"Grafted trees are to be preferred to seedlings. Grafted trees bear much sooner and the fruit is more uniform in size, though a seedling that has attained the bearing age will produce as much fruit as a grafted tree of the same age; this we have occasion to observe from comparisons in our own orchard.
"We have trees 14 years old that bore 100 pounds at the age of 12 years and the product sold for 25c a pound for planting purposes.
"Those who had the misfortune to have the tender shoots of their walnut trees killed by the unusual frost early last May, should not be discouraged. Just examine the limbs now and you will find that three or four more shoots grew out where the one was killed. This makes more fruit buds for next year and the shortage of crop this year will be more than made up next.
"The writer believes that walnut growing will prove to be the most profitable industry in the Willamette Valley.
"WM. M. REECE."
It seems to be a characteristic of the walnut and hickory, and possibly other nut trees, to send down a tap root deep into the earth to draw up the distilled and purified moisture that has been refined and sweetened in the lower depths. The older boys of the Middle Western states can recall the time when they wandered through the woods in late winter time, with a long pole or rail on their shoulders with which they "pulled hickory root." The young sprout was "withed" around near one end of the pole, then all hands put their shoulders under the long end and with an "altogether, heave, oh," draw up a tap root 4, 6 and 8 feet long. The lowest end was the choicest and sweetest. It was delicious and in the division of a day's hunt some of these found their way to "his best girl" at school.
Whether the water down in these lower depths possesses these qualities, and that they are necessary to give the Oregon walnut its superiority is yet a matter of speculation, but that these conditions exist is well known and should have fullest consideration by the intelligent walnut culturist.
