The morning call., 1893-05-30
THE GROWING OF FRUIT.
A Profitable Business Which Needs
Constant Attention.
Correspondence of THE MORNING CALL.

Correspondence of THE MORNING CALI.
A city worker. would-be orchardist.
remarked to me last week that he intended
to become a fruit-grower because all you
had to do was to get the orchard and take
in the money. His idea was that outside
OF picking time all there was to do was
the ''choreing' There are so many others
aiming and working and hoping to become
fruit-ranchers who have just such vague
ideas that perhaps word OF explanation
will not be amlss.
Take ten acres of land-enough for the
good support of a fair-sizod family-as
basis upon which to compute the labor.
First after the fruit is off. comes prun-
| ing; ten acres will have 1000 trees; good
worker can prune no more than twenty
trees OF fuli size day, no matter what va
riety of fruit: that means fifty days labor.
Almonds, prunes and cherries, however,
are not pruned. and as a general thing not
much more than half of an orchard is IN
trees which require pruning, which would
likely bring the WORK OF pruning down to
thirty days. A good team in all day can
pillow. two acres; as two plowings are nee
essary, that calls for another ten days;
cultlvatng. narrowing and Shedding Will
take, all told-it has 10 be done so many
times-another twenty days. This makes
more than two months hard work.
Later is the spraying, which will take
week. Peaches an apric0ts must in aver
age years be thinned; nature sends such
| bOuntiful crops that this year, for instance,
quick worker can only thin eighteen or
twenty trees day. Say half the orchard
needs thinning. it will take the best part
OF another month to get that done. Ii he
has his place in, say. cherries, peaches.
| apricots and almonds. succession OF
fruits, he will be busy for three full
months harvesting tho
This covers the actual steady, hard
work, and amounts to six full mouths. AS
all or almost all of the seekers after
knowledge TO whom l am writing are
young men who intend to do the actual
work, only hiring when necessary. they
will fnd that it takes lime to make fruit
boxes, to keep fences, sheds. tools. har-
nesses, ETC.. in repair. The brush from the
trees must be taken care of; the large
limbs cut for stoyewood. the small tWigs
burned.
A vegetable patch must be put in and at
tended to; flower garden, too. Will re-
quire good many days attention.
In fact, an orchardst may keep busy
every day in the year. and, while there are
'between times" when work is slack, an
| actual worker has few idle days.
If the woud-be orchardist is afraid of
this actual work for himself let him work
longer at something else. and buy not less
than twenty acres of good orcharding;
then he may keep help and his good wife
may also keep servant
Moorpark apricots. which promised
fair crop here, are dropping badly,
although more than half grown. There
are absolutely no Bartlett pears. Peaches
bang full. Almonds are "streaked." XII
and similar varieties are FULL but no other
varieties have any. Cherries are being
shipped this week and are snld Mt fine
prices. Gamers are paying and cents
q D0und n tna orchards Thu WI IN nh.
ries, which rlpen later. are turning yellow
and dropping in large quantities. Three
weeks ago they were all falling in Santa
Clara County, and trees that promised a
| large crop will yield but few pounds of
ripe ones. 1t is something new and uu-
heard OF aud is giving cherry-growers
great deal OF uneasiness.
San LeandrO and San Lorenzo are the
great cherry centers, and orchards that
promised handsome crops two weeks ago
will bring in but meager returns.
Prunes are falling in similar manner
in Santa Clara Valley. and our prune-
growers here are uneasy in consequence.
The public school closed FRIDAY for n
two months vacation. Five pupils grad
uated, the largest number since the school
was organized, twenty odd years ago four
of them intend to continue their studies in
the High School
Propcrty-owners are beginning slowly
| to know what great loss the taking of the
creek water has been; petition is out for
| signatures. demanding that tho water COM
| pany keep the irrigatlng ditch and other
canals filled with water during the
summer months for the use OF the orchard
lists.
This Christian Endeavor societies of this
valley have been holding very interesting
meetings in the different towns. They ali
meet next Sunday evening in Niles.
Last Wednesday Professors Edwards
and Lange of the State University visited
the Union High School and examined the
pupils in mathematics and English. The
pupils have now been examined in every
study by professors from the university.
and as the reports have heen favorable.
the graduates from Union High School No.
2 are hereafter entitled to admission into
the university without further examina
ton.
There was quite a little excitement in
town Wednesday afternoon. The house
on the vegetable grounds was burned to
the ground with every thing in it. By great
exertions the stables containing several
tons of hay and dozen horses were saved.
The house can be rebuilt for $500, but the
Italian workmen lost several hundred
dollars each in money which they had in
the house. MRS. L. E. TuANF.
Niles, May 81. 1893.