BULLETIN 231] WALNUT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 171 



FOSSIL WALNUT SPECIES. 



Many species of walnut seem to have existed in this and other coun- 

 tries in prehistoric times. We quote as follows from Sargent: "The 

 type is an ancient one in Europe, from which later it entirely disap- 

 peared, existing in the cretaceous flora and abounding with many 

 species during the tertiary epoch ; in North America traces of Juglans 

 appear in the eocene rocks of the northern Rocky Mountain region 

 and of the northwest coast from Vancouver Island to Alaska, regions 

 where no representative of the walnut family now exists, and in the 

 auriferous gravel deposit of the California Sierra Nevada."* 



WALNUT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



HISTORY. 



The first English walnuts in California were probably brought by the 

 Mission Fathers, although this crop does not seem to have been especially 

 prominent in the earlier Mission plantings ; it was only after the coming 

 of the first Americans and the discovery of gold that English walnuts 

 began to be extensively planted in the State, t The first trees were of the 

 so-called hard-shell type, bearing rather small, roundish nuts, with a 

 very hard shell. There are still a few trees in the State of these early 

 plantings, but most of them have been removed. Such trees were 

 planted in orchard form to a limited extent by some of the pioneers, but 

 in its present form the walnut industry is of comparatively recent origin. 

 Laying aside the sometimes discussed question as to whose was the first 

 walnut orchard in California, or who introduced or developed certain 

 types of nuts : it can fairly be said that the present California walnut 

 industry owes its origin preeminently and fundamentally to the efforts 

 of two men : Joseph Sexton of Santa Barbara and the late Felix Gillet 

 of Nevada City. The former was the originator and first propagator 

 of the Santa Barbara Soft Shell type of nut, of which practically all 

 the producing groves of southern California are at present composed, 

 and the latter was the first introducer and life-long promoter of the 

 various French varieties which form the basis of the northern California 

 walnut industry as it exists to-day. A great many others have done 

 much to promote the walnut industry both in the south and the north, 

 but their names are too many and their services too varied to be men- 

 tioned and properly estimated here. It can and should fairly be said, 

 however, that practically all the desirable types of walnut now in the 



*Silva of North America. 



tThe historical side of the subject is well treated by Lelond, in Rep. Cal. State 

 Board of Hort. for 1895-96. 



