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CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



nuts are drawn off into bags containing something over one hundred pounds 

 each; the bags are securely sewed up and stamped with the producer's brand, 

 and the nuts are ready for shipment. 



Col. A. S. Heath, of Carpinteria, uses a moist bleach and a drier 

 afterward, as follows : 



When the nuts leave the rotary washer they are entirely free of hulls and 

 clean. They are taken to the bleaching boxes, and here subjected to the very 

 minimum amount of sulphur necessary, and cold steam, being in the bleachers 

 about one hour. From the bleachers they are taken to the steam drier. In 

 the drier are 100 drawers, each capable of holding 40 to 50 pounds of walnuts. 

 These drawers have wire bottoms to allow the heat to pass through them. In 

 the basement beneath the drier Mr. Heath has some modern furnaces con- 

 structed, and during the course of the drying about 130 degrees of heat is 

 maintained. The nuts are kept under this heat for eight hours. During the 

 drying it is possible to watch the progress by pulling out drawers for inspection. 



Dipping Instead of Sulphuring. Sulphuring often injures the 

 flavor of the kernel and dipping is coming into wide use. The fol- 

 lowing formula has been furnished to growers by the University 

 Experiment Station: 



Six pounds bleaching powder (also called chloride of lime), twelve pounds 

 sal-soda, fifty gallons water. Dissolve the bleaching powder in about four gal- 

 lons of water, stirring till dissolved. Dissolve the sal-soda in about four gallons 

 of water. Add one solution to the other and stir well; let the carbonate of 

 lime settle to the bottom and draw off the clear liquor and add water to make 

 a total of fifty gallons. Put the nuts in large dipping box or lath crate, immerse 

 in the fluid, and then add one and one-fourth pounds of fifty per cent sulphuric 

 acid and agitate by raising and lowering the dipping box. The bleach should 

 be reached in five to ten seconds, and the nuts are then washed in clear water 

 and put out to dry. Of course to employ this process cheaply, specially con- 

 trived dipping appliances are used. The same liquor can be used with new 

 batches of nuts so long as the proper effect is produced, and small additions 

 of acid will prolong the efficiency of the liquor. 



Since the foregoing method was published certain California 

 courts have decided that the process is covered by a patent pre- 

 viously issued and controlled by the Anderson-Barngrover Co., of 

 San Jose, who demand a royalty for its use. The walnut growers 

 employed Prof. Stabler, of the University of Southern California, in 

 Los Angeles, to devise a new process in the public interest. His 

 early results indicate that by running an electric current through a 

 four per cent solution of common salt (four pounds of salt to one 

 hundred pounds of water) the chlorine is set free from the soda 

 and becomes available for bleaching. It is possible also that the 

 electric current roay exert bleaching action of its own. 



Varieties of the Walnut. Of walnuts of California origin there 

 are two classes, which are called "hard" and "soft" shell, but the 

 accepted commercial product is largely composed of the soft-shell 

 class. Several varieties of French walnuts are now being widely 

 distributed. An attempt will be made to give some of the dis- 

 tinctive points of each variety mentioned: 



