LUTHER BURBANK 
was grown from seed, and of course it was neces- 
sary in perfecting the varieties to grow successive 
generations in the same way. 
The parent tree was a walnut growing in San 
Francisco. It bore the most valuable nuts of the 
kind that had even been seen in California. Mr. 
Alfred Wright first called my attention to this tree 
about twenty years ago. I found that it bore not 
only abundantly but regularly, and that the nuts 
were of exceedingly fine quality, and of relatively 
thin shell, their chief fault being that the two 
halves would sometimes separate slightly, leaving 
the meat exposed to the air, so that the meat did 
not keep as well as if in a thoroughly sealed shell. 
The original tree was destroyed soon after my 
attention was called to it, to make room for a 
street, but I had secured nuts and had a colony of 
seedlings under inspection. Among these there 
was a great variation, giving me good opportunity 
for selection. Selection being made with refer- 
ence to all the desirable qualities of the walnut, 
in addition to thinness of shell, I presently devel- 
oped a variety that seemed worthy of introduction, 
and cions and trees from this were sent out under 
the name of the Santa Rosa Soft-Shell. 
The nuts of this variety are of medium size, 
and they ripen about three weeks earlier than any 
other walnuts grown in the state. The meat is 
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