LUTHER BURBANK 



duces perhaps the finest cabinet wood grown in 

 America, but it has almost disappeared from our 

 eastern forests owing to the rapacity and lack of 

 foresight of the lumberman. The California and 

 eastern walnuts are rather closely related, yet 

 the divergence is sufficient to give the hybrid a 

 character markedly different from either parent. 



In some respects this hybrid, which was 

 christened the "Royal," showed characteristics 

 analogous to the Paradox. It had the same 

 tendency to extraordinarily rapid growth, and in 

 subsequent generations it showed the same 

 tendency to produce a varied company of dwarf 

 and of giant progeny. There was also a consid- 

 erable variation in foliage, although not the 

 extraordinary diversity shown by the second 

 generation seedlings of the Paradox. 



In one important respect, however, the Royal 

 hybrid differed fundamentally from the other. 

 Instead of being relatively sterile, it showed the 

 most extraordinary fecundity. The first genera- 

 tion hybrids probably produce more nuts than 

 any other tree hitherto known. At sixteen years 

 of age one of these trees produced a harvest of 

 nuts that filled twenty apple boxes, each about 

 two feet long by one foot in width and depth. 



In one year I sold more than a thousand 

 dollars worth of nuts from a single tree. 



[146] 



