BULLETIN 231] WALNUT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 173 



was also one of the earliest plantings. Other scattering plantings were 

 made, composed mostly of dooryard rather than orchard trees, but it was 

 not until a number of years later that the walnut began to be looked 

 upon as a commercial crop worthy of being planted extensively in 

 orchard form. The latter stage of the industry came about largely as a 

 result of the development of the so-called Santa Barbara Soft Shell nut 

 by Mr. Sexton. The history of this variety has been given to the writer 

 by Mr. Sexton as follows : In the spring of 1867 he bought in San Fran- 

 cisco a sack of walnuts which came probably from Chile. These nuts 

 were planted that spring and from them about 1,000 trees were raised, 

 of which Mr. Sexton planted about 250 himself in orchard form on his 

 place at Goleta. Sixty of these proved to be of the so-called paper-shell 

 type, the rest being ordinary hard-shells. Only one of these 250 trees is 

 still in existence, this being a hard-shell. Nuts from these trees, mostly 

 from the paper-shells, were planted in the nursery by Mr. Sexton, and 

 from these came the first of the so-called Santa Barbara Soft Shell 

 trees. Of the first of these second-generation seedlings sent out by 

 Mr. Sexton several groves are still in existence, mostly in Santa Barbara 

 and Ventura counties. The trees vary considerably in type, some being 

 typical hard-shells, some paper-shells and others of an intermediate type, 

 which represents what may be called the typical soft-shell. The latter 

 type was considered the most desirable, the trees being of more vigorous 

 growth and making greater size than either the hard-shell or paper-shell, 

 while the nuts were larger than those of either of the other types and of 

 a more desirable thickness of shell. The oldest of these original Santa 

 Barbara Soft Shells are now between 30 and 40 years of age. Nuts 

 were again planted from the best of these trees and soon the present 

 walnut industry of southern California began its development, based 

 almost entirely upon the type of nut originated by Joseph Sexton. 

 Extensive planting began in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles and 

 Orange counties, all the groves with practically no exception being com- 

 posed of seedling trees of this new type. The industry developed very 

 rapidly and under an enormous demand for trees ; nuts of all sorts were 

 planted with no regard to selection in many cases. The result has been 

 that at the present time the Santa Barbara Soft Shell seedling groves 

 are composed of a most heterogeneous collection of trees in regard to 

 type of nut and bearing qualities. Comparatively few trees of the 

 many, many thousands now in existence are equal to the best of those in 

 the oldest groves, and there is a still smaller percentage of trees superior 

 to these oldest ones. The oldest and best soft-shell trees produce a fairly 

 uniform type of nut and are all heavy bearers, turning off, in spite of 

 blight and other vicissitudes, more than 300 pounds of nuts per year. 

 They are fine, large, thrifty trees, still in healthy, vigorous condition 

 wherever planted in good soil, and it may truly be said that were the 



