Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/502

 two cents

more than California nuts. The crop for 1908 was at least one-third heavier than for 1907. One tree on the Prince place, a Mayette, that has received extra cul- tivation, by way of experiment, now twelve years old, has a spread of thirty-eight feet, and yielded in its eleventh year, 125 pounds of excellent nuts.

While it is generally found that seedling trees properly treated come into bearing the eighth year, this crop is usually light, doubling each successive season for seven or eight years. From then on there is a steady increase in crop and hardiness for many years. Often trees in Oregon bear in their sixth year; while there are mstances on record of trees set out in February, bearing the following autumn. This is no criterion, however, merely an instance illustrating the un- usual richness of Oregon soil, and its perfect adaptibility to walnut culture.

THE WALNUT MARKET.

The very fact that in 1907 Oregon grown walnuts commanded several cents a pound higher price than those grown elsewhere indicated their market value. When ordinary nuts sold for 12 and 16 cents a pound, Oregon nuts brought 18 and 20 cents.

New York dealers who cater to the costliest trade throughout the United States, and who have never handled for this purpose any but the finest types of imported nuts, pronounced the Oregon product satisfactory from every stand- point — finely flavored, nutty, meaty and delicious. They were glad to pay an extra price to secure all that were available.

In the home market the leading dealers of Portland and northwest cities readily dispose of all the Oregon walnuts obtainable at an advanced price. In fact, the Oregon walnut has commanded a premium in every market into which it has been introduced.

WHO SHOULD PLANT.

Like the apple business, the sale of lands for walnut plantations has been actively pushed for several years, and all sorts and conditions of men and women have been urged to put their savings into this new industry.

The walnut agent literature is extensive and interesting. From one of their booklets edited by J. C. Cooper we take the following extract :

"Professional men and women, business men and women, those living in the cities and towns and confined to offices, stores and factories, will find an invest- ment in forty or fifty acres of walnut land at the present time wholly within their possibilities. Special terms can be arranged and their groves planted and cared for at small cost. While they are working their groves will be growing toward maturity, and in less than a decade, they may be free from the demands of daily routine; the grove will furnish an income, increasing each season until the twen- tieth year, and will prove the most pleasant kind of old age annuity, and the richest inheritance a man could leave his children.

The practical farmer, or the inexperienced man who desired to escape the tyranny of city work by way of the soil, will find that a walnut grove ofifers an immediate home, a living from small fruits and vegetables while his trees are maturing, and at the end of eight or ten years the beginning of an income that will every year thereafter increase, while the labor exacted will gradually lessen until it amounts to practically nothing. Like rearing children, a walnut grow- er's troubles are over with the trees' infant days.

The capitalist can find no better place for his money than safely invested in Oregon walnut lands ; the rise is certain and near."

B. M. Lelong, secretary of the California state board of horticulture, wrote in 1896:

"California growers have had a long and varied experience with many fail- ures, and when they finally began to place their walnuts on the market they were