The San Francisco call., 1895-10-18
RIVERSIDE HORTICULTURE
FINE SHOWING FOR THE COUNTY
DURING THE PAST TWELVE
MONTHS.
ANNUAL REPORT ON THE Or
CHARDs, FRUIT PRODUCTION
AND BENEFICIAL INSECTS.

Every year the County Boards of Horti-
culture make reports to the State Horticul-
tural Commission. Yesterday the first of
these reports for 1895 was received from
the County Board of Riverside. To horti-
culturists in general it is very interest
ing. 1t is as follows:
The magnitude of the fruit-growing interests
of this county is best arrived at by study of
the following figures: The Assessors books
show there are 113,3O7 acres OF fruit land
with water rights in this county. This land is
assessed at 81 ,230, $40, and fruit trees grow
Ing on it are assessed at $6SS,747 When we
consider that all fruit trees under four years
ola are not assessable ana that even In the
city OF Riverside more than one=half the trees
are in this category, We can form some concep-
tlon of the present Importance and future
greatness OF this our overshadoWing industry.
The values given above do not include the
buildings on these lands, or the water proper
ties, pipe lines, bitches, canals, dams, etc. If
all these were included it would show that
fully 20 per cent of the assessed property OF
this county gets its value from this one In
dustry.
There are about 25, ,149 acres devoted to hor-
tculture in the county, divided as follows:
Citrus fruits Is 407 acres; deciduous fruits,
72So acres; grapes, 1896 acres; olives, 800
acres. There were about 1000 acres planted
the present year follows: Citrus, 500 acres;
deciduous, 2900; olives, 800 acres. From the
foregoing it will be seen that our horticultural
possibilities are largely untouched yet and
that very few years at most will see the area
CT our orchards doubled.
There were shipped from the Riverside Val
ley the past season o37 ,147 boxes OF oranges
and about seventy carloads of lemons, and
from South Riverside forty-four carloads of
oranges and lemons, making grand total of
81 ,347 boxes or 1904 carloads of 800 boxes
each The total of the crop of deciduous fruits
for the past year is not accessible yet, but is
known to far exceed any former crop in this
county.
During the past year there has been no abate-
ment in the work OF fighting all kinds of in
sect pests. Weekly, and in many cases daily,
reports are made by the inspectors to the Com
missioners, and the work of destroying the in
sect pests found is kept well in hand and no
trees allowed to stand infested and jeopardiZe
others. All trees found to have either the red
or yellow scale, even to very slight extent
are fumigated with hydrocyanic acid gas. We
have had uniformly good results from its use
In the younger citrus groves the oEly pests we
find are black and brown scale. Our orchard
lists, as rule, are as prompt to destroy noxious
insects as noXlous weeds, regarding their de-
struction as of equal Importance. In addition
to these pests we had an unaccountable num-
Der of aphis, and the combined work OF both
insects resulted in many of our oranges being
smutted This fact called attention very for
chilly to the black scale pest and what to do
with it,
The good record the Rhizobius ventrslis had
made in Santa Barbara County had influenced
our growers TO colonize with them to some
tent, but as their work was not at this time
very discerniple at our groves, and as the
value OF the parasite was questioned, we
deemed best to investigate before going
further. Accordingly in May last Mr.. Van
Kirk, the chairman of our board, went to Ven
tura and Santa Barbara counties for that pur-
pose. Upon mis- return and favorable report
we began the importation of these parasites
and during the summer about 100 900 of these
beetles have been liberated in our groves. Re-
Gently they have become sufficiently plentiful
in some orchards as to be quite easily found,
and several orchards that have been badly in
tested with black scale are showing q very
marked improvement in appearance.
In conclusion l would say horticulture in
this county is on better basis than ever be-
fore, and with the success of the cooperative
marketing of fruit it's future is brighter than
ever before. Respectfully submitted.
FELIX G. HAvENS Secretary.