LUTHER BURBANK 
trees of the largest size; and they are sweet in 
flavor. 
The manner of development of these anoma- 
lous dwarf chestnuts will be detailed in a later 
chapter. Here I refer to them only by way of 
introduction to suggest one of several modifica- 
tions in the growing of nut bearing trees that have 
been brought about within recent years and that, 
jointly, are placing the industry of nut growing on 
a new basis. 
If it is added that some varieties of the new 
chestnuts bear when only six months old, when 
grown from seed—rivaling corn or wheat, and 
seeming quite to forget the traditions of their own 
tribe—a further glimpse will be given of the 
modification that scientific plant development has 
wrought in the status of the nut bearing tree. 
No other tree, to be sure, quite rivals the chest- 
nut in this regard; but some of the new walnuts 
bear at eighteen months of age, which is quite 
remarkable enough. And in general the time of 
bearing of these nuts has been so hastened that the 
growing of a walnut orchard to-day is an alto- 
gether different matter from what it was a genera- 
tion ago. 
Moreover, a way has been found to induce the 
walnut tree to grow about ten times as fast as it 
formerly did; and the wood of the tree is of the 
[8] 
