22 THE WALNUT PLANTING, SOIL, ETft. 



dug in the nursery, yoB will be likely to have your orchard in good shape when it is 

 grown. No limbs should be allowed to grow within at least 6 feet of the ground, as 

 they would interfere with the cultivation of the orchard." 



» " The orchard should be thoroughly plowed with a turning plow, early in the spring 

 as soon as the ground is sufficiently dry to work pleasantly. fJare should be taken not 

 to plow so deep as to ctit the roots, and as the trees are approached the furrows should 

 be shallowed. In some cases fall plowing is practiced, turning the soil from the middle 

 toward the rows and leaving a dead furrow in the middle. In the spring the operation 

 is renewed and the ground l^ft smooth for the summer. This is a good practice on dry 

 land, as it enables the so,il to retain a larger part of the winter rainfall. After the spring 

 plowing the land should be thoroughly harrowed and left. Where irrigation is prac- 

 ticed the orchard should be cultivated after each application of water, usually from five 

 to seven tim'es in the season. Where irrigation is riot followed the cultivator and weed- 

 cutter should be used as often as necessary, in order to keep down the weeds that would 

 rob the trees of their necessary moisture and plant elements. The great object of culti- 

 vation is to keep the surface soil in a loose condition and prevent the evaporation of the 

 moisture required by the trees for their growth. Of course, where inter-tree crops are 

 grown in the orchard, these rules will have to be modified to suit the crops." 



t "That the walnut will grow more luxuriantly and bear larger crops at comparatively 

 earlier age in deep and rich bottom land, well drained, well protected, and with plenty 

 of moisture, is an obvious fact; though there arises another question: whether it is 

 advisable to plant walnuts— a class of trees requiring so much space and with so little 

 regard to the nature of the soil — in our richest land so well adapted to the growing of 

 other valuable crops that have absolutely to be raised in rich land ? My experience in 

 walnut culture, and for twenty. years I have imported, propagated, and fruited the lead- , 

 ing varieties of Europe, besides having collected a large amount of data on that subject 

 from nut-growing countries, warrants me to say that walnut culture can be successfully 

 carried on on the whole Pacific Coast, provided we plant none but hardy kinds ; in fact, 

 the success of walnut culture in California lies exclusively in the'hardiness of the kinds 

 to be planted." 



WALNUTS IN OAK LAND. 



There has been considerable doubt entertained by growers as to the 

 outcome of walnut orchards planted on oak land. It has been contended 

 that walnut orchards so planted will never be a success; that the roots 

 of the oak remaining in the soil generate poisonous gases, which event- 

 ually kill the roots of the walnut with which they come in contact. 

 Various orchards in the vicinity of Santa Barbara are cited as examples. 



t" The walnut requires well-drained, deep, sandy bottom land, well protected, and 

 where no 'live oak' trees have grown within the last century. Everywhere where the 

 live oak has been recently rooted out, the walnut tree will die about the time it bears 

 the second crop, perhaps earlier. The second planted to replace will die in about the 

 fifth year ; the third, m the first, second, or third year, l' doubt if any walnut trees will 

 do well where an oak forest has recently existed. The elder Pliny, iii his work on Nat- 

 ural History, written nearly two thousand years ago, speaks of this fact existing on the 

 northern coast of the Mediterranean, and cautions planters from attempting fruit- 

 growing where an oak forest has recently existed. There are other causes, no doubt, 

 that will prevent success. Trees will die apparently without cause, and the planter, after 

 waiting ten or a dozen years, will be compelled to root them out and try something else. 

 One half of the orchards that have been planted will never be a success." 



„r,l'n+w t^?f'i^»^'S*^^'''i"°i'^°* Santa Barbara quite a number of 'English' walnuts 

 ?^^nnw J=^ f ^^ f ■^^'°^P\''?'^'i,°° land recently covered by liveoak. These orchards 

 can only result m failures, which the owners can ill afford. The precautions laid down 

 in my essay before the Sacramento Convention in 1886 should not be disregarded uiit 

 It is practically demonstrated that they are without foundation." "^'^egaraeQ unui 



^ '3i''' ■t?,^'"'^ to planting the 'English' walnut on oak land, it is a question that 1 

 fffi roonrr\ atfn?fp±^^ of delicacy especialh; as I am led to differ from our Resident 

 (Mr. Cooper), a gentleman whom I esteem as high as an v man in the State aqtothe 

 poisoning of walnuts. My place of two hundred acres waf ^e mass of oaks and there 

 isnot one smgle acre of the one hundred and eighty acres now in walnuts but what had 



* Wm. Moss, of Rivera. 



+ Mr. Felix Gillet, of Nevada City. 



i Hon' Fnw°n°n^^*^rn^fpV^Trt Jii^*°l^ State Pruit-Growers' Convention, Sacramento, 1886. 

 bara 18°8. Cooper, address before State Fruit-Growers' Convention, Santa Bar- 



1888.^°°' ■^''"^^^^ ^^'■*^' ^^'^''^^^ ''"^"''^ ^*''*^ Eruit-Growers' Convention, Santa Barbara, 



