ad of spreading my energies out
over the whole field and it is time someone really got into the almond
business. I once traveled fifty miles from Bobadilla, Spain to the next
railway station between solid walls of seedling almonds in bloom. No
American has ever been to these seedling orchards to see what they are.
It should be possible to find in those rows that are now 25 years old
late flowering varieties which would be adapted to the conditions in
California or early flowering varieties which would cross pollinate the
Jordan almond. But we have not had the extra man with which to do this
and carry out the other things we have been obliged to do. The
interesting thing about this Jordan almond is that it behaves
differently in our country than it does over in Spain. You notice how
smooth each one of these almonds is. There is no sharp keel on the
Spanish grown Jordan almond at all. It is smooth all around. Here are
the almonds grown in California from the scions which I brought in. You
see how these "keels" are developed and the nut has also become more
pointed. We have not had an opportunity to investigate this thing
thoroughly, but I am convinced that this is an environmental effect. Dr.
W. A. Taylor has suggested that the fact that the Jordan flowers before
any other variety comes out may mean that the California nuts are the
result of self fertilization and this self fertilization may be the
cause of their different shape and texture. Either that or the bud wood
which I brought over from Spain was not representative of the Jordan
variety although I picked it from trees that were bearing these nuts and
I saw the nuts and they were typical. Of course it is possible that on
the bud stocks which I brought over there was this hereditary tendency
to produce these keels. However, we have made importations of the Jordan
almond since then with the same result. One of these was grown in
California in the desert region and one in Niles where John Rock, the
great pioneer horticulturist of California, had his orchards. Both of
them behaved in the same way. I sent some of the best kernels from these
imported Jordan almonds to Mr. Lowney, the candy manufacturer who
imports large quantities of Jordan almonds from Spain, and he reported
that he could not use them for his candy manufacture because they were
too hard and the skin too tough.

One of the most interesting experiences of my life was in 1903 when I
visited a French barber