apparent, that of the butternut remaining smooth for many years, as
contrasted to the bark on black walnut trees which begins to roughen on
the main trunk early in its life. Bark on a butternut may still be
smooth when the tree is ten years old. Forest seedlings of butternut,
when one or two years old, are easily transplanted if the soil is
congenial to their growth. Although the tree will do well on many types
of soil, it prefers one having a limestone base, just as the English
walnut does.

A butternut seedling usually requires several more years of growth than
a black walnut does before it comes into bearing, although this varies
with climate and soil. It is impossible to be exact, but I think I may
safely say that it requires at least ten years of growing before a
seedling butternut tree will bear any nuts. Of course, exceptions will
occasionally occur.

As a butternut tree matures, it spreads out much like an apple or
chestnut tree. Of course, it must have enough room to do so, an
important factor in raising any nut tree. Enough room and sunlight
hasten bearing-age and insure larger crops of finer nuts. Grafting
valuable varieties of butternut on black walnut stock will also hasten
bearing. I have had such grafts produce nuts the same year the grafting
was done and these trees continued to grow rapidly and produce annually.
However, they were not easy to graft, the stubborn reluctance of the
butternut top to accept transplantation to a foreign stock being well
known. This factor will probably always cause grafted butternut trees to
be higher in price than black walnut or hickory. The reverse graft,
i.e., black walnut on butternut should never be practiced for although
successful, the black walnut overgrows the stock and results in an
unproductive tree. Specimens 25 or more years old prove this to be a