onsent of the owner
transplanted it to its present site, on the side of a red hill a few
rods above the house and about 100 feet above the level of the valley.
There it was much abused by stock, and exposed to other accidents. When
it began to bear, the squirrels would gather the nuts as soon as they
were big enough to attract them. When the tree was visited in August,
1909, for the purpose of getting a photograph it was found that a
squirrel had burrowed under the roots, making an opening large enough to
admit a good-sized foxhound, and a quantity of nuts hulls were piled
about it and scattered beneath the tree. It is 23 inches in diameter and
has a branch spread of nearly 60 feet. Trees of the fourth generation
from this tree are in bearing near McMinnville and are producing fairly
good nuts, some better than the original tree, demonstrating that the
seedling walnut tree can be improved here by seed selection.

[Illustration: _A Grafted Walnut_]

The above is a two-year-old grafted tree in the orchard of Mr. Prince.
It was sent to him by Judge Leib, of San Jose, in order to convince him
of the superiority of the grafted tree. You will note that the little
bush has two good-sized nuts, and also that it bore one last year, the
first year from the nursery. With this ratio of increase at 20 years of
age it would produce about three and one-quarter tons of walnuts,
counting 42 nuts to the pound, the weight of first-class Oregon walnuts.
But this is not probable.

GRAFTED TREES

The testimony in favor of the grafted tree is not yet very abundant in
Oregon, as the grafting business is new; but with the evidence at hand
it will surely have a standing in court.

Prof. Lewis speaks plainly on this subject. He says:

"One of the main points of discussion is, Which are preferable--grafted
or seedling trees? Let us consider the seedling tree first. There are
men who claim that these are superior to grafted trees, especially in
size, prolificness, etc.; that there is something about our wonderful
Oregon climate that causes the so-called second generation trees to bear
larger and better fruits than the parent plant. And these writers love
to dwell on the subject of generation. There is at times a sort of
mystery, an uncanny vagueness connected with this subject that is
baffling and bewildering to the layman, and causes him to listen with
mouth agape. It is the same sweet silly story that we have had to learn
by bitter