow around the stumps, but the Corsican Cor-sican finds it quicker to havo the understudy under-study tree established in advance." agggaiai a a Beams |