Grafting the Walnut, 
By FELIX GILLET, of Nevada City, Cal. 
In view ol the large number of trees of the worthless kind of walnut that have been 
planted for over thirty years in California and Oregon, and known by the name of Los 
Angeles walnut, from the fact that it started out from the county of that name, a delicate 
and unproductive kind which, outside of those little valleys bordering the sea in Southern 
California, has proved a complete failure on this Coast; and in view, too, of the extremely 
difficult way of grafting the walnut, which generally fails when done by the ordinary pro- 
cess, on small as well as on large trees, we truat that this short essay on the best methods 
of grafting and budding walnut trees, will be welcomed by the owners of such unpro- 
ductive trees or other kinds that it would be desirable to graft into hardier and finer sorts. 
An experience of eighteen years in California in the propagating, budding and grafting of 
walnut trees, of which we have on our place the largest and finest collection to be found 
anywhere in Europe or America, 23 varieties in all, some of them very rare yet, gives us a 
right to speak authoritatively as we do on this suijject. 
The Los Angeles walnut, wiich^by-the way^ haOfifift- coiwtantl3i--pK>p8gated from 
the-seedior-the-lastforty years, without any regard to the degenerating of the species; 
has three big defects that should make every one reject this variety as worthless; first, it 
puts forth too early, from two to eight weeks before the French varieties, and is injured 
by late frosts in the spring three years out of four; second, it does not mature its wood 
well in the fall, and is nipped again by early frosts at that time; third, it blooms very 
irregularly, as the owners of such trees can very well ascertain in the spring at blooming 
time, the male flowers or catkins having all dropped off before the female flowers or nuts 
had a chance to show themselves; consequently, the nuts not being fertilized by the pollen 
or yellow dust secreted by the catkins, drop off after attaining the size of a large pea. In 
this way does that variety keep absolutely barren or at least so unproductive that it has 
already induced many people throughout this iState and Oregon to cut down thej^rees, 
some of them thirty years and over, they having come to the conclusion that Central and 
Northern California and Oregon were not adapted to the walnut. Now we would beg the 
owners of such large unproductive and tender trees, to quit cutting down their trees, but 
rather resort to grafting, no matter how large the tree would be, and transform them into 
hardy and prolific sorts; and they should at the same time do away with the foolish idea 
that Central and Northern California and Oregon are not adapted te the walnut, while it 
is that worthless kind, the Los Angeles walnut, that is not adapted to their climate. Speak- 
ing of that delicate and unproductive kind, we will quote from an article to the Pacific 
Rural PressoTxilLe "French Walnut Varieties," written several years ago by Mr.W.B. Wesfv 
of Stockton, who has had much experience with walnut varieties in the San Joaquin \ 
valley: 
"Experience has taught us that the Los Angeles seedling is a very^Bfcable tree, 
only giving fruit under the most favorable circumstances in Northern grows 
very thrifty when young, but does not ripen its wood sufficiently to withMraa the severe 
winters that we sometimes have, and if, by chance, a series of mild seasons follow the 
planting, and the tree attain a good size, it is unfruitful, and seldom pays for the room it 
occupies. 
"Now, the French varieties are entirely different. They are fertile from the first of 
their life. I have seen a tree of the Proeparturiens, three years old, showing female blos- 
soms, and where they can be impregnated by the male catkins of older trees they will 
mature nuts. I have gathered nuts from a tree scarcely four feet high. Their growth is 
slow and the wood ripens fully. I have never lost an inch of wood from any frost that 
has occured since they were planted, while the Los Angeles trees, near them, have been 
cut to the ground many times. As to the quality of the nut, there can be no differ- 
ence of opinion — the French nuts are decidedly superior, the shell is thinner and the meat 
is very sweet and rich, with none of the bitter skin which always accompanies the Los 
Angeles kind." 
BLOOMING OF THE WALNUT. 
A few words first on the blooming of the walnut, cannot but render our further re- 
marks on the walnut more clear to the eyes of people little acquainted with that class of 
trees and their growth. 
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