250 



ALMOND 



ALMOND 



sweet or edible almonds, there are two classes, the 

 hard-shell and the soft-shell. The former is of little 

 value, and is not grown to any extent. The soft-shell 

 type produces the edible almonds of commerce. Some 

 of the thinnest-shelled forms are known as Paper-shells. 

 It was once thought that almond- 

 growing could be successfully 

 practised in the peach-growing 

 sections of the East, but late 

 spring frosts, and other difficul- 

 ties, have caused the effort to 

 be abandoned commercially. In- 

 dividual almond trees are 

 occasionally seen, and they fre- 

 quently bear profusely. They are 

 nearly as hardy as the peach. 

 The commercial cultvation of 

 the almond on this continent is 

 confined to western America, 

 and the remainder of this ac- 

 count is therefore written from 

 the Californian standpoint. 



L. H. B. 



Almond-growing in California has received the atten- 

 tion of horticulturists for half a century, and during the 

 whole of its course the industry has been marked by 

 vicissitudes which, it must be admitted, are not yet 

 ended. Two chief sources of difficulty are now clearly 

 discerned to have attended the effort from its begin- 

 ning, and present knowledge may enable planters to 

 avoid, in the future, errors that have led to much dis- 

 appointment and loss the vestiges of which still encum- 

 ber the ground, though clearing is proceeding rapidly. 

 Thus far the almond tree has yielded more firewood 

 than any other single fruit tree which has been largely 

 planted in California, and yet planting has continued, 

 planting and uprooting keeping pace, so that about 

 1,500,000 trees are annually reported by the county 

 assessors, of which number about two-thirds may be 

 counted of bearing age. The California almond prod- 

 uct for a series of years is estimated as follows: 



161. Flower of common 

 almond. 



1905 2,125 tons 



1906 900 " 



1907 750 " 



1908 3,000 " 



1909 1,650 tons 



1910 2,750 " 



1911 1,700 " 



1912 3,000 " 



Irregularity in production is mainly due to the occur- 

 rence or absence of spring frosts. In spite of these facts, 

 the almond will remain an important California prod- 

 uct, through the satisfactory performance of trees 

 enjoying favorable environment, which is being gener- 

 ally accepted as a safe guide for current planting. 



The two chief sources of failure with the almond are 

 the sterility of many varieties without cross-pollination, 

 and the extreme propensity of the tree for early bloom- 

 ing, with the consequent destruction of the bloom or the 

 young fruit by temperature very little below the freez- 

 ing point. These two evils have been singularly asso- 

 ciated historically, and only lately have they been 

 shown to be independent factors and both of them 

 demanding the closest attention from planters. At first 

 it was thought that the wide planting of self-sterile 

 varieties by themselves was the cause of disappoint- 

 ment, because, after years of chopping-out or grafting- 

 over old unproductive trees to the Prune d'Agen, for 

 which it is an excellent stock, it was observed, by chance, 

 that the Languedoc variety adjacent to Drake's seed- 

 ling, of local origin, was heavily laden with nuts when 

 it was sterile without such association. Attention was 

 then directed to the growth of seedlings, and a large lot 

 of seedlings of the bitter almond, grown by A. T. Hatch, 

 exhibited such satisfactory bearing habit and such strik- 

 ing variation toward new types of the soft-shell sweet 

 almond that the growth of new selected California seed- 

 lings was seized upon as a panacea for the previously ex- 



perienced troubles with the almond. These new varieties 

 were conceived to be not only self-fertile but hardy, 

 and large plantations were made without due regard 

 to the frosty character of the locations. Low valley 

 lands of great area, and some extent of high plateaux, 

 were planted. Fine, large trees grew only to lose their 

 crops year after year by frosts from February to April, 

 until the growers cast the trees upon the wood-pile. 

 As a deduction of the experience of several decades, we 

 have arrived at what seems now to be the proper con- 

 ception of the situation of the almond in California, 

 which is, that the most prolific varieties must be chosen, 

 must be associated for purposes of cross-pollination, and 

 must be planted in places of least liability to frost. 

 There is a factor of some moment in the late-blooming 

 habit of some varieties, which will be considered 

 presently. 



The soil best suited to the almond is a light, well- 

 drained loam. The tree makes a strong and rapid root- 

 growth, and is more tolerant of drought than any other 

 of our leading deciduous fruit trees. For this reason, aa 

 well as to avoid frost, it is often desirable to place the 

 almond on the higher and drier lands of the valley 

 providing the soil is not heavy and too retentive of sur- 

 plus water in the rainy season. The root is most intol- 

 erant of standing water, and will quickly die if exposed 

 to it. Because of its thrift in light, dry soils, the almond 

 root is used rather largely as a stock for the Prune 

 d'Agen, and to some extent for the peach in the dry 

 valleys. 



Almond trees are grown by budding into seedlings 

 grown from either the sweet or the bitter hard-shell 

 almonds, the bud being set during the first summer's 

 growth of the seedling, and then either planted out as a 

 dormant bud the following winter or allowed to make 

 one season's growth on the bud in the nursery. The 

 tree grows so rapidly, both in root and top, that only 

 yearling trees are used. 



At transplanting, the young trees are cut back so as 

 to form a low head with only about a foot of clear trunk. 

 They are allowed to make free growth during the follow- 

 ing summer, and in the following winter are cut back so 

 as to encourage branching on the main limbs within a 

 foot of their attachment to the trunk. At the same time, 

 the branches are reduced to four or five in number, sym- 

 metrically arranged around the stem and at good dis- 

 tance from each other, so that they shall not unduly 

 crowd each other as they enlarge. Another full growth 

 during the following summer and another cutting 

 back the following winter give the trees the vase-form 

 on the outside, with enough interior branches to fill the 



162. Almond nuts. ( X H) 



inside of the tree without crowding. Thus the tree is 

 systematically pruned after each of its first two years' 

 growth in the orchard. After that, shortening-in of the 

 branches usually ceases, and the third summer's growth 

 is allowed to stand for fruit-bearing, with only thinning- 

 out of growth to prevent crowding. This thinning-out 

 has to be done from time to time in later years, other- 

 wise the tree becomes too thick, and interior branches 

 dwindle for lack of light. The amount of thinning 

 varies in the different climates of the state: the greater 

 the heat, the denser the tree for its own protection. 

 With the proper adjustment of heat and light, fresh 

 bearing wood may be encouraged in the lower part of 



