THE ALMOND 233 



This matter of quality is of minor importance 

 when we are dealing with a nut of such high food 

 value. We may never be able to raise almonds in 

 this country which will compete for dessert and con- 

 fectionery purposes with those from the original 

 home of the tree. So long as we raise carloads of 

 delicious food, however, the dessert question will 

 remain one relating to flavor and a small part of the 

 market. Almond products are rapidly taking a place 

 in the food ration in many forms. The California 

 Almond Growers' Exchange, under the management 

 of Mr. T. C. Tucker, has aligned the almond mar- 

 ket with that of the California Walnut Growers' 

 Exchange and the National Pecan Growers' Ex- 

 change. 



In experimental work at Stamford, Connecticut, 

 hard-shell almonds have been so vulnerable to scale 

 and blight and borers as to hardly merit the attention 

 demanded, although they bore heavily. A variety 

 of soft-shell almond of very high quality which I 

 obtained from a missionary in Syria grew with re- 

 markable thriftiness through two summers and sur- 

 vived one hard winter without injury of any sort. 

 In the second winter, however, with less cold weather 

 the tree died. The fact of this variety living through 

 one winter and two summers indicates that varieties 

 of almonds with soft-shelled nuts may be grown 

 pretty well in the north eventually. 



The peculiar charm of nut growing belongs to just 

 this feature of unknown possibilities calling out 

 the spirit of the pioneer who is to do something for 

 the people of to-morrow. 



