The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-01
A Prosperous Outlook for
the State at Large This
Season.
IN ORCHARD AND VINEYARD
Some Interesting Reports on Vari-
Gus Subjects Connected With
Agriculture.

points, indeed, where fresh water cannot
| be as cheaply obtained, and the use of salt
water would eventually kill nearly every
| species OF plant to which it was applied.
! Several hundred goats were used recently
on the Rio Santa Fe to puddle dirt on an
| irrigation dam. This reminds of the fact
that band of several thousand sheep were
used for several years ON Union Island, on
| the San Joaquin River, to tramp In wheat.
| The wheat was sowed on plowed ground,
and the band of sheep was then driven
back and forth across the field to trample
the soil. The sheep served the purpose of
a harrow, and, the owners claimed, very
acceptably.
Telephones may now be had sufficiently
cheap to warrant farmers in clubbing to-
gether and erecting private lines from
towns and cities throughout the country.
A telephone saves many trips to town, and
horsefesh, the wear and tear on wagons,
as well as time. represent money. Even a
| strand of barbed wire fencing, if properly
insulated, may be made to answer as the
main line. As a rule it does not pay to
invest in any of the acoustic telephones.
| Nothing short of an electric telephone is
satisfactory, and that is not always so.
The Riverside Fruit Exchange has been
making experiments with fruit en- route
East in order to learn the effect of ventila-
ton. Ventilatiors in some of the refrigerator
cars were left open in the daytime and
closed at night, while in the other cars the
ventilators were left open at night and
closed in the daytime. In other cases the
ventilators were allowed to remain open
continuously. The result showed that in
refrigerators in which the ventilators were
kept open in daytime and closed at night
| the fruit was best preserved. The varia-
| ton in temperature was from 10 to Is de-
grees.
| While millions of dollars worth of fruit,
| jellies, jams and marmalades are shipped
to the United States from England and
Germany, there ought to be money in
placing the best California fruit upon the
market in the best manner. The Weisba-
den fruit, which is put up in the most
attractive way, seems small and insignii-
| cant when compared with California goods.
The Gordon & Dilworth goods are also well
packed, but that fruit can be put up in
| England, shipped to California, paying the
duty. and then sold in competition with
the local product, is an anomalous condi-
ton. There can be no question about the
quality of our fruit The solution is largely
in the style of packing used in England
and the lack of method in the marketing of
the California product.
The San Bernardino Electric Light and
Power Company has extended its lines into
the country several miles northeast of the
city, and will rent power to farmers with
| which to pump water for irrigation. A
portable pump will be used. This suggests
the question as to whether power could be
transferred electrically a distance of say
twenty miles and then used for pumping
water from shallow wells more economi-
! cally than water could be taken that dis
lance in canals, providing water power
could be had for operating the electric
plant There are great many places IN
California where water power may be util-
lied by being transferred electrically to
sections where it could be made available
to pump water with. Often there is plenty
of water running to waste on one side of a
mountain range and none on the other.
The benefits of one locality will eventually
| be transferred to other sections where they
are lacking by the use of electricity.
The agricultural and horticultural re-
sources of California have been but par
tally developed, and there are vast areas
of land now untitled that might be made
to produce valuable crops. The list of
products now grown is an extended one,
but may be largely added to. No one is war;
ranted in supposing, however, that every
| thing may be grown everywhere IN Cali
fornia. There are tropical plants which
demand conditions that cannot be met.
! The question is frequently asked, why
do not some of our farmers try to raise tea,
and why can't we raise coffee, pineapples
and cocoanuts?"
Experiments have been made along these
| @f 10
grow all right in various portions of the
| State, but it cannot be economically har-
vested. Pineapples may be grown if af-
| forded protection from the frost, but their
culture is neither profitable nor satisfac-
tory. Bananas will grow and bear if given
moisture and protection from the wind and
| frost. Coffee will not thrive if grown where
| the temperature falls below forty degrees,
and will thrive better if it never falls below
| fifty. There is no locality in California
which offers such conditions, unless 1t be
portions of Death Valley, and other neces-
| sary conditions, such as humid atmos-
phere and moist soil, are lacking even there.
The adaptability of our soil for the
| growth of the opium poppy is indicated
by the fact that several varieties of the
poppy are indigenous to the State, and
that all varieties so far tried have devel-
oped remarkable thrift and size. There is
| in fact no question concerning the mere
growth of the plant. The gathering OF the
gum, however, can only be properly done
by expert labor, which would tend to
make the business improbable here, as
labor is SO cheap in the Orient that opium
may be produced there and shipped to
California more cheapiy than it could be
produced here. These difficulties may in
time be overcome.
To plant peoples the soil should be very
finely pulverized on the surface and the
seeds sown in shallow drills, or rather
mere marks. The seeds are very minute,
and should be mixed in fifty parts of dry
sand, then sand and seed sprinkled thinly
| on the surface and covered simply by pass
ing light roller over them. These drills
may be two feet apart, and when the plants
appear they are thinned out so they will
be from six to eight inches apart.
When the seed pods are properly ma
tured the milky juice is obtained by making
missions in the pods with small iancets.
This requires great care, as the incision
must not be made through the entire SUBJ
stance of the pod, the surface only being
scarified. The cutting is done in the after
noon, and the opium is allowed to exude
and remain on the pod till next morning,
when it is scraped off, drop by drop, and
thus collected in a small cup. 1t is thus
seen that the process is slow and tedious.