The herald., 1898-01-02


santa Barbara. .lyO5 zlOl
Los s...................lioJ la060
San Diego. 567 1919
San Bernardino.......... T2Ol u.50
Riverside .................... $50. 1850
Before the carving out Of Riverside
county.
The walnut Is generally planted a.
from 40 to so feet apart. and an averag,
OF 40 feet is safe as basis for calcula.
ton. Allowing 81 trees to the acre, al
40 feet apart, is shown about 1907 acres
in the southern counties given up to wal.
nut orchards, out of total acreage lr
the state of 19,472 acres, given up to the
same purpose.
Early English. French and Italian
writer's claimed that the walnut did moi
bear until it had reached the age of Is
to "a years. and only became paying in
vestment when 1t had attained prodig-
rious age. In Southern California the wal
nut begins to bear the eighth year from
the seed, and from that time on the crop
increases. In this respect Southern
California is like Persia, the tree coming
into bearing there In the same length of
time as here. In Italy, Spain, and
the island of Madeira II bears In about 16
years; in France. the southern part, in
Is years; in England, in "a years 1t thus
appears that Southern California shares
with Persia in being the home of the
walnut.
In the village of Beachemwell, Nor
fork, England, may be seen a walnut
tree spreading it's luxuriant foliage over
the ruins Of an old church. In one sea-
l~ne 4 : mn
the ground it Is 80 feet in circumference.
the trunk is 10 feet high, the circumfer-
!. ence of the five great branches 16 feet,
IA, 0, and feet, respectively; the cir
tcumference of the extreme spread Of the
! tree being 100 yards, and the estimated
height 80 feet.
An Italian architect, too, mentions hav-
ing seen at st. Nicholas, In Lorraine, a
single plank Of the wood Of the walnut,
rs feet wide. upon which the Emperor
Frederick III had given banquet. Near
! Balaklava, in the Crimea, stands wal
nut tree at least 1000 years old. 1t yields
annually from $4,000 to 100000 nuts and
belongs to five Tartar families, who
share its products equally.
While many large orchards have been
! set out no attempt has been made to
produce improved varieties by cross-pol-
lination, and none are recorded. Only
recently have improved varieties be-
, come known, and these originate from
chance seedlings. In 1867 j. Sexton OF
Goleta, Santa Barbara county, pur-
chased in San Francisco sack of wall
nuts supposed to have come from South
America, labelled English walnuts,"
frOp, which ha no cad oil
and the spring following planted 200 of
these in orchard form. Sixty proved to
be of the soft shell variety. Later he
planted "a trees raised from soft
shell nuts from his original trees; of
this number, 81 came true to the parent
tree, and three made a much stronger
growth, commenced fruiting in the sixth
year, and produced soft shell nut, and
an Improvement over the original trees
This is how the Santa Barbara soft shell
and improved soft-shell were developed.
Ford's Eureka, California Paper Shell,
Columbus, Cluster Proeparturieus, ETC.,
have all been developed in the same
chance way.
The center of the walnut industry in
Los Angeles county Is in and about
Rivera and Whittier. Here it was that
Sheriff Barton. in 1857, with rare fore
sight set out the first walnut orchard in
the district. According to the assessors
return for 1897 there were in the coun-
ty 60,400 walnut trees in bearing and 1885,
$50 non-b bearing, making total of 1885,
755 trees, or about an average 6140 acres.
AS indicating the value of walnut or
chard Irrespective of the land or loca-
tion) the following schedule of valua-
tions is followed by the assessors of the
Southern counties:
One to three years planted....$ per acre
-Four years planted .m........ 40 per acre
Five years planted. ......"... Us per acre
Six years planted. ............. 90 per acre
Fifteen years planted. ......... 100 per acre
The walnut growers have an organiza-
tion through which the best returns are
obtained in the Eastern market So far
however, its success has not been so
pronounced as in the case of the orange
growers, working along similar lines.
Not only are there growers who doc
tor" inferior nuts to give them the bright
and smooth appearance of a superior
grade, and for the sake of few extra
dollars, illegitimately obtained. give the
Industry setback in the Eastern mark
ct, but this season by holding for high
er price the imported product for the
time being swept the market and the
California crop yielded less than 1t might
have been made to do. In 1896 there were
imported from France valued
at 1888, SS1.40, and from Italy, valued at
$46956.4S, and in addition to these two
countries small lots are received from
other foreign sources, particularly
Chile.
San Bernardlno has the largest num-
per OF artesian wells in the country, there
Deing over 400 in number, ranging from
lVo TO 400 feet in depth.
->H
This is the only state producing as
phaltum and bituminous rock, Santa
Barbara being the center of the Industry.
$%>
me frst orange trees were planted at
Inc santa Barbara mission in 1922 and
are CONSEQUENTLY the oldest In the state.
e>4
Point Iona was the first land sn,ed =,
ne Golden state by Europeans, on SEN
2s, 15l2. ~. - ''ep-