140 PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



Santa Barbara County was the first section of the State to enter upon 

 the business on anything like a large scale, and it also enjoys the dis- 

 tinction of having originated what is now commercially known as the 

 soft-shell, and which was for many years known as the Santa Barbara 

 soft- shell. 



The soil required is a deep, sandy loam, with a slight mixture of 

 adobe, with no underlying hardpan, and where the surface water is 

 found at from ten to twenty-five feet in the dry season of the year. 



The climate best suited to the production of English walnuts is that 

 where the annual rainfall is from fifteen to twenty inches, where frosts 

 are very light in winter and spring, where very hot winds do not prevail 

 in summer, and where there is an abundance of warm, moist fog during 

 the summer months. Some of these conditions are lacking in every 

 State north and east of us, and only very few counties of this State 

 possess the proper climate, and of these counties only small portions 

 of them meet the necessary requirements. The peculiar conformation 

 of the coast-line and mountain ranges south of Point Conception, 

 together with the modifying influence of the outlying islands, combine 

 to give these favored localities in Southern California a climate that 

 seems to be as perfectly adapted to the walnut as tjhat of Persia itself^ 

 its native home. 



There are three principal varieties grown in Southern California,, 

 known respectively as hard-shell, paper-shell, and the soft-shell pre- 

 viously referred to. The most profitable of these varieties is the soft- 

 shell. The trees are the thriftiest, bear the youngest, mature the nuts 

 earliest in the season, and produce the most abundantly; the nuts are 

 the most easily harvested, require the least care and skill to prepare for 

 the market, look the best, and command the highest price. 



The planting, cultivation, and general care of the walnut does not 

 difi'er materially from that of other orchard trees, except that no prun- 

 ing is required further than to remove the branches which interfere with 

 thorough cultivation. 



For many years the walnuts were considered to be immune from all 

 diseases and pests. But in the last few years there has appeared in 

 some localities a well-defined disease peculiar to the walnut, as it seems 

 to attack no other kind of tree. This disease is giving the growers 

 much uneasiness, as it has thus far defied all efi"orts at eradication. It 

 does not seriously aff'ect the health of the tree, but only damages or 

 destroys the nuts, acting as a kind of blight. As yet its cause is wholly 

 unknown. Although its ravages have seriously affected only a few 

 localities, it is becoming more or less of a menace to the industry. 

 Government experts, as well as the growers themselves, are making a 

 very careful study of the disease, and it is to be hoped that they will 

 speedily discover both the cause and the cure. 



