Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-10-14


the horticultural line, and with very little
manure and water. Some three weeks ago
picked three tons ofpears from eight trees
averaging between eight and ten inches at,
the butt-and such pears Speak now of
the possibility" of this section growing
something else than gold
Some time last August had visitor at
my place, man from the East, and who
had already travelled good deal in this
State. Coming across Clairgeau tree from
which | picked this fall 900 pounds of
pears, the man could not help himself but
to stand in admiration before that tree.
then, throwing glance at the yellow
ground all around the tree, which bore on
Its face the poorness of the soil and max
ing quite contrast with the bountiful crop
OF pears, said he, addressing himself to me.
You use much manure on your land,
don't your"
cannot, Should l feel like using some, in
dulge in such luxury,
No manure, and such pears in such a
soil r. exclaimed the stranger, much sur
pr1sed. Then, shaking his head, he added,
almost speaking to himself: "Strange.
strange country Indeed, there is but one
California"
Better yet than my barren hill. what to
think of the really astonishing crops raised
on what is commonly called "a bedrock
Here is an instance taken from among
scores of them: John Ducray, on the west
ern side of this town, has a little ranch
established altogether on the bedrock, a soft
granite composition, the surface soil hay
ing been washed off twenty weight years ago
by the hose OF the hydraulic miner.''
Well, Mr.. Ducray, with manure and water.
has been raising for years on this very bed
rock some OF the largest and best potatoes
L have ever seen; and two pear trees,
planted about 1861, gave him again this fall
one and half tons of pears. Apropos, this
ought to convince our San Francisco Jour-
nalists that whether the surface soil is
washed down by the hose of the hydraulic
miner" or not, does not affect at all the
capabiity of the remaining soil or bedrock
to grow fruit as nice and in as large quanti-
ties-and l really believe in larger quanti-
tles-than If the surface soil had not been
touched at all.
Still another example, picked among
hundred such ones; Samuel Allison, on
the north side of this place. has a fruit
ranch where all kinds Of fruit are raised.
The surface soil of Mr. Allison's ranch is
about foot thick, and pretty well mixed
with rocks; still, the fruit raised by Mr..
Allison is in size and quality second to
| none, and i do not care in what part of the
State like fruit is raised. Mr. Allison has
been on that rocky place for twenty years,
and every kind of fruit given fair trial.
Around Grass Valley we find the same
results from a soil similar to that round
Nevada City: Four years ago 1 sampled at
Mr.. Leeman's place, few miles south of
Grass Valley, the very best four-year-old
brandy that | have ever tasted in Califor-
MIA l took ramble through Mr.. Lee
mans vineyard, and found the soil to con-
sist of reddish clay, with liberal mixture
| OF rocks OF all sizes, which everybody would
call poor soil par excellence. l was not
| surprised then at the superiority of Mr..
Leeman's brandy, a poor or rocky soil be-
ing the very best to impart to wine and
brandy that "bouquet" which constitutes
their very superiority.
| Those few examples taken among hun
dreds of that kind, will suffice, l expect, to
show what the soil of the snow horticult-
ural belt of the Sierra is able to produce.
and don't you let anybody speak any more
of the probabilities latent in the soiI''
of this undeveloped belt But, will saw
| some smart-Alecks, that snow horticultural
belt has great drawback, late frost in the
| spring; that is true Same as
those fine grape-growing provinces of
France, Champagne and Burgundy, as also
that home of the olive, Provence, in the
| south of France; that snow horticultural
belt of the Sierra is subject to late frosts in
the spring, and to have a part OF the fruit
| crop, and sometimes the entire fruit crop,
| destroyed by frost. This, we admit, is
somewhat of a drawback on the horticult-
ural prospects of that belt, but let US look
at the other sections of the State, and see
| II they have not their drawbacks, too.
Only last spring didn't we see immense
armies OF grasshoppers devastating orchards
and vineyards in the foothills and valleys.
| ipaVfnU NOTHING hahird .
| would call as bad, is not worse, than frost.
1t descending lower down in the valleys.
| Didn't we see this summer everything dry
ing up on account of the drought. as fire.
| quent in the valleys as frost in the noun
talns? Isnot that drought serious draw
back to farming IN the valleys2 By going
a little farther towards the sea- in the
great counties of Sonoma and Napa, we
find the phylloxera having fairly fixed
| itself on the vines of that fertile
section of the State, so much SO
that on that very account was the
Viticultural Commission created, SO as to
lind means to check the ravages of the
terrible pest. We have not. nor can we
have, any phylloxera up here in the noun
tains; nor grasshoppers; and we need not
resort to grating the vines on phylloxera-
resistant stock, as they have to do down
there. Is not that drawback to the plant
ing OF grapes in that phylloxera-stricken
section? Going to the great fruit-groYinar
valley of Santa Clara, there we find thai
valley swarming with black scale, and
white SCALE and red scale, and red spider.
and other pests, injecting the fruit trees of
that beautiful valley; stunting them, in
turing the crop, even endangering the life
OF the tree, in fact, quite drawback to
that valley. Such pests are unknown in
the mountains; the only insect pests we
have being the Goblin moth and woolly
aphls, both common to the entire State.
Every section of the State has a drawback
OF some kind-frost, drought, grasshoppers.
insect pests, flood, slickens, etc; one is
hardly better off than the other on that
point.
There is another question that should
meet our most thoughtful consideration, it
IS the question of irrigation, so little un-
derstood by most people Some think
that to grow crops of any kind, water
should be run constantly upon the ground;
others, that anything can be raised with
out irrigation. Both are wrong, that is
in certain measure. They do not under
stand the nature of our soil and the proper
requisites to insure the growth OF fruit
trees. But as this question of irrigation
would take too much space to be properly
discussed, will cut it short here, though
l must at some future time, and in the
columns Of the REcoRp-UNIoN. discnss
thoroughly that question so vital to the
welfare OF this section, if not the whole
State. FEIGx Cur IT,
Nevada City, Cal, October -, 1885.
TOBACCO PAPER.-A new and less oh
Jecuonable than the ordinary use has been
found Tor the tobacco plant Its stems and