440 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



The variety which constitutes the bulk of the crop is the "Santa 

 Barbara soft shell," so called because the late Joseph Sexton of 

 Santa Barbara County bought in San Francisco in 1867 a sack of 

 imported walnuts, grew seedlings and planted out in orchard form 

 two hundred of them in 1868. When they fruited he noticed that 

 sixty of them were of fairly uniform type, superior to the others 

 and to the other walnuts commonly grown at that time, and he 

 used them, and sold them to others, to grow seedlings for orchard 

 planting. Thus the Santa Barbara soft shell is not strictly speaking 

 a "variety" but a type shown by many seedlings, and it showed 

 variability enough to suggest selection for "improvement," which 

 was followed to the extent of securing nuts from particular trees 

 for planting, but still practically all the trees were seedlings until 

 grafting to secure better quality and form, heavier bearing, resist- 

 ance to blight, etc., began about 1905 to multiply particular seed- 

 lings because of their distinctive desirability. Although grafting 

 seedlings for planting and grafting-over bearing trees also, have 

 rapidly increased in the chief walnut districts, the commercial prod- 

 uct is still largely from seedling trees descending naturally from 

 Mr. Sexton's selected type, which demonstrated remarkable suit- 

 ability to Southern California coast conditions and satisfied trade 

 requirements for large production. 



Although seedlings from Southern California, both the original 

 type, which Mr. Sexton's work displaced, and the Sexton type itself, 

 were planted at many points in Northern and Central California 

 and made large and thrifty trees, they bloomed too early to escape 

 frost and they were too susceptible to injury by summer heat in 

 the interior, which rarely invaded the coast region even at the 

 south. In 1871 Mr. Felix Gillet began to introduce to his place near 

 Nevada City the best French walnut varieties as grafted trees, 

 contrasted their bearing with adjacent non-productive "Los An- 

 geles walnuts" and demonstrated such superior performance that 

 he continued importation and propagation until he had introduced 

 all the French varieties which we now have and stimulated other 

 nurserymen to their introduction and propagation to the end that 

 these varieties were planted here and there throughout California 

 and to the States northward. 



The work of these two pioneers has thus far reached this con- 

 clusion: The Sexton selections and their descendants rule at the 

 south and fail elsewhere in the State ; the Gillet imported French 

 varieties lead elsewhere in the State and are less desirable at the 

 south. 



The varieties most largely propagated in 1921 are Placentia Per- 

 fection, Santa Barbara Soft Shell, Eureka, Franquette, Mayette, 

 Concord, Payne's Seedling. 



Varieties which have enjoyed some prominence may be briefly 

 characterized as follows : 



Santa Barbara Soft Shell (origin already noted). Nuts usually of good 

 ze, easily cracked in the fingers, and of excellent flavor and quality; se- 

 lections named as follows: Placentia Perfection, Discher's Prolific, Neff, El 

 Monte, Pride of Ventura and others. 



