20 THE WALNUT — PLANTING, SOIL, ETC. 



its top. The fourth year its tendency is to root and not to top, because the fourth year 

 it makes its spurs two inches on the side of that growth of the third year. The tendency 

 of that year is all root, and if you want to transplant a young tree, then take up your 

 three-year-old tree and transplant it and you will get your fruit then as guickly as the 

 age of the tree will allow it to bear. After the fifth year, their tendency is not to make 

 root ; then is the time when those little branches two "inches long send out the long arms 

 to the distance of seven or eight feet ; then it is that your tender shoots, especially in 

 exposed conditions, are liable to be cut upon the end by the frost ; then it is, if you are 

 in the interior, that one hot blast will kill the ends of your trees, because it will have 

 vigorous growth growing after the fifth year, and about the sixth, and the only remedy 

 is the knife, because then the tree is touched by either cold or heat. 



"Transplanting walnut trees, my experience is that I never had a nut from my trees 

 that I transplanted from one year old to seven, without waiting six years. The best 

 success I have had, and which plan I have followed, has been when I have transplanted 

 trees in orchard form after they had passed the age of bearing in my nursery row^. I 

 transplanted eight hundred eleven-year-old trees and did not lose one in transplanting. 

 It does not cost much to cultivate trees for such a period in the nursery — a thousand 

 can be cultivated in a day— and if they were in orchard the expense would be very 

 great; and while the cost of transplanting trees at this age is probably ten times more 

 than for three-year-old trees, you save more than ten times that amount in the cost and 

 care through those years while in orchard." 



* " I have raised trees from the seed and transplanted all the way from a year old up to 

 six ; and while they have grown and done well, I prefer to move them at three years of 

 age, or about that time. The best trees that I have were transplanted at three years old." 



t "I want one-year-old walnut trees one to three feet, two-year-olds four to six feet, 

 and three-year-olds seven to nine feet, all of the above to be good stocky trees. The . 

 root of a three-year-old walnut is but a little longer than a one-year-old, though it is 

 certainly larger. Of course, the root will grow in proportion to the top of the tree, for 

 when a walnut commences to branch— which is about four years from the seed — then 

 the root will commence to throw out laterals." 



J " The usual custom is to set out two-year-old trees. In setting out young trees they 

 should be inclined toward the coast or prevailing winds, and in trimming always try to 

 keep them in that position. By using these precautions, and insisting on having the 

 tap-root left at least three feet lone when the trees are dug in the nursery, you will be 

 likely to have your orchard in good shape when it is grown." 



§ "The best aged tree to plant is two years old ; not that I think the age makes any dif- 

 ference, but the trees at that age are of a size that they can be seen, and run no risk of 

 getting damaged while bein^ cultivated. In careful hands, I believe one-year-old trees as 

 good or better, and perhaps it would be better still to plant the seed where you want the 

 orchard trees to grow, but if planted in this way great care must be taken for two years 

 in cultivating, that they do not get trodden down and the tops broken off, which makes 

 the orchard uneven and unsightly. When planting two-year-old or larger trees they 

 should be selected, planting the largest trees first, and keep on doing so until the orchard 

 is finished. By so domg you can get trees of equal size together. Some say it will not 

 do to plant the seed where you want the tree to grow, that it must be transplanted and 

 the tap-root cut to make it fruit. I have tested this claim and found it a fallacy and' find 

 that nuts planted alongside of one-year-old trees' have produced prolific crops, and are 

 larger trees than those one year older." 



t"The plan of propagation is to plant the nut in nursery form in the spring of the 

 year, m well-cultivated, sandy loam, about six inches deep. The first year they will grow 

 from six inches to one foot high ; the second, from one'and a half to three feet- the 

 third, from five to six feet. At this period it is considered the best for transplanting to 



The walnut does best on a moist, warm, sandy loam, well under- 

 drained. It is a very vigorous grower, and requires ample root room, 

 vertically and horizontally, and unless this is furnished the tree will 

 not do well. Soil, therefore, which has a hardpan near the surface, 

 heavy clays, or soils which hold too much moisture, are to be avoided. 

 A fairly light, friable loam, of good depth and easily worked, offers per- 

 fect conditions in the matter of soil for the walnut. 



harf dhelfnuff ^' °^ '^^''P^'^'"'^- ^^'®° ^^^^"^^ ^° varieties of the "English " walnut, or 



"l&k3nut%'rs°oft-Snt?s") ^^^°^^^'^ '^^'^ *° ^-P--<^ -"««- on Ihe 



I f ■ Dorman of Rivera, with reference to hard, medium, and soft-shell nuts 



§ Joseph Sexton, of Goleta, with reference to improved varieties of the "Enaliah" wa\. 

 nut, or soft-shell nuts. -""giiou waj- 



II Hon. EUwpod Cooper, of Santa Barbara, with reference to varieties of the " Enelish" 

 walnut, or hard and medium-shell nuts. -- ^ugiisn 



