,68 One Thousand Questions in Agriculture 



or you will have decay inside. If buds do not start on the trunk, 

 take a sucker from below to make a tree of. You could put a bud 

 in the trunk, but it is not very easy to do it. 



Walnuts in Alfalfa. 



Will the lualiiut frees be injured in any zvay by irrigating them at the 

 same time and manner as the alfalfa — that is, by flooding the land between 

 the checks? Will the walnuts make as good a grozvth zvhen planted in 

 the alfalfa, and the ground cultivated two or three feet around the tree, 

 as though the alfalfa tvas entirely removed? Is it advisable to plant the 

 trees on the checks rather than bctzveen the checks? 



Walnut trees will do well, providing you do not irrigate the al- 

 falfa sufficiently to waterlog the trees; providing also that you do 

 use water enough so that the trees will not be robbed of moisture 

 by the alfalfa. This method of growing trees will be, of course, 

 safer and probably more satisfactory if your soil is deep and loamy, 

 as it should be to get the best results with both alfalfa and walnuts. 

 It would be better to have the trees stand so that the water does 

 not come into direct contact with the bark, although walnut trees 

 arc irrigated by surrounding them with check levees. Planting wal- 

 nut trees in an old stand of alfalfa is harder on the tree than to start 

 alfalfa after the trees have taken hold, because the alfalfa roots like 

 to hang on to their advantage. In planting in an old field, we should 

 plow strips, say, five feet wide and keep it cultivated rather than to 

 try to start the trees in pot-holes, although with extra care they 

 might go that way. 



Walnuts in the Hills. 



Will zvalnuts grozv ivell in the foothill country; elevation about 600 

 feet, soil rich, does not crack in summer and seems to have small stones 

 in it? 



Walnuts will do well providing the soil or subsoil is retentive 

 enough. If you have water available for irrigation in case the trees 

 should need it, they would do well, but if the soil is gravelly way 

 down and likely to dry out deeply and you have no water available 

 an opposite result might be expected. It is a fact that on some of 

 the uplands of the coast mountains there is a lack of moisture late 

 in the season which interferes with the success of some fruit trees. 



To Increase Bearing of Walnuts. 



We have a walnut orchard which does not bear enough nuts. The 

 trees are all fine, even trees, 10 and 12 years old, and zve are told that the 

 crop was light this year because the trees were growing so vigorously and 

 put most of their energy into the new wood. Is there any special fertil- 

 i::er zvhich zuill make the trees bear more and not prompt such heavy 

 growth ? 



If your adviser is right that the trees are not bearing because 

 •of excessive growth, it would be better not to apply any fertilizer 



