Los Angeles herald., 1892-02-07
THE RANCHES.
Typical Facts About South
ern California Farms.
Two Native Plants Worthy of
Cultivation.
A Riverside Man Writes of the Gum
Disease.
The Wild Poppy and the Christmas
Berry Tree-Planting Decid-
uous Trees-Notes.
ETC., Etc.

Whenever the grounds are of suffi-
cient size to allow for the growing OF
large shrubs, two native plants are well
worthy OF cultivation, says Miss K. o.
Sessions in the San Diego Union.
Plants that aie greatly admired by all
visitors and eagerly sought for by all
plant and flower lovers. refer to the
romneya coulteri and the photinia arbu-
tifolia. The former is the beautiful,
large, single white poppy, with its huge
golden knob OF stamens, an ideal flower
for the artist indeed. 1t grows near
the Mexican line and abundantly below,
in Lower California. 1t is also found in
parts of San Bernardino and Orange
counties. 1t is large growing, shrubby
plant, with handsome glaucous foliage,
true to the blush green foliage of our
common garden poppy, but not in
shape of leaf. From May until
September it tosses its bird-like
flowers high into the air on
long, woody stems. 1t thrives admira-
bly, in cultivation and is seen occasion
ally as very choice cut flower in San
Francisco.
About February the old wood should
be trimmed out and Immediately the
strong young shoots will appear. Most
poppies are ANIMALS but nature has pro-
vided in the romneya perennial shrub.
The photinia arbutifolia is our "Christ-
mas Berry" tree, hardy evergreen
shrub with pretty white flowers like the
spike of the lily OF the valley. In cult
vation the berries are luxuriant and very
ornamental on the plant, liable to brighten
any lawn or group of back ground
shrubbery during November and Decem-
ber. The plants can be grown tall and
shapely and beneath their shade during
spring and summer pansies or violets
will thrive or bed of callas or foliage
geraniums. On the extensive grounds
of the Smiley brothers, at Redlands, this
photinia is being grown in the nursery
by the hundreds, for subsequent plant
ing on the place.
THE GUM DISEASE.
Mr.. James Boyd, in the Riverside
Phoenix, has the following:
The gum disease, about which some
uneasiness has been felt by one or two
orchardists who have got it somewhat,
is nothing to be alarmed about. While
| it is very destructive when the condi-
tions are favorable to it's development,
| it is disease that can, in the writer's
| opinion, be kept almost entirely out of
an orchard. The gum disease on the
orange is practically the same disease
that attacks the lemon, but the orange
appears SO far to be proof or nearly so
against it. While the lemon will be
attacked by it when it gets to be from
IL to 20 years old, the orange seldom
suffers.
At least one of the conditions that
produce the disease is too much stag
nant water close to the trunk OF the
tree, in irrigating The orchards where
it at present shows itself are those or
chards that are very fat, and where the
soil is if anything lower round the
trees than between the rows; and it
generally appears first where waste water
stands at the ends of the rows, and
from there spreads and gradually ex-
tends up the rows towards the irrigating
ditch. 1t invariably begging in the root
| first, and 60 insidious is it approachs at
| times thatthe first notice the orchardist
| has OF il is when the tree begins to look
yellow, and as if it were in poor health.
! When bad it may, in vigorous trees, ex-
| tend somewhat to the branches, but the
source of the evil is in the root.
There is no preventive but in keeping
| the water away from the roots, and this
can be easily done by light plowing
toward the trees, and leaving slight
depression in the center of the row.
WhenDnce it makes its appearance, the
best way is to cut out every portion OF
diseased bark and to cover with mix
ture, such as paint or asphaltum, to ex-
clude the air and moisture, when, in a
few months, if not too far gone, all
ever, the trunk is completely girdled,
gone, there is no remedy but digging up
and making stove-wood of the trees.
In this case il is sometimes difficult to
get another tree to grow in the place of
the one displaced, and the best way of
all to insure the growth of new tree is
to dig a good-sized hole and fill up with
virgin soil from the outside. After the
trees are well started and growing,
light top dressing of good stable manure,
taking care that the manure does not
touch the bark, will generally insure
vigorous growth.
The gum disease is quite different
disease from what is called the foot-rot.
The footrot is rare in California, and
differs from the gum disease in the tree
appearing to be moist near the root, as
if the sap was exuding all the time, un-
til it fully decays.
The disease that attacks seed bed
plants appears to be nearly allied to the
foot-root, for in the young plants the
root decays first, and the bark OF the
root will slough right off the tap-root.
The gum disease is generally dry and
the gum exudes go slowly that it dries
as fast as it appears. A similar disease
attacks apricots, and when it does is
generally fatal, and the trees will die in
the summer in which they are attacked.
EUCALYPTUS FICIFoLIA.
Jeannie G. Carr of Pasadena writes to
the Rural Press concerning this tree
that should be more generally known
and planted as an ornamental tree:
This showiest of the eucalypti "makes
a distinct forest belt in the coast region