Los Angeles herald., 1891-08-09
THE RANCHES.
A Big Orange Crop to Be
Picked This Year
The Mysterious Vine Disease
Seems to Be SubsidiIg.
What 1t Costs to Plant Ten Acres
of Beets.
The Prune Tree and the Red spider.
What the Fruit Buyers are Dong.
Riverside's Orange Output
for This and Former
Years Compared.

Years Compared.
James Boyd, of Riverside, ii the
course of an able article on thu frlit
outlook, printed in the Phoenix, o. that
city, has the following to say bf the
orange and raisin crops:
The orange crop is now beyond the
dropping stage, and the recent hot
weather, in place OF working injury, has
started the trees into vigorous growth.
1t is safe to say that the total product
of our orange orchards will be much
greater for the present crop than for
last seasons crop. Budded fruit will be
at least double what it was last season,
while seedlings will be as large crop,
and possibly little larger. The young
trees first planted under the Gage
canal will begin to produce for
the first time in any appreciable guam
tity, and the total product will mate
rally help up with the gross total. This
is the time of year when the cry of short
crop is usually heard but there can be
no doubt at all that navels and Medi-
terranean sweets are loaded to their full
capacity. Seedlings will be moderate
crop, but the combined crop of all kinds
will be in the neighborhood of fifty per
cent. more than last seasons crop. Pos
sibly we may set down Los Angeles and
| ratio of increase, which will show as
marked an increase in citrus fruits as
the northern part OF the state will show
in deciduous fruits. A visit to the coast
region lately, shows that in many cases
orange orchards are very much neg
lected, as if the owners had not yet re-
covered from the disastrous effects of
| the boom.
Raisins are looking we'll, and the re-
cent hot spell shows no trace Of sun
scald, nor of injury from the heat. In
Orange county the young vineyards
show no traces as yet of the vine dis
ease, and our Riverside vineyards seem
to be perfectly clean. 1t has been
called the mysterious vine disease, and
should it go as suddenly and mysteri-
ously as it appeared, it would be one OF
the puzzles Of horticultural history. IN
answer to some remarks made in the
Phoenix a few weeks ago, friend writes
that it is caused by one of the fungi that
takes up it's abode in living plants.
The explanation is we'll enough as far
as it goes, but why did California es-
cape the disease for so many years?
| Why was it when the conditions were
favorable to the direct spread of the dis
ease? The fungi are always present
when the decay of the vegetable king
| dom sets in, and whether we call them
! by the oldfashioned name of fungi, or
the new-fangled one OF microbes, the re-
suit is the same. The friend above
stated thinks that preventive measures,
such as keeping the vines thrifty by fer
tilizers and irrigation, as we'll as s'thor-
ough cultivation, with the use of some
form OF fungicide, such as sulphate Of
copper, will have tendency to check
and destroy the fungus itself. Whatever
may be the explanation, it is almost GER
tain that the vine disease has pretty
nearly run its course.
Speaking again of raisins calls to
mind an article in the Rural Californian
for July, in which Mr.. Bevan, of
Malaga, Spain, who claims to have been
in the business there as an exporter for
Mr.. Bevan takes most gloomy view OF
the future OF raisin growing, and says
that when an output of 10000, 900 boxes
is reached in California "there will be
tremendous losses, and the raisin in
dustry will be looked on as unprofit-
able" AS regards Malaga at the
present time, he remarks
"Hereabouts one can buy vine
yards for a mere song, owing to the
financial crisis now prevailing; never
theless there are no buyers" What
ever Mr.. Bevan may say in regard to
the future disastrous outlook for raisins,
will not have the smallest effect on our
future course in California. The fact is
that the resources OF the State are so
varied, and the public taste is being SO
rapidly changed in favor of more fruit,
that there is no probability that any de-
partment OF horticulture can be for any
heightened period in very depressed
condition.
THE CHINO SUGAR FACTORY.
The Chino Champion says: The un-
initiated, on looking over the factory
now, would cay that it is completed.
But he would be told that there is con-
siderable work yet to 5e done in adjust
ing the finer machinery, making final
connections, etc. Mr.. LIE Brun has three
of the boilers completed, and will fire
them in day or two. The others will
be finished very shortly. The roof is
DeluS put Ou lIlt JULIET uOuSc. 1WO
hundred tons OF coke for the lime kilns
have been received from the Spreckels
Commercial company, of San Diego.
The approach to the platform over
and between the beet sheds, over which
Mr.. Gird's traction engine viii run, is
completed just west of the general office
of the company. Connections have been
made with the six-inch main pipe Of the
town water system for the factory use,
and water under fire pressure has been
placed in different parts Of the building
for use in case OF emergency. Mr.. Gird
is continuing work on the artesian wells
with two crews. The steam drill has
been moved west of the railroads, where
two good wells had already been sunk
by the hcsd plant.
Mr.. Pohlmann has his Office and labor
atory fitted UP in the northwest corner
of the second floor of the factory build
ing. He will have several assistants as
soon as operations commence. The tests
of beets made by Mr.. Pohlmann up to
the 21st inst. averaged 14.1 per cent. in
sugar and 1927 per cent. in purity. But