A. Thirty-Six Inch Walnut Tree
in Twelve Years' Time ,
TKe BurbanK Royal Walnut
TO THE breeder of new plants all
things seem possible.
It is not alone that he can
create new flavors in fruits he
can lengthen their bearing scaspn more
nearly to correspond with the markct for
them; it is not alone that he can add
scent and size and color to flowers he
can fit them to grow in soils in which
they never before have grown; it is not
alone that he can add to the food value
and improve the taste of vegetables he
can make them ripen earlier or later,
almost at will.
Doing these things constantly, it ap
peared to Luther Hurbank that the wal
nut tree, America's most valuable lum
ber tree, had a different kind of fault
that it took too long to mature.
So he set about to devise means of
hastening its growth.
His plan was, by cross breeding, to
produce thousands of new walnut trees
and from these to select, ever and always,
those that showed the greatest tendency
to quick growth.
After many experiments, by joining to
gether the native California black wal
nut and the old-fashioned New England
black walnut, Mr. Hurbank produced the
new hybrid, or cross breed, shown above,
which he named the Royal.
This tree had a thirty-six-inch
when twelve years old.
At seventeen years after planting from
the seed it looked as shown above.
It was eighty feet in height,
branches spread fully seventy-five
girth
Its
feet.
And the trunjc was over seventy-two
inches in girth at the height of a man's
head., t
The walnut tr'ce as Nature planned it
is slow to growi At thirty-five years it
will stand scarcely more than twenty
feet high with an eightecn-inch girth.
Thus it will to seen that by simple
cross breeding and selection Luther Hur
bank has produced a walnut tree which
grows eight times as fast as the walnut
trees which Nature gives us a quick
growing walnut with which to replenish
our fast disappearing forests.
On the following page is shown an il
lustration of the finished lumber of the
Hurbank Royal walnut more like ma
hogany than any other North American
wood.
II
