LUTHER BURBANK 



In particular it should be understood that the 

 staminate flowers of the walnut usually bloom and 

 shed their pollen from one to four weeks before 

 the fruit-bearing nutlets appear. 



One would naturally suppose, under these cir- 

 cumstances, that the pollen would all be lost and 

 that there could be no crop. But, in point of fact, 

 the pollen appears to retain its vitality for a long 

 time, and even where it has been shed some weeks 

 before the ripening of the pistillate flowers, there 

 may be a full crop. The hand-pollenizer must 

 bear in mind this tendency of the two types of 

 walnuts to mature their flowers at different times. 

 Still, as already suggested, the pollen appears to 

 retain its vitality, and ultimately to be able to 

 effect fertilization even though applied some time 

 before the maturation of the pistils. 



In France the early spring frosts are likely to 

 be very destructive to the ordinary walnuts, and 

 the French nut raisers have come to depend largely 

 on the Franquette, a variety already referred to. 

 While this variety is in some respects inferior, it 

 has the one supreme quality of not blossoming 

 until the season of spring frosts is over. It blooms 

 perhaps four weeks later than ordinary varieties. 

 This ensures a good crop from the Franquette 

 variety, even in years when others have been dam- 

 aged by the frost, so that the average production 



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