BULLETIN 231] WALNUT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 121 



commercial basis has thus far been largely confined, the walnut is sec- 

 ond only to the orange in prominence. Under favorable and normal 

 conditions walnut growing is one of the most attractive horticultural 

 pursuits which can be imagined. The trees require comparatively little 

 care compared with citrus fruits, and they are subject to comparatively 

 few pests or diseases. The price of the crop has been almost invariably 

 good, and first-class walnuts have always sold readily at excellent prices. 

 The product is not subject to decay, freezing, or other dangers which 

 are common to most fruit crops. No unusual skill is required to con- 

 duct a well-established walnut grove, and all in all this crop is, as said 

 above, perhaps the most attractive and the best adapted to the average 

 settler coming to California when favorable conditions for its produc- 

 tion obtain. 



Unfortunately, this bright picture of the walnut industry has been 

 seriously marred during recent years by the disease above referred 

 to, and various evils which have been more or less attendant upon it. 

 Fortunately, however, the prospects of the industry are at present very 

 much brighter than they have been in the recent past, and there is now 

 every reason to believe that walnut growing is again coming into its 

 own upon a new and better basis, as one of our- best horticultural pur- 

 suits. The walnut has been grown in California to a greater or less 

 extent since the early days of white settlement, but it is only within 

 about the last twenty-five years that the crop has assumed the rank of 

 an important horticultural product. Up to about 1900 the production 

 of walnuts in the State rapidly increased, reaching an amount in that 

 year which was nof exceeded until 1911, and which fell off nearly one 

 half during the intervening period. Until very recently about the 

 whole commercial crop was produced in southern California, and almost 

 exclusively in the counties of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, 

 and Orange. In these counties, which still contain by far the bulk of 

 our walnut acreage, there is probably at present more than thirty 

 thousand acres of walnuts, young and old. It was thought at first that 

 this portion of the State was the only one adapted to this crop, but 

 later experience has shown this idea to be erroneous; and especially 

 since land values have become so high in much of the southern Cali- 

 fornia walnut country, and the citrus industry has extended over much 

 of the available walnut land of that portion of the State, the walnut 

 has commenced to go north, so that at present there is a strong indica- 

 tion that large walnut districts in the future may be found in the cen- 

 tral portion, probably within a radius of one hundred and fifty miles 

 from San Francisco, as well as in the southern districts. 



