In Portland, Oregon, on what is known as the old Dekum place, 13th and Morrison streets, there are two walnut trees, planted in 1869, that have yielded a heavy crop every fall since their eighth year, not a single failure having been experienced.
The ground has never been cultivated. The nuts planted were taken at random from a barrel in a grocery store. During the "silver thaw" of 1907, the most severe cold spell in the history of Oregon, one of the trees was wrenched in two, but the dismembered limb, hanging by a shred, bore a full crop of walnuts the following season.
N. A. King, at 175 Twenty-first street, has some fine, old trees that have not missed bearing a good crop since their eighth year.
Henry Hewitt, living at Mt. Zion, Portland, an elevation of 1,000 feet, has many handsome trees, one, a grafted tree fifteen years old, that has borne since its fifth year. Another tree of his buds out the fourth of July and yields a full crop as early as any of the other varieties.
In Salem, there is what is known as the famous old Shannon tree, fully thirty years old, with a record of a heavy crop every season.
Mayor Britt, of Jacksonville, has a magnificent tree that has not failed in twenty years.
Dr. Finck, of Dallas, has a large tree seventeen years old that bore 70 pounds of nuts in its thirteenth year, and has increased ever since.
C. H. Samson, of Grants Pass, has a grove of 250 trees, now ten years old, that bore at seven years.
Mr. Tiffany, of Salem, has a fifteen-year-old tree that at thirteen years bore 115 pounds.
Mr. E. Terpening, of Eugene, has four acres of walnuts grafted on the American black, which in 1905 produced 700 pounds, in 1906 produced 1200 pounds, in 1907 produced 2000 pounds, and in 1908 produced 3000 pounds. He tried seedlings first, but they were not satisfactory. The Epps and Reece orchard near Eugene produces about 100 pounds per tree, at 12 years of age.