Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-19


can only be had by tremendous pressure,
which again sadly interferes with the keep
ing quality of the raisins. We have seen
boxes SO heavily pressed that the berries
were wet with the sugar and juice. Boxes
packed in this way cannot give satisfac-
ton, and while the consumer or middle
man may not understand the reason of the
defect, still he comprehends that some
thing is wrong with the raisins. But this
system of packing has another fault. The
punches which are never laid entirely fiat,
when pressed even moderately, will, SO to
say, become fiat and cannot again be sep
arated without breaking and losing much
of their beauty. If we should count up
the Objectionable points of thus packing,
we would find them to be as follows: 1t
spoils the raisins, it make them appear
smaller than they are, and it causes the
punches to break up. Until this system is
abolished we can never expect perfection
in raisin packing. 1t is enough to add in
regard to this method that the best raisin
packer in the State does not employ it,
but packs his raisins top down.
EVILS OF CLOSE PLANTING.
A promising orchard of three hundred
trees, the property of neighbor of mine,
Just beginning to bear, and on which the
owner realized 5000 last season, was sacri-
feed to the close-planting policy. The
trees, which one year ago showed evil
dence of health and vigor, have assumed
a sickly appearance. Cutting out every
alternate tree, with liberal dressing of
fertilizers, will save the orchard if the
owner has the intelligence and nerve to do
it at once. But what a loss to the soil,
this production of one hundred and fifty
trees which can only be 'cut down and
cast into the firel" And "the survival of
the fttest" will be set back two years, at
least, by this plan of planting and then
thinning an orchard.
The apple tree demands a rich, moist
soil. If these conditions are furnished, it
assumes large proportions and gives i'm
mense yields Why, then, dwarf, starve
and mutilate? Is it not better to have FIVE
thrifty trees, producing fifty bushels of
healthy, fine fruit, than fifty trees with
fifty bushels of wormy, knotty, gnarly
specimens, fit only for the pigs or thieving
Migrants In the latter instance the soil
is taxed to produce the wood of fifty trees
instead of FIVE. The cost of purchasing,
planting, etc., all contributes towards the
swelling contrast in the amount paid out.
In the first instance you will be rewarded
with satisfactory results; in the latter
there viii be disappointment, loss of time
and money and failure to realize when
your orchard comes in bearing. The same
results, comparatively, though not so rap
idly, manifest themselves with regard to
the vine. Too close planting will sooner
or later result disastrously. The proper
distance for setting apple trees is from
thirty to forty feet.-American Agricult-
urist.
SORGHUM.
J. Blackiston, in Placerville Observer :
sent to Minnesota and procured two
kinds of seed-Minnesota Amber and
Kenney Amber. l planted it the last of
March, and the heavy rains washed out
half of each kind, or more. Then came
the hail-storm and ruined over half of
what was left by the floods, but l think l
have enough to make forty gallons. Tie
Minnesota Amber consider the best, as it
does not grow so rank, although have
stalks that are twelve feet. The only
drawback | see is getting it topped, owing
to its growing so high. As for the Kenney
variety, | have stalks thirteen feet high
and measuring five inches in circumfer-
ence. 1t is, in nv opinion, too heavy to
handle, and the Minnesota Amber is the
kind. In order to crush the stocks we
made two rollers of oak and put them to-
gether, similar to a clothes-wringer, with a
crank on each end The stalks turn out
fully as much juice as those do that are
raised in Minnesota, and three gallons of
juice viii make one gallon of syrup, while
in Minnesota it takes FIVE gallons of juice
to make one gallon of syrup. send you
sample of syrup, and you will see it is
as clear as honey. After the stock goes
through the press COWS will eat it in pref
erence to hay of any kind As for the
blades they make splendid feed, and the
top furnishes good chicken feed"
DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS.
The Delta reports the arrest of two
Frenchmen burning timber in the groves
of big trees in the Sierra Nevada noun
tains of Tulare county. The Delta adds
| ''This is good move. The law protecting
the giants of the forest has, up to the pres
ent time, been dead letter. The law is
plain making it criminal offense to will
fully set on fire and destroy these splendid
forests, and yet fires continue to rage in
the mountains. These fires are started by
sheepmen, who burn off the grass and tim
Der so that new crop of grass will grow
for their sheep. Every year groves Of
timber are burned that are ten times more
valuable than the focks of sheep for which
they were sacrificed to give a summers
pasture. 1t is to be hoped that all ofenses
of this kind will be punished to the full
extent of the law"
FARM NOTES.
| The Massachusetts, Ploughman says: The
education received at colleges devoted to
agriculture or on the farm, under the
tutelage of an experienced farmer, while
helpful and necessary, goes for naught I'M
less accompanied everywhere and always
by common sense.
| The California Cdckier, monthly illus
trated magazine published in San Fran.
cisco and devoted to the poultry interest in
all its branches, has become justly popular
among farmers and poultry raisers. 1t i:
second to no publication of its class in the
country.
| Pack eggs in salt or -four, so they do moi
touch; set them away in a dry, cool apart.
ment, and they may be kept good three Oh
four months, which is long enough.
"BY THE sea-