BREEDING WALNUTS FLAX. 69 



them 4 feet apart in rows 12 feet apart. Some nuts will lie in the 

 groiuul one or two years before germinating, but by planting three in 

 a hill and thinning to the one strongest plant a full stand can be 

 secured. Two rows of corn or potatoes were grown between each 

 two rows of trees for three or four years, thus giving a partial crop 

 to in part repay the thorough culture and weed killing. Thus culti- 

 vated, the trees grew very rapidly, some bearing nuts in ten years. 

 In the twelfth j^ear the poorer plants were removed, yielding 125 posts 

 per acre, worth $12.50, and sufficient fuel to pay for thinning and 

 making the posts. 



If a plan such as the above is adopted and the nuts from the vari- 

 ous native trees are planted separately, by the twelfth year choice can 

 be made between them as to their value as mother trees, and nuts 

 from the largest well-formed trees can be chosen for further plant- 

 ing. The seeds of two or more of the best of these trees may he 

 planted in alternate rows, so as to allow of natural hybridizing in the 

 next generation. 



Cross-pollinating may also be done by hand among the best speci- 

 mens. Those between native stocks brought from widely separated 

 regions would be most likel}^ to varj^, and thus give opportunity to 

 select useful new forms. 



But even this need not be the limit of breeding operations. Luther 

 Burbank's cross between the Eastern black walnut {Juglans nigra) 

 and the California walnut {J. californica) illustrates the fact that the 

 species of our forest and nut-bearing trees will in some cases hybrid- 

 ize, and these radical crosses made in immense numbers, followed by 

 rigid and extensive selections, are sure to result in the production of 

 useful new hybrids (luite as marked as ordinary species. The trees 

 in tJie grove mentioned above are now about 40 feet high. They are 

 pi-oving a profitable investment, and breeding them as suggested above 

 could liave been done at slight additional expense. 



BREEDING FLAX. 



In flax we have an example of the breeding of a species yielding 

 two distinct valuable products — seed and fiber. So far as the Avriter 

 knows, there has been no attempt, except in the Minnesota experiment 

 station, to systematically' breed varieties of flax for seed and for fiber. 

 Foi- this State the common blue-flowered flax has been found best. 

 Tliis Max has l)een impoi-ted fi-om Russia at various times during the 

 past tiiirt}' oi- more years, and the prcsumv.tion is that the Max gener- 

 ally gi-own in large (plant ities foi- seed in Minnesota and surrounding 

 States is the variety which has l)een long in use in llussia. Wliile 

 White Dutch and other kinds of Max have been tested for rai.sihjr 

 crops of seed, the Russian variety retains the supremac}', and is best 

 in this climate for fiber also. 



