BULLETIN 231] WALNUT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 283 



coming into bearing, the late period of maturity of the nuts in the fall, 

 and the fact that the tree is by no means as heavy a bearer as should be 

 looked for in an ideal variety. All in all, then, we may say that the 

 Franquette is a variety of unusually high quality and rather poor pro- 

 duction. For southern California, where it has been tested to some 

 extent, we do not believe that this or any other extremely late variety 

 is to be considered. Farther north it is undoubtedly true that for the 

 ultra-conservative planter, at least, no other variety can be considered 

 as safe as this, since its behavior in orchard form can be very closely 

 forecasted. Franquette nuts have commonly sold for nearly twice the 

 price of southern California seedlings, which offsets to some extent the 

 light bearing and lack of precocity of the variety. 



PLACENTIA. 



(Placentia Perfection.) 

 Origin. 



Originated in Placentia, near Fullerton, California, as a seedling of 

 the Santa Barbara Soft Shell type. The original tree stood in an 

 orchard of Geo. Hind & Company, about one mile north of the Placentia 

 sehoolhouse ; the first propagation of the variety was done by Mr. Hind 

 about 1893, and the variety received its name from this gentleman. 

 Mr. J. B. Neff of Anaheim was the first to plant any considerable acre- 

 age of Placentia Perfections, the first trees which he bought of Hind 

 & Company being bench-grafted on piece roots, using about six to ten 

 inches of the root and making three to four nursery trees from one root. 

 In former years Mr. Neff sold many scions and seed of this variety to 

 nurserymen over the State, as much as 1,600 pounds of nuts and 20,000 

 scions in one season. In later years he refused to sell either seed for 

 planting or scions, on account of the susceptibility of this variety to 

 walnut blight. He also grafted over all his younger Placentia trees to 

 the Eureka variety on account of the blight. 



At present there seem to be in southern California two fairly distinct 

 types of the Placentia walnut, even among trees which are supposed to 

 have been grafted from pure stock. These two types, while in most 

 respects identical, differ in that the nut of one is quite elongated while 

 the other has a decidedly round nut. The quality of the nut in the two 

 types is apparently identical, as well as the general characteristics of 

 the tree. Mr. Neff's trees, which are certainly of the purest original 

 strain, bear nuts of the round type, but the majority of the younger 

 groves of this variety in southern California bear the longer type of nut, 

 which is that which we are about to describe. This latter type is more 

 variable in form and smoothness of the nuts than the other. That this 

 variation has occurred in the grafted progeny of one original tree rather 

 than by mixing of the stock seems very possible, as the different types 

 are too much alike to be considered entirely distinct varieties. 



