NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



Mr. Burbank began a series of tests looking 

 to that end by constantly selecting seedling 

 trees whose nuts bore toward the point aimed 

 at. They responded heartily to the demands 

 made upon them, so readily, indeed, that one 

 day the nuts were found so thin of shell the 

 birds could pick through them. This required 

 an absolutely opposite breeding, so the trees 

 were bred backward again along the path they 

 had come until just the required thickness of 

 shell was reached. So it was also with 

 almonds, the shell being bred to suit, while 

 similar results may be reached with other nuts. 

 At the same time, general excellence and 

 the question of productivity were under con- 

 sideration constantly, with the result that a 

 finer, larger and more prolific nut was pro- 

 duced. In line with what Mr. Burbank has 

 done with grafting a physically insignificant 

 tree upon a stronger one, a California nut- 

 grower grafted Mr. Burbank's new soft-shelled 

 English walnut upon a native black walnut 

 of rapid growth. The average annual produc- 

 tion of nuts per tree in the region had been 

 from seventy to one hundred pounds. The 

 black wahiut tree, when grafted with this new 



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