possibilities of the
industry in this country, from a purely business view point, will
readily be appreciated. And of course the market price of the
walnut is keeping step with the consumption, having advanced from
15 to 20 cents a pound in the past few years.

[Sidenote: =A Rival of the Orange=]

In California the nut industry is becoming a formidable rival of
the orange; in fact, there are more dollars worth of nuts (all
varieties) shipped from the state now per year than oranges. One
grower is shipping $136,000 worth of English Walnuts a year while
another man, with an orchard just beginning to bear, is getting
about $200 an acre for his crop.

No standard estimate can at present be placed on the yield per
acre of orchards in full bearing, but the growers are confident
that they will soon be deriving from $800 to $1600 per acre, this
figure being based on the number of individual trees which are
already producing from $90 to $120 a year. The success with the
nut in California can be duplicated in the East providing certain
hardy varieties are planted; and in the few instances where
orchards have been started in the East, great things have already
been done and still greater are expected in the next few years.

[Sidenote: =Origin of the English Walnut=]

But where did this walnut originate? What is its history? Juglans
Regia (nut of the gods) Persian Walnut, called also Madeira Nut
and English Walnut, is a native of Western, Central and probably
Eastern Asia, the home of the peach and the apricot. It was known
to the Greeks, who introduced it from Persia into Europe at an
early day, as "Persicon" or "Persian" nut and "Basilicon" or
"Royal" nut. Carried from Greece to Rome, it became "Juglans"
(name derived from Jovis and glans, an acorn; literally
"Jupiter's Acorn", or "the Nut of the Gods"). From Rome it was
distributed throughout Continental Europe, and according to
Loudon, it reached England prior to 1562. In England it is
generally known as the walnut, a term of Anglo-Saxon derivation
signifying "foreign nut". It has been called Madeira Nut,
presumably because the fruit was formerly imported into England
from the Madeira Islands, where it is yet grown to some extent.
In America it has commonly been known as English Walnut to
distinguish it from our native species. From the fact that of all
the names applied to this nut "Persian" seems to have been the
first in common use, and that it indicates approxi