ALMOND 



ALNUS 



251 



the tree, otherwise it becomes umbrella-shaped, with 

 the fruit wood at the top and bare poles below. 



The almond is the earliest bloomer of our common 

 fruits. It puts forth flowers sometimes as early as Janu- 

 ary, but the usual date is about February 10 for the 

 earliest bloomers in the warmer parts of the state, with 

 the later bloomers at intervals thereafter until April 1. 

 Records of full bloom of a number of varieties widely 

 grown in California, which have been kept at the Uni- 

 versity of California substation, situated in the Sierra 

 foot-hill region, show the following succession: Commer- 

 cial, February 27; Sultana and Paper-shell, March 10; 

 King and Marie Duprey, March 11; IXL, March 12; 

 Languedoc, March 19; Nonpareil, March 20; Routier 

 Twin, March 24; Pistache, March 25; Drake and Texas, 

 April 2. Obviously the late bloomers have greater 

 chance of escaping frost, and there is at present some 

 disposition to make this a consider- 

 ation in selecting varieties for plant- 

 ing. The dates just given show an 

 extreme variation in time of bloom- 

 ing. Some years the intervals are 

 much shorter, but the relation seems 

 to be constant. The crop ripens 

 from August 15 to October 1, accord- 

 ing to locality. Early maturity does 

 not follow early blooming that is, 

 as with other fruits, the first to 

 bloom are not necessarily the first 

 to ripen. 



Not less than twenty-five varie- 

 ties of almonds have been grown to 

 a greater or less extent in Califor- 

 nia. Varieties of foreign origin 

 have almost wholly given 

 place to selected seedlings of 

 local origin, and of these a 

 very few constitute the main 

 crop at present. These are 

 named in the order of their 

 acreage, as follows: Nonpareil, Ne Plus 

 Ultra, IXL, Drake, Texas Prolific, Lan- 

 guedoc. Of these, the first three occupy 

 not less than three-fourths of the acreage. 



In handling the crop, the local climate 

 modifies methods somewhat, and the 

 growth-habit is also involved. In regions 

 very free from atmospheric humidity in 

 the summer, the hull opens readily and 

 discloses a clean, bright nut, which can 

 be marketed without treatment. Where 

 this is not the case, and the nut is more 

 or less discolored, bleaching in the fumes 

 of sulfur has to be practised. The nut 

 must be dry before sulfuring, or the fumes 

 will penetrate and injure the flavor of the 

 kernel. Sulfured nuts also lose largely 

 in power of germination. The practice is 

 to gather the nuts, dry for a few days 

 in the sun, then spray with water very 

 lightly or with a jet of steam, so that only the surface 

 of the shell is moistened, and then sulfur, and a light 

 color can be secured without penetration of the fumes. 

 The nuts can usually be gathered from the ground as 

 they naturally fall, or can be brought down by shaking 

 or the use of light poles. Some varieties are more easily 

 harvested than others, and the same variety falls more 

 readily in some localities than in others. A greater or 

 less percentage, according also to variety and locality, 

 will have adhering hulls, and for clearing them, locally- 

 invented machines, called almond-hullers, are used. 

 Early rains in some localities are apt to stain the nuts. 

 Such stains cannot be removed by sulfuring, and the 

 nuts have to be crushed and the product marketed as 

 kernels for the use of confectioners. Machinery is also 

 used for this operation, and a considerable fraction of 



163. Bearing habit of the 

 almond. 



the product reaches the market in this form because of 

 the demand for candied and salted almonds. 



The standard of excellence in the almond, from a 

 commercial point of view, as learned by the experience 

 of California producers, is that the kernel must be as 

 smooth, symmetrical and plump as possible. The twin- 

 ning of kernels, welcome as it may be to searchers for 

 philopenas, results in misshapen kernels, which are 

 very objectionable to the confectioners, who are very 

 large users of almonds. Constancy to single kernels ia 

 therefore a good point in a variety. 



Large proportion of kernel to shell by weight is also, 

 obviously, an important point to almond- 

 buyers. At the same time, the shell may 

 be so reduced in strength as to break badly 

 in shipping in sacks and in subsequent 

 handling. Incomplete covering also ex- 

 poses the kernel to the sulfur and to loss 

 of flavor. The ideal is such degree of thin- 

 ness of shell as can be had with complete 

 covering of the kernel and durability in 

 handling. 



Careful comparison of the 

 proportion of kernel weight 

 to gross weight of the popular 

 California varieties, as compared 

 with a leading imported variety, 

 was made by a committee of the 

 California Horticultural Society, 

 with the following result: From 

 one pound of each of the follow- 

 ing varieties the net weight of 

 kernels in ounces was: Imported 

 Tarragona, frf; California Lan- 

 guedoc, 7%; El Supremo, 7}^; 

 Drake, 8%; IXL, 9; Commercial, 

 9Ji; La Prima, 9^; Princess, $\4; 

 Ne Plus Ultra, 10; King, 10; 

 Paper-shell, 11; Nonpareil, 11 to 

 13- EDWARD J. WICKSON. 



ALMOND, DEMERARA: Terminate 

 Catappa, 



ALMOND, FLOWERING: Primus. 



ALNUS (the ancient Latin 

 name). Betul&cex. ALDER. Orna- 

 mental woody plants grown chiefly 

 for their foliage; some species are 

 valuable as timber trees. 



Trees or shrubs: Ivs. alternate, 

 deciduous, short-petioled, usually 

 serrate or dentate: fls. monoecious, 

 apetalous, in catkins: staminate 

 ones elongated, each bract with 3 fls. ; stamens 

 4 in each fl., with short filaments not divided 

 at the apex; pistillate catkins short, each bract 

 with 2 fls.; styles 2; the pistillate catkins 

 developing into a ligneous, generally ovoid cone 

 with persistent, 5-lobed scales: fr. a small 

 nutlet. About 30 species in the northern hemisphere, 

 in Amer. south to Peru. Monograph by Winkler in 

 Engler's Pflanzenreich: Betulaceae 101 (1904). 



The alders are deciduous trees or shrubs with me- 

 dium-sized leaves and pendulous staminate catkins in 

 spring before the leaves; the short pistillate catkins de- 

 veloping into woody cones about l /i to 1 inch long and 

 usually arranged in small racemes. The profuse male 

 catkins are pleasing in early spring. The wood is val- 

 uable for its durability in water; of the native spe- 

 cies, A. rubra is the most important timber-tree; in 

 the Old World, A. glutinosa and A. japonica. Most 

 species are suitable for planting on damp soil, where 

 they grow rapidly, but A. cordata prefers a drier situa- 

 tion; also A. japonica, A. incana and A. linctoria grow 

 well in drier situations. 



