The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-06
TRACTION ENGINES IN THE LEVEL
VALLEYS OF THE IN
TERROR.
NEW HORTICULTURAL IDEAS
MATTERS OF INTEREST ON THE
FARM, THE RANGE AND IN
THE ORCHARD.

portant position in the commerce of Cali
fornia, and their use is constantly growing.
Their greatest utility is made manifest in
the great level valleys of the interior, where
they can be used to haul wheat from the
field to railroad stations and steamboat
landings. For this purpose they are much
more economical than horses. Where the
land is sufficiently level to use them for
hauling gang plows and harrows, they are
also used to great advantage. They are
also profitably employed in propelling
combined harvesting machines, The lat
ter, we may state for the benefit of Eastern
readers, consist of header and thrasher,
so combined that the wheat is headed and
thrashed as the machine moves over the
field; the straw being run into attending
wagons if the farmer intends to save it, or
dumped on the ground if not; while the
wheat sacks are loaded on an accom-
panying wagon or thrown on the ground
in piles, as the owner may elect.
Traction engines have also been intro
duced in logging camps; in one instance
reducing the number of horses employed
from 80 to a single span. This effected
great saving, as hay was high in the noun
tains, while fuel was plentiful and cost
nothing.
The traction engine will ascend grades
as great as 800 feet to the mile. This
makes their sphere of usefulness in log
ging camps an extended one. There are
many places along the Sierra Nevada
Mountains where lumber is hauled by
teams from the mills to the railroad, the
distance often ranging from twenty to
forty miles. In nearly every instance the
traction engine could be used economically,
but the teamsters, whose investments often
equal that necessary for the purchase of
traction engine, object seriously to the in
PRODUCTION of steam engines. In many in
stances the teamsters are farmers, who
use their stock between seedtime and har-
vest in hauling lumber Their antipathy
to the traction engine often greatly delays
change.
The traction engines usefulness is not
confined to any one line OF service, and
it can be used to pump water for irri-
cation, to haul roadmaking machines, haul
merchandise, and transport ores from
mines to mills.
new use has recently been found for
them. There are in some sections of the
State extensive areas of land covered with
chemisal sagebrush, and the aconite bush.
The clearing of this land, while 1t did not
involve the expenditure of as much as
the clearing of timber land, was neverthe-
devised heavy iron roller, which he pro-
PEELED over the land with traction engine.
This broke down and crushed the brush,
even uprooting much of it, and in every
case loosening the root. Thus the clear
ing of the land was made easy and mex
pensive.
Other uses will no doubt yet be sug-
gested. In the San Joaquin Valley they
could be used to haul canal-boats along
canals that must eventually be constructed
north and south. Whether they would be
as economical as power transferred by
electricity would depend upon the source
of the power, and its distance from the field
of operations.
The paper-shell almond is the most
profitable variety in most sections of the
State.
The new freight rate on oranges which
went into effect on the 10Th ult, provides
that orange boxes shall be estimated at
seventy-two pounds instead of seventy
This increases the freight 81 80 per carload
of 300 boxes.
Mrs Elise P. Buckingham, who owns
the Lagunita ranch, near Vacayille, prob
ably owns the largest fruit orchard owned
by any woman in the world. She grows
and markets as high as 600 tons per annum.
A Florida expert sums up his expert
ence in regard to the use of fertilizers for
orange orchards as follows: Apply stable
manures early, that they may rot in the
soil in the rainy season; apply bone meal
| about poisoning time; after the fruit is
set, apply potash. OF course this plan
should be changed if the soil already con-
tains an abundance of potash.
California has no competitor on the con-
tinent for its olives, figs, raisins, table
cannot be grown successfully in any other
| State.
| The greater portion of the olive crop is
picked too green. The olive, when fresh
| from the tree, is bitter. The bitterness is
removed by the application of I've. When
picked green, olives are hard and acrid
| and do not have the rich flavor which can
| only be present in fruit that has been al
lowed to fully ripen.
Quinces here produce sure crop every
year. They are less liable to the ravages
of insect pests than almost any other fruit.
They ripen late, and can be shipped when
other fruit is out of the way. They bear
heavily. They are less perishable than
other fruits, and can be packed when still
green, and can be shipped as common
freight. They can be shipped to the East
at a net profit of from 48 to 81 cents per
box. The profit per acre varies from $50
| to 500. The ounce cannot be grown upon
the valley lands as profitably as some
other fruits, but thrives in foothill and
mountain SeCLlOUS WE6Te the weather is
| too cold for the greatest development of
more profitable fruits.
While it is a fact that fruits, vines and
| vegetables of every name and nature that
grow in temperate and semi-tropic zones
| may be grown in California, it is dem
| onstrated fact that some products are
more profitable than others. There are
| few farmers, indeed, who confine them
selves to any one product, because the
land is so rich and the seasons so favorable
that one crop may be sown after another
has been harvested. More or less stock,
too, can always be kept on what would
otherwise be wasted But the best-paying
products are peaches, pears, plums, prunes,
cherries apricots, walnuts, almonds, apples
and grapes.
The mountains for apples.
Fruit should never be pressed in the box.
Cherry trees should be kept free from
gum.
Plant the fruit that does best in your
locality.
Deep, frequent blowing pays in any
orchard.
Eternal vigilance in the price of clean
orchard.
The nectarine reaches its greatest per-
lection in California.
The Bartlett is the choicest of all the
varieties of pears.
Eruif budded on almond stock renuireS