The San Francisco call., 1895-11-06
A Banner Year for the Sugar
Beet Factory at Watson
vile.
ORANGE CROP IN THE SOUTH
How Insect Pests in Orchards Can Best
Be Exterminated-Bee
Farms.

The Paiaronian declares this to be ban
ner year for the Watsonville sugar-beet
factory. The prospects improve daily.
The crop is going to be q good average in
tonnage per acre, and the average sugar
yield per ton of beets promises to be a
record beyond any ever made in this coun-
try and one which will invite comparison
from any European mill. When the rich
lands of the Pajaro and Salinas valleys
get on a tandem pace they smash records.
1t is pity all of this choice land is not one
county. The next Legislature ought TO
carve a sugar-beet county out OF this sec
ton.
According to the Ontario (Cal.) Record
the grapefruit is prolific in that section
and well adapted to the soil and climate.
One instance given is this; Charles +. Dam
row has a couple of grape fruit trees in his
orchard at North Ontario, and the fruit is
worth going a good ways to see. One SIN
gle limb has 80 perfect specimens OF fruit
on IL, and a cluster of seventeen was
another evidence of what this beautiful
fruit is capable of developing. The fruit
has already begun to color and Will be
ready to market with navel oranges.
This piece of information comes from
the Tulare Register: 1t is said that the
orange crop of Southern California is badly
affected with smut this year. Ii this IS
true it ought to turn the attention of those
bound to raise oranges to Tulare's citrus
belt, where the fruit is no more touched
with smut than $50 gold piece is.
Honey is produced in Kings County in
considerable amounts, says the HanfOrd
Journal. From the banks of Kings River
. on the west to the eastern boundaries of
the county, and from the Laguna de Tache
grant to Tulare Lake the country is dotted
with aviaries OF greater or less size, gener-
orally small however. The busy bee finds
an abundance of flowers from which to
make its amber food. Besides the blue
blossoms of the alfalfa, which furnishes
most of the food for the bees during the
spring and summer, there is an abundance
of wild flowers, and there are also several
weeds which furnish work for the busy
bees. In conversation, a few days since
with G. K. Decker, proprietor of the Will
low Grove apiary, and who is one of the
pioneers in the bee business in this section
OF the State, he informed US that during
the past season from seventy-tve colonies
of bees he had received 7414 pounds of ex-
tracted honey, 328 pounds of comb honey
and 100 pounds of beeswaX. His first col
ony to swarm during the season swarmed
on March and the last on October II.
Among other questions which were sent
out to the fruit-growers and shippers re-
Gently by the California Fruit-Grower the
the increase or decrease in your section
and what insects are the most trouble
some?" as reported by that journal, are
most interesting. The replies to this ques-
ton cover the State from San Diego to
Shasta County, and general summary of
the whole thus far received would be that
insect pests are rather on the decrease,
especially the black scale. But Goblin
moth is very trouble some almost all over
the State and is most complained of. The
proportion ofrelative damage to apples and
pears is as 2 to 5, but both fruits suffer
greatly from this pest. After codlin moth,
red spider, pernicious scale, peach moth
and canker worm come in fer hearty con-
demnation by fruit-growers. Black scale,
brown scale, pear plight, phylloxera, peach
bOrers and cutworms are all trou blesome
in some sections. The replies thus far
would indicate that the black scale is more
troublesome in the southern part of the
State than elsewhere, the peach borer most
prevalent in Santa Clara County, peach
moth in Placer County and roundabout.
while the Goblin moth appears to be every
where in the State