BULLETIN 231] WALNUT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 369 



of only fair quality, while another may be a small producer of extra 

 fancy nuts. All these and other considerations go to show that one 

 cannot be too careful and conservative in recommending and exploit- 

 ing a variety for general planting on the basis of its immunity to blight 

 or the quality and quantity of its product. Only after several years' 

 experience in any given locality can the qualities of a certain variety 

 be fairly estimated, and even then its behavior in other localities, where 

 conditions are considerably different, cannot be safely foretold without 

 actual trial. Many a walnut grower has bought high-priced trees from 

 a distance on account of enthusiastic advertising and extravagant praise, 

 when there were scores of trees in his own locality which might have 

 been propagated from with much better results than those which he 

 will obtain from his high-priced trees, brought from a distant portion 

 of the State, where the whole reputation of the variety rests perhaps 

 upon the performance of one individual, original tree. We have dis- 

 cussed the various varieties now on the market as fully as possible in 

 another place. If our descriptions and estimations seem to be lacking 

 in positive, definite statements, it may be understood that this is not 

 on account of lack of acquaintance with the varieties mentioned, but 

 is simply due to the fact that they have not been widely tested, and 

 their qualities cannot be positively stated in justice either to the variety 

 or to the public. 



The control of walnut blight by means of immune varieties presup- 

 poses to a very large extent the planting of new groves in place of the 

 present seedling, irregular, blight-susceptible ones. Many, however, 

 will feel that such a solution of the problem falls far short of complete 

 satisfaction on account of the large acreage of seedling trees now in 

 existence which have cost much effort and expense to produce, which 

 would be fairly profitable were it not for the blight, and which it is 

 a very serious matter, or perhaps almost entirely out of the question, to 

 think of replacing with new trees of better varieties. Especially in 

 Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties do such 

 groves exist, and this bulletin would not be complete without a dis- 

 cussion of the future prospects and best methods of handling these 

 seedling groves, composed of large healthy trees in normal, thrifty 

 condition, save for the attacks of blight upon the crop. 



Working Over Seedling Groves to Better Varieties. The situation 

 now confronting the seedling walnut growers of California is not a 

 unique one, inasmuch as the same condition has confronted in turn 

 the growers of the apple, peach, orange, lemon, and all our other culti- 

 vated fruits. The seedling orange grove is still with us to a consider- 

 able extent, and the seedling apple orchard is still easily within the 

 remembrance of the present generation. It is not, therefore, an unusual 

 situation which the walnut grower has to face, and he may rest assured 



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