Evening star., 1902-01-03
HON E-GROWN ALMONDS
IMPORTANCE OF THE NUT CROP TO
THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA.
Tntrodurtien Of the Industry Or
chards i'm BIossom-Aethod
of Harvesting.
FROM Country Life in America.

Frnm Country Life In America.
With the Increased consumption Of nuts
attention has been turned to their produc-
ton. The almond. alien that 1t is, has been
experimental with in various parts Of the
Union. 1t used to be asserted that the al
moad would thrive wherever the peach did,
So nearly fifty years ago. the commissioner
Of patents obtained a quantity of almond
seedlings and buds from abroad and dis
tributed them throughout the southern and
middle states. The trees grew and bloomed
profusely. but did not fruit The expert
ment was repeated in California, with al
most an equal failure. and It was beginning
80 be accepted as a fact that almonds could
not be raised In the United States.
The almonds are the earliest blooming
fruit trees, This is why trey are cultivat ed
In Great Britain and other countries where
they can never nope to mature fruit About
the first of February the buds swell out
beneath their Smoke-colored coats, and the
orchard is bedight In softest gray-blue.
Within a couple of weeks the coats are
burst asunder, and now the orchard Is q
mass of purest cloud or of snow softly tint
ed with the pink of early dawn. The nut
enlarges rapidly. BY May 1t is the full
grown size: but 1t Is filled with jelly-iike
Substance which is not perfectly hardened
until August
Affected by Weather.
From February until August the almond
grower lives in anxiety. cold rain during
the blossoming time will wash away much
pollen and leave fewer fertiiized seeds. IL
this be escaped. no matter how large q
crop no matter how healthful trees. he
dare not be too sanguine about the sea-
sons output. One nights frost will blight
every nut and nullify the labor of the sea-
son.
Then a man who owned a ranch near
Suisun. Cal. threw his energy into the in
dustry. He found that seedlings produced
In California matured fruits when the i'm
ported ones failed, and that not only did
the nuts differ from the foreign almond,
but they varied according to the locality
in which the seeding was raised. From
among 1872 varieties that he created four
Were chosen to be developed further as
staple products.
A. four years the tree is bearing. and the
mex year, IL the season be good one the
fruit pays for the harvesting Then with
each year its crop multipIies, If 1t be kept
In good condition. 1t is supposed that an
almond tree is in its prime when fifteen
years old, but trees planted IN 1850 are
Still bearing fine crops
At Harvesting.
Al harvesting the crop has to be handled
within two or three weeks and such labor
ers have to be taken as are found wander
3ng around the country. Naturally many
OF them are both unskilled and averse to
much eXertton.
The nuts are beaten from the trees with
poles and fall upon sheets spread under
tha tree. Then they are taken to the ware
house, where they are thrown into a spe-
cial machine. called an almond huller and
separator. In this they pass through a Sc
ries OF cylinders and screens and under q
humber of fans. In the cylinders the hulls
are beaten off; the screens allow the bulled
nuts to pass through and cast OFF the hulls
the fans blow out all leaves. twigs and
other light rubbish. The hulled nuts fall
from the separator directly or light wooden
trays 3 by feet. and are carried to the
drying ground. Although the buller does
very effective work, 1t does not break off
the hulls, nor does the separator definitely
finish its task The nuts not hulled fall
into another tray, and they are finished by
hand. The hulls are used for fuel. In the
separator some nuts will be broken and
their kernels and those OF the ''stick-tights"
are shipped at once to manufacturers Of va
rious products. The almond becomes rancid
In a few days when exposed to the air
without its she'll