BURBANK'S WAY WITH TREES 



by careful selection Mr. Burbank soon developed 

 a variety of walnut that had a shell of just the 

 requisite thickness, to ward off the encroachments 

 of the birds, yet so thin that it could be crushed 

 in the fingers. The tree that produced nuts with 

 this ideal quality of shell was an abundant bearer, 

 and the nuts themselves were of good size, and 

 their meat was white and of delicious quality. 

 The nut was introduced under the name of the 

 Santa Rosa Soft-shell or Santa Eosa Paper-shell. 



Naturally this new variety soon became popu- 

 lar. But Mr. Burbank has been obliged to warn 

 the public that they must be on their guard against 

 the purchase of seedlings alleged to be of the 

 Santa Rosa paper-shell variety. In point of fact, 

 this variety, like other specialized tribes of the 

 walnut, does not breed true from seed. It must 

 be propagated by grafting; being precisely com- 

 parable in this regard to all of our best varieties 

 of orchard fruits. Of course trees bearing nuts 

 of excellent quality may on occasion be grown 

 from these nuts, and exceptionally one of these 

 trees may duplicate very closely the qualities of 

 the parent tree. But other trees, grown perhaps 

 from nuts borne in the same cluster, may show a 

 wide variation, to the great disappointment of the 

 misguided orchardist who expected them to show 

 the qualities of their parent. 



Fortunately, the grafting of the walnut repre- 

 sents no great difficulties for anyone who has 

 facility in grafting orchard fruits. In cleft graft- 

 ing it may be desirable to cut out a notch instead 



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