8 LUTHER BURBANK 



growing on chestnut trees of the largest size; 

 and they are sweet in flavor. 



If it is added that some varieties of the new 

 chestnuts bear when only six months old, when 

 grown from seed — rivaling corn or wheat, and 

 seeming quite to forget the traditions of their 

 own tribe — a further glimpse will be given of 

 the modification that scientific plant develop- 

 ment has wrought in the status of the nut- 

 bearing tree. 



No other tree, to be sure, quite rivals the chest- 

 nut in this regard; but some of the new walnuts 

 bear at eighteen months of age, which is quite 

 remarkable enough. And in general the time of 

 bearing of these nuts has been so hastened that 

 the growing of a walnut orchard to-day is an 

 altogether different matter from what it was 

 a generation ago. 



Moreover, a way has been found to induce the 

 walnut tree to grow about four times as fast as 

 it formerly did; and the wood of the tree is of 

 the finest quality for the use of cabinetmakers. 

 Of course the latter fact is of incidental interest 

 only to the grower of nuts; yet it is not quite a 

 negligible factor. And, from another stand- 

 point, obviously, the wood-producing capacities 

 of the new trees have a high degree of 

 importance. 



