Nut Growing. 329 



none in quality, and tlie erroneous impression tliat tliey are hard shells will be 

 dissipated. 



The walnuts known as the California soft shells are soft shell to the extent 

 that they are not allied to the California hard shell or black walnut, but the 

 French walnuts will compare favorably with the California soft shell and as a 

 matter of fact, several varieties have such a thin shell that will not make them 

 not only a first-class table nut but will necessitate crating rather than sacking 

 for shipping purposes. 



Mr. Thomas Prince of Dundee, Oregon, will, with the plantings he will make 

 this winter, have in over one hundred acres of walnuts. Of these 2,000 are 

 seven years old and tlie trees will average six to seven inches in diameter, and 

 this year many of these trees bore a few nuts, while a few eight year old trees, 

 one of which is ten inches in diameter and anotlier eleven inches, bore bountiful 

 crops. Tliese trees afford an illustration of the theory that size, rather than age. 

 are essential to productiveness, and the grower who properly cultivates and 

 cares for his orchard need not wait twelve or fifteen years for a crop, but can 

 expect some return when the trees are seven and eiglit years old. The trees are 

 mostly Mayette. Parisienne, and Franquette, Mr. Prince making a preference of 

 the former two. Probably tlie most information has been obtained from the or- 

 chard of Mr. H. J. Biddle, located six miles east of Vancouver, Washington. 

 Mr. Biddle fruited eleven varieties of walnuts this season, and while he has not 

 gone into the growing of tliem as a business, his orchard is an institution of 

 learning, and Mr. Biddle is entitled to great credit for his interest and the perse- 

 verance taken in these matters, at a time when it was not all encouragement. 

 Mr. Biddle has a Mayette tree ten years old, which produced forty pounds of wal- 

 nuts, while two Franquette trees produced seventy pounds. Tliese trees, as are 

 most of Mr. Biddle's trees, were second generation seedlings, and the quality and 

 size of the nuts produced go to prove that grafted trees are not absolutely 

 necessary to produce good commercial nuts, and as far as my observations go 

 the seedling trees are larger at the same age and grow more rapidly than grafted 

 trees, but grafted trees are very desirable, and only their great cost and scarcity 

 will prevent a larger planting of them. But the planter can not be too careful 

 in knowing the parentage of seeding trees. Today the practical fruit grower de- 

 mands pedigreed trees, not only that when he orders a Yellow Newtown or 

 Spitzenburgh he will have that variety, but he also wants propogating wood 

 taken from a bearing orchard, and why should the walnut grower be less particu- 

 lar. Tlie apple grower whose Spitzenburgh trees produce Ben Davis apples will 

 not be half as disappointed as tlie walnut grower who expects good sized nuts 

 and gets nuts tlie size of marbles, or what will be the thoughts of the grower 

 when, after waiting for his trees to reach the bearing age, he finds the blossoms 

 frost nipped season after season, because his trees are early bloomers instead 

 of the late blooming French varieties, and yet with the present great demand for 

 trees there are thousands of trees being offerd grown from nuts that are picked 

 from grocery store stock, or California varieties which are good in their territory, 

 but entirely too tender for this latitude. A year ago I was approached by a dealer 

 who wanted to sell me a lot of walnuts grown expressly for seed, as he ex- 

 pressed it, and naturally I was interested and upon questioning him learned that 

 they were Santa Barbara soft shell nuts, but were grown expressly for seed. 

 Probably they were and not only were excellent seed, but would have made excel- 

 lent trees for the Los Angeles district, but how could the care given to make 

 them perfect seed eliminate the tenderness that would make them a failure in 

 this climate. Yet this dealer sold many hundreds of pounds of nuts, the trees 

 from which it is doubtful if they will ever produce a paying crop, and a hard 

 frost may kill both crop and trees. The failure of such trees will do much to crip- 

 ple the industry in this country, and it is to be hoped that intending planters 

 will give this matter the thought and deliberation it demands, for mistakes 

 made in the selection of walnuts are not easily overcome. A fruit orchard 

 can be top grafted and in a few years made to bear an entirely different crop. 



