188 NUT GROWING 



has some one man who is more famous than all of 

 the rest for his grafting. Such a man is sometimes 

 called to long distances and for large pay. About 

 the same story belongs to our Pacific coast region. 

 Let us hope that methods of scion grafting and of 

 bud grafting described in a foregoing chapter may 

 make it possible for walnut growers in all countries 

 to dispense with experts in this part of their work. 

 Furthermore, instead of hurrying to do walnut 

 grafting in the course of a few days in spring and in 

 late summer the orchardist may now do the work 

 leisurely during at least four months of the year. 



The Persian walntlt lives to a great age under 

 favorable surroundings in the Old World, producing 

 abundantly for several centuries. It must be given 

 a great deal of room. I have been in California 

 orchards where trees set only sixty feet apart were 

 already touching branches with each other while they 

 were yet young. This meant inferior crops, inferior 

 quality of nuts, and lowering of resistance to dis- 

 ease. Trees set one hundred feet apart would have 

 been much better off. Intercropping with hazels or 

 with small hybrid chestnuts would have made the 

 land profitable with nut crops, and these smaller 

 trees might have been cut away as fast as the walnuts 

 reached out to them. 



There was a tradition in France to the effect that 

 walnut trees required a great deal of lime in the 

 soil. In some districts lime was carried to the trees 

 every year. A commission appointed for the pur- 

 pose of examining into the question came to the 



