LUTHER BURBANK 



was grown from seed, and of course it was neces- 

 sary in perfecting the varieties to grow successive 

 generations in the same way. 



The parent tree was a walnut growing in San 

 Francisco. It bore the most valuable nuts of the 

 kind that had even been seen in California. Mr. 

 Alfred Wright first called my attention to this tree 

 about twenty years ago. I found that it bore not 

 only abundantly but regularly, and that the nuts 

 were of exceedingly fine quality, and of relatively 

 thin shell, their chief fault being that the two 

 halves would sometimes separate slightly, leaving 

 the meat exposed to the air, so that the meat did 

 not keep as well as if in a thoroughly sealed shell. 



The original tree was destroyed soon after my 

 attention was called to it, to make room for a 

 street, but I had secured nuts and had a colony of 

 seedlings under inspection. Among these there 

 was a great variation, giving me good opportunity 

 for selection. Selection being made with refer- 

 ence to all the desirable qualities of the walnut, 

 in addition to thinness of shell, I presently devel- 

 oped a variety that seemed worthy of introduction, 

 and cions and trees from this were sent out under 

 the name of the Santa Rosa Soft-Shell. 



The nuts of this variety are of medium size, 

 and they ripen about three weeks earlier than any 

 other walnuts grown in the state. The meat is 



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