LUTHER BURBANK 



all the others is relatively insignificant, the com- 

 bined value of the Persian walnuts, pecans, and 

 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 some- 

 what in the decade under consideration. 



As to the actual number of trees under cultiva- 

 tion, 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 Ari- 

 zona, the second state, has only 6,639, and all other 

 states combined have, only 14,593. The total pro- 

 duction 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 



[20] 



