APPENDIX. 253 



has been tried, but preference was given to the former, being indigenous to 

 our state. The Japanese walnut {JuyJans Sieholdiana) has also been tried, 

 and has proved quite satisfactory, but is not as sti-ong a grower as the Cah- 

 formca. For a time I was loath to believe the stock would influence the 

 graft and cause it to produce nuts of a dark shell. Experiments, however, 

 have proved the contrary. Trees now in bearing for over twenty years show 

 no variation in color of shell, but an improvement in kernel and quality of 

 the nuts. The stocks are thrifty and healthy, easy of propagation, and easily 

 budded and grafted. Some twenty years ago I commenced experimenting 

 in grafting and budding the wild walnut, with very satisfactory results. A 

 plot of Juglans riipestrifi, growing along the mountains in Los Angeles 

 County, was worked over to different varieties very satisfactorily, but the 

 stock is quite scrubby and of such dwarf habit, that it can only be recom- 

 mended for dwarf purposes. The grafts took well and made splendid 

 growth. In all tests made on trees in the wild state, nuts were produced on 

 buds and grafts the second and third years. In some cases the nuts were 

 quite small, due perha))s to the stunted condition of the stocks, for all must 

 have been very old. The buds and grafts that made the strongest growth 

 were on stocks which did not look so aged. These are now producing fine 

 nuts, equal to those from the parent tree. 



The oldest walnut orchai^d budded on the i'aUfornicn is at Winters, Yolo 

 County, and the trees are over twenty years old. This orchard has pro- 

 duced fine crops yearly and the nuts show a marked improvement over those 

 produced by the parent trees. 



At Vacaville two rows of large Black walnut trees [J. Califormca } were 

 worked over to different varieties of the English or Persian walnut very 

 successfully, by the prong bud method, described elsewhere, and the ordi- 

 nary cleft sap graft. The trees were planted some thirty years ago for shade 

 along t-he roadside. In the winter of 1892 the limbs were cut back to the 

 crotch or main stem. In the spring they put forth numerous shoots, which 

 were thinned out to a dozen or so to each tree, according to the spread of the 

 branches. These new shoots were budded in the summer. Those that did 

 not " take'' were grafted in the winter. Thus a tine stand of buds and grafts 

 was obtained, which commenced to bear the second and third years. They 

 now form large spreading heads, and bear regularly. 



The process of converting these apparently worthless trees, except for 

 shade, into fruitful trees, was very simple, and has proved remunerative and 

 entirely satisfactory to its projector. 



In Ventura County are to be seen many walnut orchards of recent plant- 

 ing, budded and grafted on this stock. This was brought about by the satis- 

 factory results obtained from walnut orchards so worked of early planting. 

 In the past few years large plantings of walnuts have been made, and many 

 growers have given preference to trees grafted and budded on this stock — 

 /. Oalifornica. 



