O THE WALNUT — LONGEVITY. 



fair quality; these, however, were grafted on the black walnut, and are 

 about thirty years old. 



* " My father, P. B. Kellogg, settled in Napa Valley about midway between the present 

 towns of St. Helena and Calistoga, in 1846. In 1848 he planted some walnuts m his 

 nursery. When the trees were two years old (in 1850) he planted them about his door- 

 yard (ten or twelve in number), where some of them remained for more than forty 

 years. From time to time, father added to the number of his walnut trees, but never 

 planted a very large orchard of them. Some of the trees in my orchard here in Santa 

 Barbara County are from nuts taken from the old trees in Napa Valley." 



The largest walnut orchard of early planting in the northern part of 

 the State is located near Los Gatos, in Santa Clara County; it is about 

 thirty years old, and produces fair crops yearly. The largest orchards 

 of recent planting are in Lake and Sonoma counties. In San Lorenzo, 

 on the Wm. Meek estate, is an extensive walnut orchard of early plant- 

 ing. In Sonoma, at the Vallejo place, and at Mission San Jose, are 

 many walnut trees that show great age and are healthy in appearance. 

 General Bidwell, at Chico, has a considerable number of walnut trees, 

 all vigorous and fruitful. Many such trees are to be found in Napa, 

 San Jose, Santa Clara, Merced, Modesto, Fresno, and Visalia. Along the 

 coast, in almost every county, are to be seen large walnut trees of early 

 planting. While these early plantings were small, and many consisted 

 of isolated trees, as were those in the Mission gardens, yet those trees 

 mark a special epoch in the horticultural history of our State, as they 

 have proved the great longevity of the walnut, and enlightened the 

 growers as to their culture and future possibilities. 



(3) LONGEVITY OP THE WALNUT. 



The great and prodigious age attained by the walnut can only be con- 

 ceived from records of its early history. All the early botanical writers — 

 English, French, Italian — point out the fact that the walnut, in their 

 respective provinces, does not bear until it has reached the age of fifteen 

 to twenty-four years, and hardly becomes a paying investment until it 

 attains a prodigious age. In California, the walnut begins to bear at 

 the eighth year from the seed, and from that time on the crop increases, 

 and the orchards become remunerative. It is now not uncommon to see 

 walnut orchards from thirty to forty years old, in the prime of health, 

 producing every year bountiful crops. 



t " In Persia, the tree comes into bearing at eight years from the planting of the seed ; 

 in Italy, Spain, and the Island of Madeira, in about sixteen years; in Prance — the 

 southern part— in eighteen years ; in England, in twenty-four years, and in California 

 in eight years, the same as in Persia. So, I take it, the southern part of this State is 

 nearest its home." 



I "After fifteen or twenty years from the time of planting, the walnut gives only 

 hopes, so to speak, for its yield is yet so small that its value can hardly be reckoned ; it 

 is only from thirty to sixty years that this tree can offer each year a product sufficient 

 to increase the income of the landlord. It takes a century, and over, before the wood is 

 good to be used in the arts." 



§ "Walnut trees are spoken of that bear, in good years, 50,000 to 100,000 nuts ; such 

 trees are truly very rare, and their trunks are not less than 15 to 20 feet in circumference." 



* Frank E. Kellogg, of Goleta, letter of March 12, 1896. 



t Hon. Russell Heath, in essay before Eleventh State Fruit-Growers' Convention, 1889 

 t Maison Rustique, Vol. 2, Chapter XII. 

 § Maison Rustique, Vol. 2, p. 143. 



