LUTHER BURBANK 



I speak thus in detail of this variety of the 

 Japanese walnut, because its qualities are such as 

 to merit fuller recognition than it has hitherto re- 

 ceived. The tree is perhaps as hardy as the Amer- 

 ican black walnut; it is as easily grown, and per- 

 haps even less particular as to soil and climate. 

 The trees are very productive, especially as they 

 grow older. The branches droop under the weight 

 of the nuts. Where other walnut trees bear nuts 

 singly or in clusters of twos or threes, the Japanese 

 walnut tree bears long strings of nuts, sometimes 

 thirty or more in a single cluster. The nuts are 

 thickly set about the axils, the cluster being from 

 six to twelve inches in length. 



HYBRIDIZING NATIVE WALNUTS 



The cross between the Persian and Japanese 

 walnuts, like that between the Persian and the Cal- 

 ifornia black walnut, did not result in producing 

 a tree that had exceptional value as a nut pro- 

 ducer. This cross, like the other, seemingly brings 

 together strains that are too widely separated; and 

 while there is a great accentuation of the tendency 

 to growth, so that trees of tremendous size are 

 produced, there is relative sterility, so that a tree 

 sometimes bears only a few individual nuts in a 

 season. 



But the results were very strikingly different 

 as regards the matter of bearing when the . Cali- 



[44] 



