The herald., 1896-09-12

young. as such crops rarely ever pay
and the damage to your trees is consid-
cradle, as well as a severe drain upon
the fertility of the soil.
The soft shell Is the most popular; 1t
comes into bearing sooner, yields well
and the demand for the nuts is on the
increase. A few years ago one cent
a pound difference was made between
hard and soft shell; this year one and
half cents will be the rule, with perhaps
two cents in the future. would there
fore recommend good healthy soft-shen
stock, would select trees grown in good
walnut land to escape the black knot
and other diseases that are likely to be
found on trees from gravelly soil. The
sooner a tree gets size the sooner 1T
pays, hence 1 would force its growth
during its first year by at least two
good annual irrigations, thoroughly
soaking the ground and then keeping it
well cultivated by plowing once and
thoroughly cultivate, not permitting the
ground to get weedy or hard. Always
cultivate each irrigation both ways, not
less than six or seven inches deep and
keep the ground well stirred all the
time.
There is a great difference of opinion
in regard to pruning. The old style of
cutting off every limb as high as a man
can reach is now out of date. And the
new style which some of our walnut
growers have adopted of not pruning at
all. but leaving the lower limbs to rest
or lie on the ground will never come
much into vogue. But a good medium
of starting out the limbs from two to
four feet from. the ground and have
them start from the trunk on all sides
at about an angle of As degrees. think
1t is the best plan to keep all new
branches or water sprouts that are in
clined to hang down well cut off, so as to
those n no fro l.
ways have your pruning done in Do
cember; then no bleeding occurs and the
wounds heal over with the next year )
growth. Do not daub oil or paint on the
cuts. When the trees come into full
bearing, say two hundred pounds TO
each tree. they require PLENTY of water
to keep them growing and to iill out the
nuts; one good irrigation in August that
may cost five cents a tree will make
many extra pounds of nuts. I have
found that 1t is the poorest kind of econ
omy to economize on irrigation. The
tap or wood roots run deep and must
have moisture to make the tree grow,
and the surface or fibrous rootlets are
those that make and feed the nuts, 50
If the deep and thorough irrigation
which I speak of is not done the tree
cannot grow, and if the surface is not
kept moist the nuts will be light, par
TALLY filled and many of them hollow
The principle nut-growing localities
are Santa Barbara, Ventura. Los Arge-
les and Orange counties, raising about
300 carloads of ten toes each. The Cali
fornia nuts Q ruperior to foreign nuts.
meet with u favor with customers
and are in demand by the dealers The
custom heretofore. and even to large
extent this year, is to put the crop in
brokers' hands to find a market paying
a brokerage of about SIS a car When
$50 are so placed the brokers can fix the
price for all the crop, which they do.
often at one-half to one cent per pound
lower than the market will stand, there
fore losing thousands of dollars to the
growers annually, while large dealers
east are clamoring for the chance of
dealing directly with the growers, offer
ing top notch prices, spot cash, without
brokerage. AS the area of the nut is
limited the crop is easily controlled 1t
would be better for all the growers to
get together before any contracts are
signed, tieing UP the crops, and agree
together on prices, sell direct to dealers
east without the Intervention Of the
middle-man or broker. Hundreds of let
tiers are received this year from all parts
of the country wanting to buy nuts, Of
fering high prices if the growers will
protect the dealers from the lower prices
of the brokers. The custom now in
vogue is for the largest association of
growers who control the largest guam
tity Of nuts to fix the price, say for $50
cars, and that practically fixes the price
for the balance of the $50 cars without
the growers having word to say about
1t. This is not just to each other and
should be righted