258 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT STATION. 



always cracked beforehand in any case, and the necessity of a little 

 pressure more or less is of very slight importance. No variety can be 

 harvested, handled, marketed and kept for any length of time with 

 good, plump, white meats, free from mold and discoloration unless the 

 shell is fairly hard and thoroughly well sealed. Extreme thinness of 

 shell is one of the least important qualifications and is in fact decidedly 

 undesirable. The color of the meat is of considerable importance. As 

 commercially graded in California, nuts with the lightest colored meats 

 are considered most desirable, while those which are decidedly dark, 

 even though plump and of good flavor, are discriminated against. It 

 is, therefore, true that the lighter colored the meat the more desirable 

 is the nut, and a variety in which the nuts run uniformly quite dark- 

 meated is decidedly objectionable. The flavor of the meat varies con- 

 siderably in different varieties and is of much importance in a high 

 class, fancy trade. In some varieties the nut is sweet and of a pleasant 

 flavor, while the most common undesirable quality in this respect is a 

 bitter flavor. This should be guarded against in choosing an ideal 

 variety. 



To sum up, then, the most important qualifications in a walnut 

 variety from a strictly commercial standpoint are that it should be a 

 uniformly large producer of nuts the majority of which will not pass 

 through a 1 3-16 square mesh, and of which very few pass through a 

 smaller opening than a 1 inch size. These nuts should be well sealed, 

 even though somewhat hard shelled, and should be uniformly well filled 

 with meat of light yellowish brown color or not darker than light brown 

 or amber. For a more fancy trade the nuts should be of attractive, 

 uniform shape and color, smooth surface, and particularly high quality 

 and agreeably flavored meat. A variety which would combine all these 

 characteristics to a very high degree, including both those of production 

 and quality, would form the basis of a crop which even the citrus in- 

 dustry could scarcely equal in attractiveness and profit. 



COMMERCIAL VARIETIES. 



The following seven varieties will be most fully described, being those 

 of which nursery trees are most commonly available and those which 

 we have been able to see growing and obtain nuts from for a period of 

 several years. Some of the varieties in our second, miscellaneous list 

 may be better than any of these, but, if so, their merits have not yet 

 been fully established. 



CHASE. 

 Origin. 



This variety originated in a tree standing about three miles south 

 of Whittier upon a ranch formerly called the Chase place, which has 

 changed hands several times during the last few years. The tree is said 



