LUTHER BURBANK 
Pistachio. The tree on which this nut grows is a 
member of the sumac family. The nuts are small, 
but on the best trees are produced in profusion. 
In recent years the Department of Agriculture 
of the United States Government has imported a 
great number of plants and seeds of the pistachio, 
which are now being grown experimentally, and 
which, it is hoped, will form the basis of an ex- 
tensive culture of this nut. The experiment has 
not as yet progressed far enough to make predic- 
tion possible as to the results. My own experience 
with the nut is limited to the growing of a single 
plant about twenty-five years ago, which, after I 
had cultivated it for a dozen years was found not 
to be a fruiting variety, and so was destroyed. 
An Australian tree-shrub or small tree, called 
the Macadamia ternifolia, has been introduced in 
California in recent years, and is regarded as a 
valuable acquisition. The tree is ornamental, and 
it bears a fruit that is regarded as of value. At the 
center of the fruit is a round, delicious nut, much 
larger than the ordinary filbert, indeed, sometimes 
almost equaling a small English walnut, that is 
fully equal in flavor to the best filbert or almond. 
The Macadamia has proved hardy in this 
vicinity, but requires a well-drained soil. A wet 
winter is very destructive to the trees, unless they 
are on dry, well-drained land. 
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