71 



NUT GROWING IN NORTHERN NORTH AMERICA 



By C. A. Reed, Nut Culturist, United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, Washington, D. C. 



We will begin with the slides immediately. I want to show you 

 phases of the American nut industry in practically all parts of the 

 country. 



That is an almond orchard. We are not very much interested in 

 almonds in the East for the reason that the almond is one of the most 

 exacting in its climatic conditions of any commercial species that we 

 grow in this country. It is a native of the Mediterranean region, 

 as you know, and is an exceedingly early bloomer. It blooms along in 

 January, February or JNIarch, and the blossoms are apt to be destroyed 

 by subsequent freezes. For that reason the almond is not successful 

 in the East. 



Mr. J. F. Jones had, at the time of his death, an almond tree, a 

 Nonpareil I believe, one of the standard California varieties. The 

 Texas is not exactly a soft shell but nevertheless it is about as exacting 

 in its climatic conditions as the other varieties. The almond is suc- 

 cessful on the Pacific Coast, only, well away from the cold air blasts 

 from the Pacific Ocean. There are occasional hard-shelled almonds, 

 very beautiful bloomers that are satisfactory in the landscape but I 

 have yet to see one that is really palatable. 



This is one of the typicnl walnut views that you see in southern 

 California. In ] 900 in the United States we produced around 21 

 million pounds of nuts, walnuts, almonds and pecans. In 1910 we 

 produced 39 millions, nearly twice that number. In 1920 the number 

 jumped to 106 million pounds. The walnut is usually our medium 

 crop. In 1926 the walnut tonnage dropped down to 30,000 tons. 

 That year, the only time in history, we had more almonds than we 

 had wnlnuts. We had 32,000 tons, 2,000 more than we had of wal- 

 inits. We had a phenomenal crop of pecans for that year, over 64 

 million pounds. The crop, this last year, of pecans dropped down to 



