rafter can place it in a bearing tree and the second
or third year know the result of his experiment by the production of
fruit, and this not more than three or four years from the planting of
the seed.

The advantage of planting walnuts, providing you secure first generation
nuts of the right variety for your soil and atmospheric conditions, is
in simplicity and inexpensiveness. You merely purchase your nuts of a
reliable concern, or from an isolated grove of one variety (many send
direct to France, where pure strains can be more readily gotten), and in
February plant them on their sides in a shallow box of moist sand; keep
in a cool place. In April, or as soon as they sprout, dig a hole 2-1/2
or 3 feet deep, put in surface loam, and plant three or four nuts to a
hole about 2 or 3 inches deep. They will come up by June and make a
growth of a foot or so the first season.

It is contended by many that nothing is gained by planting seedlings in
the nursery, as the set-back from transplanting prevents their bearing
any earlier than trees of the same age grown from nuts.

Grafted trees, on the other hand, are difficult to obtain in large
numbers, are expensive, but produce nuts of uniform size and beauty, and
the pollination is said to be more sure.

The industry is still too young in Oregon for the final word to have
been spoken on this point. The future will undoubtedly add much valuable
information as larger experience supplants theory with facts.

The vital point is to plant good nuts or reliable seedlings from a pure
strain.

In choosing varieties be governed by your location. If frosts are to be
feared get late-blooming varieties, the leading ones established in
Oregon being the Mayette and the Franquette. Other varieties will
undoubtedly be introduced in the next few years that will withstand
frost in regions where walnut planting now seems impractical. Mr. Henry
Hewitt's one tree that blooms the fourth of July, at an elevation of
1,000 feet, is evidence of the possibilities in this direction. Air
drainage is necessary.

The tested varieties in Oregon to date, and the results, are as follows:

Mayettes (the famous "Grenoble" of commerce) and Franquettes are first
choice for hardiness and for reliable commercial crops, the nuts being
of good size, fine flavor and in every way meeting the highest market
demands.

Praeparturiens bear earlier than other varieties, are very productive
and as fine flavored as a