20 OREGONWALNUTS 



at the present time the Northern California Black, the Amer- 

 ican Black, and the English. There are many other types that 

 possibly have been used in a limited way, such as the Southern 

 California Black and various hybrids. Undoubtedly, we are 

 going to use more than one stock as time goes on, but at present 

 the Northern California Black stock is the favorite and most 

 of the orchards where this stock has been used produce vigorous 

 young trees. It will take many years to demonstrate the best 

 stock to use under our varied conditions. 



The advantages of the Northern California Black stock 

 are that you get a large percentage of germination of nuts, the 

 trees are vigorous growers, and tend to be fairly uniform. The 

 union with the young scion seems to be satisfactory. The 

 American Black has been tried in certain localities with success. 

 It is not as rapid a grower, and it is harder to germinate the 

 seed. Possibly some of the hybrid trees will be found valuable. 



Age of Tree. 



In purchasing trees one should try to secure good, strong, 

 straight one-year-old trees. It is very easy to get such trees 

 from six to eight feet in height, which show plenty of vigor. 



Setting of Trees Planting the Orchard. 



Before planting the orchard, the ground should be very 

 thoroughly plowed and harrowed and put into good tilth condi- 

 tion. The trees should be set from forty to sixty feet apart. 

 When trees are set at a distance as great as sixty feet, it should 

 be only where the soil is extremely rich, or where one plans to 

 intercrop or use fillers extensively. With many soils, a distance 

 of forty feet is ample, while fifty feet is a distance preferred 

 by many growers. The hole should be dug sufficiently wide 

 to accommodate the roots nicely, and deep enough to allow the 

 filling in of some good top soil and the setting of the tree from 

 two to four inches deeper than it was in the nursery row. When 

 setting, all broken or decayed roots should be cut off with a 

 good sharp knife. Where the tap root has been severed, a 

 good straight cut should be made. Formerly it was argued 

 that walnuts would not grow if the tap root was injured. This 

 has been proved to be a fallacy, as the thousands of acres of 



