THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



435 



which kept its elasticity when afterwards exposed to the 

 hot sun. Goodyear, who had three years before started 

 in the rubber business by getting United States Govern- 

 ment contracts for rubber mail bags, continued experi- 

 menting with this discovery and in 1844 received his pat- 

 ents on the vulcanizing process. 



Hancock had also allowed little grass to grow under 

 him, for in 1843 he had garnered a British patent for the 

 same method, and thus prevented the Haywood Rubber 

 Company from sending rubber shoes into England several 

 years later by claiming infringements on the English pat- 

 ents. Finally, however, this was withdrawn and the Ameri- 

 can firm was granted the right of selling the American 

 style of overshoes in the Islands. 



That heat was superfluous for vulcanization was 

 proved publicly when in 1846 Alexander Parkes obtained 

 a patent for a vulcanizing method, consisting of dipping 

 the rubber into a solution of sulphur and carbon 

 bisulphide. 



THE ENGLISH WALNUT. 



Its Culture in the United States Developed Into Paying 



Crop. 



Owners of country estates and orchardists throughout 

 the United States are just now devoting more attention 

 to the culture of the English or Persian walnut than to 

 any other industry. In fact, horticulturalists everywhere 

 are tremendously interested in the propagation of this 

 delicious fruit, both from a commercial and an aesthetic 

 point of view. 



For many years the English walnut has been culti- 

 vated with more than ordinary success in California, but 

 only very recently has a sufficiently hardy variety been 

 found to withstand the severe winters of the northern, 

 eastern and southeastern states. The circumstances per- 

 taining to the discovery of an unusually hardy variety, 

 the Pomeroy English walnut, may be related as follows: 



The late Norman Pomeroy of Lockport, N. Y., while 

 attending the Centennial exposition in Philadelphia in 



ONE OF THE FORTY-ACRE FARMERS, TWIN FALLS, COUNTRY. 

 Apple Orchard and Strawberry Field Belonging to Herman Riek, Formerly of Rosalia, Wash., Near Jerome, Idaho. 



Leather was giving steadily away to rubber. Door 

 springs, mail bags, printing cylinders, belts and similar 

 objects, formerly made of leather, was being manufactured 

 of rubber. In 1850 Halkett of the English navy, invented 

 the rubber collapsible boat. In 1886 patents doing away 

 with the smell of rubber and patterns in rubber fabrics, 

 stimulated the adoption of raincoats, blankets and fash- 

 ionable uses for ladies' rubber cloths. 



Then came the patent tires of Michelon and Dunlop 

 and others for bicycles, electric wires, automobiles, and 

 innumerable other things. In 1910 for the first time in 

 history there was a shortage in the natural supply of 

 rubber. Para rubber jumped in one year and>a half from 

 fifty cents to two dollars and seventy-five cents a pound. 

 Yet in that year America exported nearly 40,000 tons of 

 rubber. In 1830 America exported only twenty-five tons. 



Last year the synthetic manufacture of laboratory 

 rubber began. Like plantation rubber, it is just as good, 

 if not better, than old Para rubber. Synthetic rubber is 

 "built upon a chemical compound called isoprene. It has 

 not yet arrived at a commercial basis. 



1876, noticed a species of tree totally new to him. On 

 investigation, he found it to be an English walnut tree 

 of surprising beauty. It was the fall of the year and the 

 ground underneath the tree was covered with nuts. 

 These proved to be equal, if not superior, to the taste, 

 to any of the imported varieties with which Mr. Pomeroy 

 was familiar. 



Being thoroughly versed in arbor culture, Mr. Pom- 

 eroy propagated young trees from this acclimated variety, 

 feeling certain that from these he would ultimately ob- 

 tain an English walnut of superior hardiness, capable of 

 resisting the rigors of almost any climate. 



He planted these young trees about his residence in 

 Niagara County, N. Y., in the spring of 1877 and they 

 grew steadily, making surprising growths each year until 

 now they stand fully 50 feet high, with a spread to their 

 branches of 40 to 45 feet, and yielding nuts of the finest 

 quality and in great abundance. During the 35 years of 

 growth where the temperature has frequently decended 

 far below zero, they have not had a single setback, matur- 

 ing even earlier than the black walnut or the oak. 



