The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-10
NEWS OF COAST RANCHES.
Practical Demonstration of
the Profit in Small
Farms.
THE CHEAP LANDS OF NEVADA
Colonies to Populate the Sagebrush
State May Be One of Early
Results.

In Idaho the cayuse, or Indian pony. is
now regarded as pest, and the Lewiston
Teller thus refers to that once valued an
imal: The Indian horses spread all over
the ranges and are not confined within the
reservation limits. 1t is estimated that
$1,000 worthless wild ponies range unre-
strained over the hills of this country and
devour the good bunch grass. These
cayuses each eat enough good fodder to
fatten a four-year-old steer, and one steer
is worth more than ten glass-eyed
broncos. If we could enact law to de-
clare every pony OF an assessed value of
less than 81 a public nuisance it would add
materially to the prosperity of this country.
There are S75,517 bearing and non-bear-
ing fruit trees in Placer County, which
makes over 5000 acres planted, and there
are IT'S acres planted to grapevlnes. making
q total of over S775 acres planted to trees
and vines. There are 2S, $50 acres devoted
to cereals in the county, making a grand
total of over 1880 acres under cultivation
in the county.-Auburn Republican.
The Napa Register submits this little
horticultural problem: A prominent orch
ardist near Napa is authority for saying
that stone fruit trees will not flourish IN
ground from which oaks have been cleared.
He cannot explain why, unless it is be-
cause of something in the decaving roots
of the oak that poisons the life of the
young fruit trees. Any horticulturlst hav-
ing information on this point will be
listened to with interest.
A practical demonstration of the profits
that are realized from small farms, when
carefully worked, is shown by the revenues
that Frank Frates realizes from his few
acres of berries. His place is located about
nine miles from Suisun on the Twin Sister
Mountain, and contains about twenty
acres of tillable land. OF this number of
acres he has three acres of blackberrleS
and one acre of strawberries. The latter
yielded him profit this year of $3.50 and
he estimates his crop of blackberrles at
about six and a half tons. which he sells
readily at cents per pound. MIR. Frates
makes a comfortable living for his family,
and is assisted in working his small place
by his son. As there has been an increased
demand for the berries grown on his place,
the owner intends setting out many more
plants and vines the coming season.-Sui-
sun Republican.
The British Columbia board of horticul-
ture is protiting by the experience of Cali
fornia orchardists in dealing with the
various fruit pest insects, and has already
received from Alexander Craw of the Cali
fornia State Board of Horticulture several
colonies of ladybirds with a view to pro-
pagaung them and disseminating them
among the orchards of the province that
are infected by the scale and aphis.
Professor E. w. Hilgard of the State Uni
versity suggests with commendable wis
dom that, as experiments with fertilizers
on virgin soil that is still fully supplied
with plant food cost much and yet develop
no principle of cultivation, the expert
ments with fertilizers in the southern
counties be made in the relatively old
orange groves and other older plantations,
mot promiscuously and unsystematically
and IN haste to jump at conclusions, but
with due regard to what experience has
shown to be the only cogent mode of pro-
cedure in agricultural xperimentation."
That Napa Valley is not suffering from
the presence of land monopolists is shown
by series of descriptive articles in the
Napa Register, and that enterprising pub
location sums up its conclusions as follows:
The big tracts of twenty and thirty years
ago have been divided and subdivided into
small holdings. You rarely strike farm
that exceeds 100 acres in size, and as rule
the holdings range from five to fifty. Be-
hold the result: A high state of civiliza-
ton written everywhere in large letters;
thrifty and growing neighborhoods, school
houses we'll filed and the land well titled.
1t is probable that no other State can
offer land as cheap as it might be offered
by Nevada, if there were sufficient interest
to develop irrigation works in the most
favorable localities, says Irrigation Age.
This Is an advantage OF the highest i'm
portance, for there are vast numbers of
people who desire land but cannot obtain
it upon the terms on which it is generally
offered. There is a sturdy minority in
Nevada who appreciate these facts, and it
happens very fortunately that one of
them sits in the Governors chair. He
has some strong sympathizers among the
wealthy men of the State, and some good
hackers in the editorial fraternity. 1t
would not be at all strange if there were
important developments in regard to the
settlement of colonies in Nevada during
the four years term in Office of Governor
Jones.