THE WALNUT — " ENGLISH" OE " PfeESIAN." 7 



except the Mission Fathers. I was advised to plant walnuts hy Reverend Father Gon- 

 zalez, head of the Franciscan Missions, who resided for many years in Santa Barbara. 

 From him I obtained much of its history taken from documents in his possession. The 

 nuts were brought from Spain, first planted in Mexico, and taken from there to South 

 America. The first planting in California was at San Diego; two at San Gabriel, Los 

 Angeles County, three in Los Angeles. From my information, I think the Woltskill 

 place was one of the first planted in what is now the City of Los Angeles. After 

 the Mission at Santa Barbara was established, there was a propagating garden estab- 

 lished and seeds and plants brought from the Mission south. Father Gonzalez told me 

 no walnuts were planted, but almonds were, but they were not considered a success and 

 were abandoned, while the olive, grape, fig, pomegranate, and some other fruits were 

 cultivated with great success. There was no record of the walnut having been planted 

 north of the Mission of San Buenaventura, where I saw for the first time a walnut 

 tree in 1852." 



* " Father never spoke to me of the ' English ' walnut orchard that was set out ; but 

 speaking to Don Ramon Valenzuela, who was in father's service in 1849, he said that in 

 that year he plowed the orchard, and that then a few of the trees were commencing to 

 bear. As you know how long it takes the trees to bear.t you can judge how old they 

 were at the time. Don Miguel Pryor had .iust one walnut tree older than ours, but 

 father was the only owner of an> orchard at the said time." 



t"I think Mr. Wolfskill's orchard (now dug up and land turned into streets and 

 building lots) had been planted at least ten years at date of my arrival here, last of 1854, 

 and Mr. Elijah Moulton is of the same opinion. Mr. Coronel, Colonel Warner, and Gov- 

 ernor Pico would probably have known, but all three of them have died within the past 

 two years. The Andre Briswalter walnut orchard of 1,000 trees must have been planted, 

 I think, as earlv as the 60's, if not in the late 50's. J. R. Barton, Sheriff, had planted a 

 walnut orchard on his ranch at Los Nietos River before he was killed by the bandits in 

 January, 1857." 



In almost every county of the State are found large walnut trees 

 showing great age, planted very irregularly among other trees, indicating 

 that no attempt had been made to produce a walnut orchard by itself, 

 but were planted by the growers to experiment as to their growth and 

 furnish walnuts for the table. 



At Knight's Ferry, Stanislaus County, is a seedling walnut tree of 

 enormous size, the property of Asa Collins, planted by W. E. Stewart in 

 1858. The seed was brought from France by a French sailor. Out of 

 the three walnuts he brought only one grew, which is the parent tree of 

 many plantings. 



§"In 1873, Mr. Finch, of Alameda, ordered from Messrs. Rose & Grant, of Topeka, 

 Kansas, fifty trees of a so-called ' Persian ' walnut, introduced by them from Persia, one 

 y°ar old which sold for |10 each. The order could not be filled, so he only obtained 

 thirty-six, of which Mr. Latham bought ten, Mr. Selby two, J, D. Roberts four, and Wm. 

 Meek twelve. The sale oJ the balance was withheld." 



IT " Mr. D. C. Vestal has a walnut tree at San Jos«, about sixty feet high, bearing 

 medium thin-shelled nuts. The nuts from which this tree was produced came from 

 Chile, and were planted about thirty years ago by Mr. Vestal, where the tree now stands. 

 He has gathered from it j'early about a barrel of nuts." 



In 1883, Mr. Kelsey, of Fresno, reported to the State Horticultural 

 Society that he had at Fresno two trees of the so-called "English" 

 walnut, that were then about six feet in circumference and about fifty 

 feet high. 



1 "At Mud Springs, El Dorado County, are to be seen several large 'English' walnut 

 trees." 



In Winters, Solano County, at the John Wolfskill place on Putah 

 Creek, are many large trees that yearly produce medium-size nuts of 



*J. W. Wolfskin, letter of March 13, 1896. . . 



t Trees of this so-called " English " walnut come into bearing at the eighth year 

 from the planting of the seed ; therefore, the orchard must have been set out about in 

 1841. 



t H. D. Barrows, letter of March 14, 1896. 



S Pacific Rural Press, 1873, p. 193. 



f Proceedings State Horticultural Society, April 27, 1883. 



1 Pacific Rural Press, 1871, p. 460. 



