THE CREATION OF NEW TREES 



English walnut, produced on an average four 

 hundred and fifty pounds of nuts per season, 

 in some cases as high as five hundred and 

 fifty-two pounds. 



In the skin or outer layer of the meat of 

 the walnut is more or less tannin, a substance 

 which, when present in considerable quanti- 

 ties, relatively, gives the skin a dark appear- 

 ance and makes the meat more or less bitter 

 and disagreeable to the taste. In some wild 

 nuts when it appears in larger quantities, it 

 becomes positively dangerous. While the out- 

 side of the walnut is commercially changed 

 by bleaching, the inside is not reached and 

 the tannin has remained. Mr. Burbank thought 

 that if Nature had allowed this undesirable 

 substance to enter into the walnut, she could 

 be induced to give it up, so he set about 

 breeding the tannin out, succeeding at last in 

 driving it entirely away, leaving the meat a 

 pure creamy white. At the same time, he 

 developed the size of the nut also, making it 

 from a quarter to a third larger than its 

 parents. 



Turning his attention to the chestnut, he 

 decided to reheve it of some of its bur, and 



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