18 LUTHER BURBANK 



almonds amounting to $3,981,000, or about 

 nine- tenths of the total for all nuts. 



Perhaps the most interesting feature of the 

 report on the production of nuts is the very rapid 

 increase in recent years. The crop of Persian or 

 English walnuts in 1909, for example, was more 

 than twice as great as that ten years earlier. 

 The production of pecans in 1909 was more than 

 three times as great as in 1899. The production 

 of almonds, on the other hand, had decreased 

 somewhat in the decade under consideration. 



As to the actual number of trees under culti- 

 vation, the almond heads the list, the trees in 

 bearing in 1910 numbering 1,187,962, and young 

 trees not in bearing numbering 389,575. By far 

 the greater number of these are in California, 

 which has 1,166,730 almond trees in bearing, 

 whereas Arizona, the second State, has only 

 6,639, and all other States combined have only 

 14,593. The total production of almonds in 1909 

 was 6,793,539 pounds, with a value of $711,970. 



The almond is a native of western Asia, and 

 has been cultivated from time immemorial. It is 

 mentioned in the Scriptures as one of the chief 

 products of the land of Canaan. In California 

 it has been more or less under cultivation since 

 about 1853. The best manner of its cultivation, 

 however, was not well understood, and the 



