LUTHER BURBANK 



potatoes, beans, or pumpkins, but preferably not 

 sown with grain, lest the growth of the trees be 

 checked. 



At the end of five or six years there should be 

 a fine walnut orchard with trees having trunks 

 three to six inches in diameter. 



Now the stock is ready for grafting. The stock 

 branches selected for this purpose should not be 

 over two or three inches in diameter. The cions 

 grow rapidly and an orchard produced in this 

 way surpasses all others. Its trees have a natural 

 black walnut vigorous system of roots, with 

 undisturbed tap root. A year's growth has been 

 saved by not transplanting, and a start equivalent 

 to the growth of several years has been gained by 

 using the faster-growing hybrid. 



So the English walnut grafted on this stock 

 becomes a producing tree at a very early age, and 

 an orchard of English walnuts thus grafted is 

 worth at least twice as much as one on its own 

 roots. 



The tree thus grafted has not only the advan- 

 tages mentioned, but it is more wide-spreading 

 and therefore more productive than the original 

 tree; and the spread of limb is duplicated by the 

 root system, which thus ensures a good supply of 

 nourishment and the capacity to produce large 

 crops even in dry seasons. 



[152] 



