2 
among planters. The subject has been written up in nearly "11 the agricultural papers of 
the State, and a tree of this variety which has proved satisfactory cun hardly be found in 
all Northern California." 
It may look surprising, indeed, that people will yet keep on planting trees of that 
delicate and barren kind where it is known to do so badly, but it is no wonder when we 
see that Walnut, or at least its sub-varieties, which have the very same defects, drum- 
mud up under such captious names as " French soft-shell," " Improved soft-shell," and 
the like, and the deception is so much the worse that the nuts from those varieties are 
much inferior in thinness of the shell and in quality to the fine soft-shell varieties of for- 
eign origin ; and that if as far as the shell is concerned they are an improvement on the 
common Los Augeles Walnut, which has a shell of medium liardntssaud of rough appear- 
ance, they are far of being an improvement on .such choice varieties as Mayette, Fraa- 
quette, Parisienne, Chiiberte, Vourey and others, those Aarrfi/ kinds of the southeast of 
France that bear those magnificent, smooth, soft-shell nuts, with a white meat, sweet 
and nutty, and that fills up the whole shell, unt-i that are exported to all parts of the 
world in large quantities, and which despite our high tariff, find their way to this very 
country. 
But whether the nut be rough or smooth, large or small, soft or hard, and the kernel 
of poor or fine quality, light or dark-colored, is not precisely the question with all those 
sub-varieties of the Los Angeles Walnut, for the fact remains that they are all so sensi- 
tive to cold, that they are, like the mother type, very often cut back by frost in the spring 
and fall, and should Ihey not show the same barrenness as their parent, the Los Angeles 
Walnut, which is very unlikely, they would still be unfit to be planted un the most of 
the Pacific Coast on account of not being hardy. 
Not so with the foreign kinds tliat we have introduced into this country, experi- 
mented upon and propagated these past twenty-one years ; not only are snch varieties as 
Mayette, Franquette, Parisienr;e, Vourey, Chaberte, and others perfectly hardy, but 
they are all "perfect bloomers, '' and bear right here in California as fine and soft-shell 
nuts as they do in their own country, where Walunt-culture has become an industry of 
vast proportions. The Proeparturieus and Cluster, two of the most fertile varieties of 
Walnuts known, though not being as hardy as the above-named kinds, are hardy euougli 
to be cultivated with success in any parts of California and Oregon ; while the hardier 
kinds can be planted to a still more northern latitude, standing well to our knowledge 10 
degrees below zero, if not more, when the trees have arrived to bearing size. At our alti- 
tude, 2,600 feet, we never had our grafted Mayetle. Franquette, Parisienne, Vourey and 
Chaberte, which are all grafted from the original, therefore retaining all the characteris- 
tics of the original kind, injured by frost at any time, not even by late frosts in May, and 
they always matured their nuts well ; and we have had on our place in January, 1H88, 
the year of the cold winter in California, the thermometer going down as low as zero, 
with nothing hurt but figs and oiives. 
As a question has been often put to \is : What is the best variety of Walnut for mar- 
ket and what does constitute a variety to be considered as such? We will, for the bene- 
fit of all interested, rei)rodiice here extracts from the letter of a New York ^'entlemau, Mr. 
C. L. Healy, much interested in the planting of Walnuts in California, and who procured 
from us samples of Proeparturiens, Mayette, Cluster and Chaberte, and also samples of the 
so-called "improved soft-shell and "French soft-shell," for comparison, t^aid Mr. 
Healy : 
"These samples gave me more information than any reports T might be able to ob- 
tain and submitted these samples to experienced buyers, as they would be better able to 
tell about the commercinl value of them and the desire of the trade, as often the public 
taste is queer and that is what you have to study for profit. I took the sauipl. s of 
' improved solt shell aud ' French soft-shell ' as I received them a few days before, to the 
Fruit and Nut Exchange, and got the opinion of several brokers in regard to them; and as I 
know it will interest you, I will write you all I learned about the matter. The verdict 
as to these two nuts was, they are a .second grade nut, rather hard shell, meat not corres- 
ponding to the size of the shell, aud would be rated as a second-grade nut. They are 
nearly the same in size and shape, the ' French soft-shell' having a dark skin, they rated 
with a kind they called the ' Marbo.' The rather heavy shell was an objection as a dessert 
nut. They should sell for about the same as the cheap grade of nuts, ruling about 7 to 8 
cents a pound. But the demand for that kind of a nut would be less than a high grade 
one. They all said they were better looking nuts in every way than the California nuts 
they had seen before. 
" On receipt of yours I submitted them to the same parties, and they at once noted 
the superior quahty over the other.'; I had shown them. The Prceparturiens (nuts borne 
on second generation trees, some oval, others Mayette-shaped, standing on end, all me- 
dium large nuts, F. G.) they said compared very lavorably with the best ; the full kernel 
