THE ALMOKD. 17 



If none of the thin-shelled varieties heretofore tried 

 in the South are successful, it is time that either our ex- 

 periment stations or individual horticulturists made some 

 attempt to produce those that are adapted to that region 

 of country. But until we have some more definite infor- 

 mation than heretofore disseminated, in regard to almond 

 culture in the South, it is safe to conclude that failures 

 in the past have been due mainly to want of judgment, 

 or knowledge of varieties and of positions for the orchard, 

 with, perhaps, some neglect in care and cultivation. 



In California almond culture has been pushed with 

 vigor for several decades, but at first with rather indif- 

 ferent results, because growers depended upon noted 

 European varieties, which, as experience proved, were 

 not adapted to the soil and climate of the country. In 

 a paper read before the American Pomological Society 

 at its session held at Sacramento, Cal., Jan. 16-18, 1895, 

 Prof. E. J. Wickson, of the University of California, 

 alluded to this subject of almond culture in the State as 

 follows : "In no branch of this effort for improved va- 

 rieties has our success been more marked than in the 

 development of seedling almonds. The achievements of 

 A. T. Hatch in this line are too well known to require 

 but a passing allusion. It is not too much to say that 

 this work rescued almond culture to California. When 

 he began, the almond, because of almost universal failure 

 of the old varieties, was a jest and a byword in our 

 horticulture. Nine-tenths of all the almonds planted 

 during the preceding twenty-five years had gone for 

 firewood or were carrying the foliage of the prune to 

 conceal their hated stems. At the present time, through 

 the dissemination of Mr. Hatch's varieties, the almond, 

 in all regions decently adapted to the tree, is productive 

 and profitable and has a future." 



That almond culture in California is rapidly becom- 

 ing an important and successful industry, we have an 

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