cessfully grown in
favorable localities. These nuts, though not rated as high as the best
imported nuts or the choice California product, would successfully
compete with the foreign nuts which are now rated as replacement nuts
by the dealers in California's best grade. It is not safe to endorse
the view that any waste or abandoned land may be converted into
successful walnut orchards, though such lands may in due time produce
trees that will bear nuts. A first-class walnut orchard can only be
produced upon first-class land, deep, fertile soil, a low water table,
an open subsoil, with choice varieties, grafted upon the most suitable
stock and then given first-class tree-care.

Professor Lake: I think a man now is making a tremendous mistake who
thinks for a moment of advising the planting of seedling walnuts. We are
bound to meet the problem of grafted fruit right away. The success in
grafting in Washington this year has been such as to make us feel
certain that we may safely advise budding yearling stocks and expecting
a return of from seventy to ninety per cent of successful sets. Stocks
giving best success in budding are California black. About two weeks
after the budding is done, the tops are cut off two inches above, and
allowed to bend over and protect the buds; and in the West, where they
have intense sunlight, they have found it necessary to cover the buds
with paper sacks. The budding which has given the largest success is
hinge budding, a kind that I haven't seen discussed generally in the
East. Instead of being a T at one end, it is a T at both ends. There is
a horizontal cut across, another below, and a split between. The buds
are taken preferably from the last year's wood. We attempt to take the
wood away from the bud, with the exception of that little spongy part
that runs up into the bud, and is the core.

Mr. Pomeroy: You speak of the hulling. Do they have to hull the Persian
walnuts?

Professor Lake: In many instances, especially in dry seasons, or in
those sections where water is not particularly abundant. Ordinarily,
hulling is avoided by irrigating just preceding the time of falling.
Frequently the growers of large acreages say that it is cheaper to run
them all through the huller.

Mr. Littlepage: What would you prophesy about the average seedling
Persian walnut tree as to success and quality of nut?

Professor Lake: I was led to think that all that was necessary to do was
to plant the walnuts,