12 THE WALNUT — IMPROVED HOME VAEIETIES. 



results, but can profit by the experience of others who have made fruit 

 culture the study of their lives, and who show their liberality and 

 warmheartedness by sharing this knowledge with their neighbors. 



(5) ORIGIN OF IMPROVED HOME VARIETIES. 



While large walnut orchards were set out, and many new plantings 

 made every season, consisting mainly of seedling trees produced from 

 seed from the old historic trees of early introduction, no attempt was 

 ever made to produce improved varieties by cross-pollination, and none 

 are yet recorded. Only recently have improved varieties become known, 

 and these originated from chance seedlings. In 1867, Mr. Joseph 

 Sexton, of Goleta, Santa Barbara County, purchased in San Francisco 

 a sack of walnuts supposed to have come from South America, labeled 

 " English walnuts," from which he raised about 1,000 trees, and the 

 spring following (1868) planted 200 of these trees in orchard form at 

 Goleta. Sixty proved to be of a soft-shell variety. Later, he planted 24 

 trees raised from soft-shell nuts from his original trees; of this number 

 21 came true (the same) to the parent tree, and 3 made a much stronger 

 growth, commenced fruiting in the sixth year, and produced a soft-shell 

 nut, and an improvement over the original trees. The first he named 

 " Santa Barbara Soft-Shell," and the latter " Improved Soft-Shell," by 

 which names they are now known. In 1859, Hon. Russell Heath, of 

 Carpinteria, furnished Mr. Stowe, at Santa Barbara, with a large 

 quantity of walnuts ■ from his orchard of so-called " English " walnuts, 

 for planting. Among the trees that Mr. Stowe raised from that seed, 

 one produced soft-shell nuts. It is Mr. Heath's firm belief that this nut 

 must have come from a chance seedling produced by him from seed 

 which he procured from the orchard of the late Wm. Wolfskill, at Los 

 Angeles, from whom he obtained his first seed. There is no instance 

 on record where any soft-shell walnuts had been produced prior to that 

 time. 



Mr. George W. Ford, of Santa Ana, originated soft-shell walnuts, 

 which he christened " Ford's Eureka" and " Ford's Improved Soft-Shell." 

 They were produced from seed grown by Mr. Sexton, of Goleta. Mr. 

 Felix Gillet has originated the " California Paper-Shell," the " Colum- 

 bus," the " Cluster Proeparturiens," and the " Mayette-Shaped Proepar- 

 turiens." Many other varieties have been catalogued, mostly because 

 they were "new," but were never passed upon by any competent 

 authority, or their merits determined. Most of these trees, on coming 

 into bearing, produced a nut similar to that of the tree from which they 

 originated as chance seedlings. These various types, not being dis- 

 tinctive enough to be classified by themselves, are all labeled " English 

 walnuts." 



