BULLETIN 231] WALNUT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 135 



ity, being now a man of advanced age. Mr. Gordon stated that the one 

 tree just mentioned had existed as long as he could remember, but he 

 could recollect it as a small tree in his boyhood. In the grove on the 

 mountain-side, he stated, there were old trees as large as any which 

 are there now as far back as he could remember in his earliest boyhood. 

 Several of the earliest American settlers, whose memory goes back for 

 nearly sixty years, make the same statement in regard to these trees. 



The history of the two stations mentioned in the quotation from 

 Jepson has been quite thoroughly investigated in connection with this 

 work. In regard to the one mentioned near the base of Mount Diablo, 

 we may say that in the valleys on the west side of the mountain in 

 the vicinity of the towns of Walnut Creek, Danville, Lafayette and 

 Concord, there are a great many California black walnut trees, both 

 young and old, most of which have been planted within the memory 

 of people still living in that vicinity. Inquiry shows, however, that 

 there was one locality in this region where black walnut trees were 

 growing when the first white people arrived in the country. This is 

 evidenced by the memory of various old settlers, also by the name 

 "Walnut Creek," and the fact that the original Spanish grant com- 

 prising this region bore the name ' ' Kancho Arroyo de las Nueces y Bol- 

 bones." "This fact," to quote from Mr. Ely Hutchinson, "is con- 

 firmation strong as proofs of holy writ that the walnut was growing 

 in the vicinity when the Mexicans sent in their petition for the grant. ' ' 

 The name "Bolbones" appears to be at present quite obscure, but, 

 according to the investigations of Mr. Hutchinson, it probably refers 

 to some other kind of tree which grew in that vicinity. The original 

 trees of this locality were located in the so-called "Moraga Valley" in 

 the Walnut Creek country east of Oakland. Some of these trees are 

 still standing, although many of the finest were cut for timber many 

 years ago. These trees are of an extremely stately, tall-growing, clean- 

 trunk type, fully as much so as the best types of the eastern walnut, 

 Juglans nigra. They are all composed of single trunks and have the 

 appearance of being younger than the oldest trees in the Napa Moun- 

 tains. The bases of them are larger than any of the trees in the latter 

 locality, being in good, moist, deep soil in an open valley, free from 

 the competition of other trees. The nuts and foliage are entirely sim- 

 ilar to those of the Napa County trees. 



The third original locality mentioned is that in the vicinity of the 

 town of Walnut Grove on the Sacramento River, about thirty miles 

 south of Sacramento city. Large, old, black walnut trees are very 

 abundant on the ranches in this locality, and there was until quite 

 recently a long row of large, fine, old trees along the river bank out- 

 side the levee from Walnut Grove north. These trees were cut down 



