BURBANK'S WAY WITH TREES 



Notwithstanding the extraordinarily rapid 

 growth of these trees, however, it was found that 

 the wood they produce is of the hardest texture, 

 capable of taking on an excellent cabinet finish. 

 Most trees that grow with relative rapidity pro- 

 duce soft wood, but these hybrid walnuts are 

 notable exceptions to the rule. The timber they 

 produce is in no wise inferior to that of the parent 

 black walnut; and this wood, as is well known, 

 was so famous for its quality that the trees pro- 

 ducing it were almost exterminated in the United 

 States. 



Here, then, are revealed new possibilities of 

 the production, through hybridization, of timber 

 trees of unrivaled capacity for growth. 



The possibility of restocking deforested regions 

 with trees of such rapid growth is very alluring. 

 The most disheartening feature of the entire prob- 

 lem of reforestation has been the fact that trees 

 that make good timber are so universally ob- 

 served to be of slow growth. An oak fifty years 

 old is a tree of relatively insignificant size; an- 

 other half-century is required to make it a tree 

 of commendable proportions. Even the relatively 

 quick-growing chestnut and elm are three- 

 quarters of a century old before they assume pro- 

 portions that could be called imposing. 



But hybridization so stimulates the vigor of the 

 walnut that it sometimes grows ten times as fast 

 as either of its parents. Some of Mr. Burbank's 

 trees increase by a full inch in diameter in a single 

 year. At ten years from seed, these hybrids are 



[215] 



