THE WALNUTS PERSIAN WALNUT. 31 



reports from Louisiana are favorable, but no extensive plantings are recorded, and 

 the same may be said of Texas, where J. F. Leyendecker, of Frelsburg, says that 

 " twice within twelve years they have beeu frozen to the ground." He has a specimen 

 growing on a black walnut stock that appears to do well, but has not yet borne fruit. 



It would therefore appear that the only region east of the Rocky Mountains/" 

 where there is at present any probability of successful culture of this nut extends 

 from southern New York southward to northern Georgia and westward across Ten- 

 nessee and Kentucky to the Mississippi River. Within this region the tree only suc- 

 ceeds in sheltered locations and on rich soil, and is often unfruitful. There is a wide 

 range of country along the Gulf and southern Atlantic coasts where climatic condi- 

 tions are apparently favorable, but where its culture is now unprofitable owing to the 

 damage done by root knot. If it shall be found that the black walnut or any of the 

 hickories with resistant roots afford stocks sufficiently congenial on which to propa- 

 gate the hardier and choicer varieties of the Persian walnut by budding or grafting, 

 its cultural range would be greatly broadened to the southward, and there would be 

 some encouragement there for commercial planters. At present it can only be recom- 

 mended for planting in an experimental way in the Eastern States as a shade and 

 ornamental tree and with a view to securing hardier varieties capable of producing 

 regular crops of fruit. 



On the Pacific Slope in California and Oregon the conditions are much more \ 

 favorable for market walnut growing. The tree, however, either from a lack of hardi- 

 ness of its blossom buds or other cause fails to produce good crops of fruit as far 

 north as it is enabled to make a thrifty growth of wood. Felix Gillet thinks the 

 general failure of this nut through northern California is due to the fact that until 

 very recently only the tender Los Angeles variety, which is exceedingly sensitive to 

 cold, has been planted. He believes that several of the French varieties, which have 

 already fruited with him at Nevada City, will prove fruitful in favorable locations 

 much farther north. Luther Burbank, of Santa Rosa, writes that the Persian walnut 

 is generally a failure in Sonoma County, though it is profitable in the southern 

 counties of the State. "The trees thrive and grow as well in Sonoma County as 

 anywhere, but fail to produce nuts, except a tree here and there. I discovered the 

 cause last season [1890] and have it fully confirmed this season [1891]. Most of the 

 trees in this section are pistillate, with one or two exceptions they are strictly so. 

 Those having staminate flowers bear quite regularly, while the others, though full of 

 small nuts each spring, bear no nuts. Nearly all the old trees in this vicinity were 

 no doubt grown from a strain which is dioscious, with a tendency to produce more 

 pistillate than staminate individuals. Another fault with some nut trees is that 

 staminate flowers appear too early or too late to be of service to the pistillate flowers. 

 This is a very important matter in nut culture." 



But whatever may be the cause of failure in northern California it is a well- 

 attested fact that in southern California walnut culture is well established, and in 

 certain locations exceedingly profitable. In the fertile valleys of Santa Barbara, 

 Los Angeles, and Ventura counties, where water is found within 10 to 15 feet of the 

 surface and where the moisture of the shore atmosphere reaches inland some 30 

 miles, the area planted in walnut orchards is large and increasing annually. 



QUANTITY OF PERSIAN WALNUTS PRODUCED IN CALIFORNIA. 



According to the report of the California State Board of Trade the total shipment 

 of nuts of all kinds, including walnuts and almonds, from the State in 1891 amounted 

 to 2,623,560 pounds, an increase of 1,049,330 pounds over the shipment of 1890. As 

 the statistics of tree planting show that the almond orchards are mainly in the northern 

 counties and the walnut orchards in the southern, and as all but 900,000 pounds of the 

 shipment of 1891 went from the southern part of the State, N. P. Chipman, the chairman 

 of the committee of Industrial Resources of the State, concluded that the balance of 



