storms to throw down the trees, and the nuts
are self-gathering. These and many other valuable and interesting
problems in the industry are to be worked out.

According to Prof. Lewis, who is good authority, a later and better
method is to cut the young tree back to 4 feet and make it throw out
three or four laterals. When these laterals are fully grown, bind them
up in a bundle one or two feet diameter with soft strands of rope. In
the dormant season cut these laterals back to about two feet. This will
multiply the branches. Cut back the new growths again the next year, and
so on; this will greatly increase the nut-bearing boughs and will train
the tree upward. This seems to be the most sensible method of pruning
yet proposed.

NO DISEASES INJURE OREGON WALNUTS

The soft, moist atmosphere of western Oregon, so favorable to the
English walnut, seems wholly unfavorable to pests that destroy the crop
in other climates. A crop has never been lost or materially injured in
Oregon through these sources; in fact, so free are the Oregon trees of
such enemies that little thought or attention has been given to this
phase of the subject. In a few localities where caterpillars have
attacked the foliage they have been quickly eradicated by an arsenic
spray. Fumigating will kill insect life. A bacterial disease that has
made its appearance in California has not been seen in this state.
Winter spray of lime and sulphur will kill moss and lichens, which are
about the only parasites that attempt to fasten on Oregon walnut trees.

[Illustration: _Old Walnut Trees Planted About 1850 Near McMinnville, on
the Yamhill River_]

[Illustration: POLLINATION

The Walnut]

POLLINATION

Every fruit and nut grower should know the simple theory of pollination.
When a tree appears thrifty but fails to produce, nine times in ten the
trouble is with the pollination. The walnut is bi-sexual and
self-fertile; the staminate catkins appear first, at the end of the
year's growth (see Fig. 1), and the female blossoms, or pistillates,
from one to three weeks later at the end of the new growth (see Fig. 2).
Thus the staminate catkins sometimes fall before the pistillates form,
and naturally there is no pollination and no crop. This should not
discourage the grower or cause him to uproot his trees. Often by waiting
a few seasons--if the tree is of the correct variety--the trouble may
right itself. Many growers have gotten a crop from s