APPENDIX, 239 



is also interesting- to note that no attempt was made to correct this curious 

 phenomenon by artificial cross-pollination, by distributing- pollen from stami- 

 nate catkins, or male flowers, of other trees, before dig-gino- u]) the trees. 



Through the continuous ])lanting of the seed las mentioned elsewhere), 

 •without regard to the laws of nature, has come about the degeneration of 

 the species in many sections. Trees are frequently reported as having 

 '• never borne nuts : '" others " bloom profusely, but are blooms of only one 

 sex: the nuts have never set, and have become a barren waste."" This is a 

 summary of the rei)orts that have been continuously received for years past. 

 In recent years more attention has been paid to the morphology of the wal- 

 nut, and it is now better understood. 



* I have a few trees of the ordinai-y English walnut. In ISTS the staminate 

 blossoms came out in the lattei- part of March : they dropped off and perished 

 on the ground. About the fifteenth of April the pistillates made their 

 appearance. The result was the nuts droj^ped off. The next year the stami- 

 nates made their api)earance the first of April ; they dropped off" by the 

 tenth, and between the twelfth and the fifteenth the pistillates made "their 

 first appearance. The result was I had no walnuts. The next year. 1880, I 

 found the blossoming periods came closer together, within a few days. About 

 the first of April the staminate blossoms dropped off. and in a few days the 

 pistillates began to make their appearance. I looked over the trees and 

 found a few stunted staminate blossoms. I gathered them very carefully, 

 a,nd shook them over the trees. The result was that every tree over which 

 I distributed the pollen was laden with walnuts. 



Incidentally, I may mention that almond growers were in a worse pre- 

 dicament, and in many sections the culture of the almond was abandoned. 

 The Languedoe, a variety first introduced, was found to produce an extraor- 

 dinary large number of flowers of one sex, and few of the other. The 

 morphology of the almond was studied, with wonderful results, and many 

 of the same localities are again planted to the almond, and are among the 

 leading almond-growing sections of the state. It was also found that by 

 planting different varieties in an orchard alternately, the pollen would 

 intermix and aid in the setting of the fruit. This, however, was done in 

 many cases without studying their blooming period, and consequently failure 

 resulted. For instance, seedling trees of bitter almond were planted in the 

 orchard, as they were profuse bloomers, but the time of blooming was not 

 considered. Seedling trees of the bitter almond are among the first to 

 bloom, and put forth two weeks or more ahead of the standard varieties, so 

 that when the latter came into bloom the pollen of the bitter almond had 

 either been washed off by early rains, or lost through other unfavorable 

 conditions, preventing its action on the other flowers. In order to accom- 

 plish the results aimed at, the varieties so intermixed must bloom together, 

 or nearly so. I know of no instance where this has been tried on the walnut, 

 but it is certainly worthy of a trial, as it may tend to correct this curious 

 phenomenon, prevalent among some of our walnut orchards complained of, 

 consisting- of trees grown from seed. Of course, with the almond the experi- 



* W. H. Jessup, of Haywards, in essay read before State Horticultural Society, April 

 27, 1883. 



