English Walnuts Bear in Clusters of Two to Five
The white-meated nut is far superior to any other. The browning or staining is caused by the extremely dry heat and sun in the far South. In the North or where the tree has an abundant thick foliage the meat is invariably whiter.
The Mission Nut
The Mission Nut was introduced by the priests of Los Angeles and is the pioneer Persian Walnut of California. Most of the bearing orchards of the state are composed of seedling trees of this type. The nut is medium-sized with a hard shell of ordinary thickness. It succeeds admirably in a few favored districts (of Southern California) but fails in productiveness farther North. Its most prominent faults are—early blooming, in consequence of which it is often caught by the late frosts; the irregular and unequal blooming of its pistillate and staminate blossoms, and the consequent failure of the former to be fertilized and to develop nuts; and lateness in ripening its wood in the Fall and consequent liability to injury by frost at that time.
The Santa Barbara Nut
The Santa Barbara English Walnut (soft-shell) variety is about ten days later than the Mission in starting growth and in blooming in the Spring. It fruits from four to six years from seed and usually produces a full crop every year. It is not as strong a grower as the Mission and more trees can be grown to the acre. The shells are thin and easily broken, therefore the nuts are sometimes damaged in long shipment. The kernel is white and of very fine quality.
The Pomeroy Nut
The Pomeroy variety was started in a most peculiar and interesting way. The late Norman Pomeroy of Lockport, New York, made the discovery quite by accident. When he was in Philadelphia in 1876 visiting the Centennial Exposition, he awoke one morning to be greeted by the leaves of a gorgeous tree, which just touched his window and through which the sun shone brightly. He soon was examining a magnificent English Walnut tree. On the ground directly under he found the nuts, which had fallen during the night. Their flavor was more delicious and the meat fuller than any he had ever before tasted. The shell was unusually thin and Mr. Pomeroy was astonished, for he never believed the English Walnut grew in the East.
Knowing the varieties grown in California could not be raised in the East or North, he questioned his landlord and found that this particular tree had been brought from Northern Europe. Mr. Pomeroy determined at once that possibly this variety would be hardy enough for cultivation in New York State. He procured some of the nuts and put them in his satchel which he entrusted to a neighbor who was about to start home. The neighbor reached home all right and so did the nuts—but—the neighbor's children found the rare delicacies and ate all but seven. They would doubtless have eaten these too but fortunately they had slipped into the lining of the satchel where Mr. Pomeroy found them on his return to Lockport. These seven nuts, which had so narrow an escape from oblivion, are now seven beautiful English Walnut trees, sixty or more feet high and the progenitors of the Pomeroy orchards, all of which are now producing nuts like the originals—a very fine quality.