Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/501

 undreds of

thousands of fine prune trees. The crop of prunes in Oregon in the year 1894 was two and a half milhon pounds. This last year it was twenty-eight million pounds.

THE WALNUT INDUSTRY.

Within the past six years a great interest has been aroused in the vicinity of Portland in the cultivation of French walnuts. Col. Henry E. Dosch, himself a native of France, has done a great work in enlightening the American people on this fruit.

The so-called "EngHsh" walnut originated in Persia, where it throve for many centuries before it was carried to Europe — to England, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy — different varieties adapting themselves to each country. The name "walnut" is of German origin, meaning "foreign nut." The Greeks called it "the Royal nut" and the Romans, "Jupiter's acorn," "Jove's nut," the gods having been supposed to subsist on it.

The great age and size to which the walnut tree will attain has been demon- strated in these European countries ; one tree in Norfolk, England, 100 years old, 90 feet high, and with a spread of 120 feet, yields 54,000 nuts a season; another tree, 300 years old, 55 feet high, and having a spread of 125 feet, yields 1,500 pounds each season. In Crimea there is a notable walnut tree 1,000 years old that yields in the neighborhood of 100,000 nuts annually. It is the property of five Tartar families, who subsist largely on its fruit.

In European countries walnuts come into bearing from the sixteenth to the twenty-fourth year; in Oregon, from the eighth to the tenth year; grafted trees, sixth year.

The first walnut trees were introduced into America a century ago by Span- ish Friars who planted them in southern California. It was not until compara- tively recent years that the hardier varieties from France adapted to commercial use, were planted in California and later in Oregon.

English walnuts for desert, walnut confectionery, walnut cake, walnuts in candy bags at Christmas time — thus far has the average person been introduced to this, one of the greatest foods of the earth. But if the food specialists are heard, if the increasing consumption of nuts as recorded by the government bureau of imports is consulted — in short, if one opens his eyes to the tremendous place the walnut is beginning to take among food products the world over, he will realize that the walnut's rank as a table luxury is giving way to that of a neces- sity; he will acknowledge that the time is rapidly approaching when nuts will be regarded as we now regard beefsteak and wheat products. The demand is already so great that purveyors are beginning to ask where are the walnuts of the future to come from ?

In 1902, according to the department of commerce and labor, we imported from Europe 11,927,432 pounds of EngHsh walnuts; each year since then these figures have increased, until in 1906 they reached 24,917,023 pounds, valued at $2,193,653. In 1907 we imported 32,590,000 pounds of walnuts and 20,000,000 more were produced in the United States. In Oregon alone there are consumed $400,000 worth of nuts annually.

The Prince Walnut Grove of Dundee, Yamhill county, thrills the soul of the onlooker with its beauty, present fruitfulness and great promise. Lying on a magnificent hillside, the long rows of evenly set trees — healthy, luxurious _ in foliage, and filled with nuts — present a picture of ideal horticulture worth going many miles to see. There is not a weed to mar the perfect appearance of the well-tilled soil ; not a dead limb, a broken branch, a sign of neglect or decay. In all 200 acres are now planted to young walnuts, new areas being added each sea- son. From the oldest groves, about forty-five acres, the trees from twelve to fourteen years old, there was marketed in 1905, between two and three tons of walnuts; in 1906 between four and five tons;^in 1907 ten tons were harvested, bringing the highest market price, 18 and 20 cents a pound wholesale,