Walnut trees will do well, providing you do not irrigate the alfalfa sufficiently to waterlog the trees; providing also that you do use water enough so that the trees will not be robbed of moisture by the alfalfa.  This method of growing trees will be, of course, safer and probably more satisfactory if your soil is deep and loamy, as it should be to get the best results with both alfalfa and walnuts.  It would be better to have the trees stand so that the water does not come into direct contact with the bark, although walnut trees are irrigated by surrounding them with check levees.  Planting walnut trees in an old stand of alfalfa is harder on the tree than to start alfalfa after the trees have taken hold, because the alfalfa roots like to hang on to their advantage.  In planting in an old field, we should plow strips, say, five feet wide and keep it cultivated rather than to try to start the trees in pot-holes, although with extra care they might go that way.

Walnuts in the Hills.

Will walnuts grow well in the foothill country; elevation about 600 feet, soil rich, does not crack in summer and seems to have small stones in it?

Walnuts will do well providing the soil or subsoil is retentive enough.  If you have water available for irrigation in case the trees should need it, they would do well, but if the soil is gravelly way down and likely to dry out deeply and you have no water available an opposite result might be expected.  It is a fact that on some of the uplands of the coast mountains there is a lack of moisture late in the season which interferes with the success of some fruit trees.

To Increase Bearing of Walnuts.

We have a walnut orchard which does not bear enough nuts.  The trees are all fine, even trees, 10 and 12 years old, and we are told that the crop was light this year because the trees were growing so vigorously and put most of their energy into the new wood.  Is there any special fertilizer which will make the trees bear more and not prompt such heavy growth?

If your adviser is right that the trees are not bearing because of excessive growth, it would be better not to apply any fertilizer during the coming year, but allow the trees to assume more steady habit and possibly even to encourage them to do so by using less cultivation and water.  If you wish to experiment with some of the trees, give them an application of five pounds of superphosphate and two pounds of potash to each tree, properly distributed over the land which it occupies.  You certainly should not use any form of nitrogen.

Temperature and Moisture for the English Walnut.

What amount of freezing and drouth can English walnuts stand?  Under what conditions is irrigation necessary?