248 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE, 



in doing- so certain roots, and especially the tap-root, have to be cut. which 

 is detrimental to the growth and fruiting qualities of the tree. Others hold 

 this practice to be a fallacy, and contend that the tree should be grown in 

 the nursery until the sixth or eighth year, as is practiced in some countries. 



The walnut does best on a moist, warm, sandy loam, well underdrained. 

 It is a very vigorous grower, and requires ample root-room, vertically and 

 horizontally, and unless this is furnished the tree will not do well. Soil, 

 therefore, which has a hardpan near the surface, heavy clays, or soils which 

 hold too much moisture, are to be avoided. A fairly light, friable loam, of 

 good depth and easily worked, offers perfect conditions in the matter of soil 

 for the walnut. 



Hon. Russell Heath, of Carpintaria, says: "The walnut should be 

 planted for profit and best results on deep, rich loam, with no hardpan, stiff 

 clay, or impenetrable soil nearer than twelve feet. I would select locations 

 naturally moist in preference to land requiring irrigation. A temperature 

 of (50° to 80° in summer, I regard as more favorable than other localities, 

 although they thrive and are profitable in much hotter places.'' 



PROPAGATION. 



The raising of walnut seedlings is very simple, but great care and atten- 

 tion are required in all points bearing on the germination of the nuts. There 

 are various methods used, but the most simple is as follows : The walnuts are 

 placed in sand, preparatory to planting. A frame, consisting of twelve-inch 

 boards set on edge, of any size desired, and resting on the ground, is half- 

 filled with sand ; the nuts are then spread thickly ( four to six inches ) and 

 covered with about three or four inches of sand. The sand is kept moist, 

 but not too wet, and in case of lack of rain is watered. An embankment of 

 earth is made all around the frame to prevent the nuts from drying. They 

 are examined from time to time, and as soon as the nuts indicate or show 

 signs of sprouting they are taken up and planted in nursery rows, fi^om twelve 

 to twenty-four inches apart. After the first and second years' growth the 

 plants are of a suitable size to bud or graft, or are left in the nursery as seed- 

 lings until large enough to transplant into orchard form, the second or third 

 year. 



BUDDING THE WALNUT. 



There are several methods of budding the walnut, among which the fol- 

 lowing, by the writer (published in 1899), has proved very successful : Trees 

 are budded in July, August, and as late as September. The bud is cut (shown 

 in Fig. 1) about one and one-half inches long. In cutting the bud from the 

 stick the cut is made deep into the wood, the object being to give the bud as 

 much bark as possible. The wood in the bud is then partly removed ; it is 

 gouged out with the sharp point of the budding-knife. This is done to allow 

 the inner bark of the bud to unite with the inner bark of the stock, which 

 union would be prevented if the wood in the bud should be allowed to remain. 

 After the wood has been partly removed (as shown in Fig. 2), the bud is 

 inserted into the slit made in the stock, the same as is done in the ordinary 



