The record-union., 1899-05-08
Agriculture
and
Horticulture,


to know what is going on in the great
growing regions of the West:
SHEEP IN AN ORCHARD.
New York Dispatch: Now that 1t is
safe to talk sheep without danger OF be-
ing laughed at, We want to say some
thing in favor of getting a-few sheer
and keeping them in the apple orchard
They will eat the small bitter apples
that the pigs will not touch, and II
fed gill of oats each per day they will
after a summer in the orchard, come
out fat in the fall, besides leaving thei
manure evenly distributed under the
trees. Care should be taken to prevent
the pasture getting too poor, SO this
sheep DO not get enough to eat. If they
are at all starved the sheep will gnaW
at the apple bark, and once they get q
taste of this 1T will never be safe to put
them in an apple orchard again. i
Is not the best anyway to place then
in young and rapidly growing orchards
whose bark is always tender. The
rough bark of old bearing orchards doe:
not tempt them unless they find say
sprouts growing out of it.
A CENTURY PLANT.
(lVLAId THU IlG0S. 4NO SlIldl
amount of interest is being taken BY
many Venturians in a century plant al
the home of Mr.. and Mrs. j. w Ham
mons, on Poll street. as said plant is
soon to bloom, only the once, and ther
dies. Q. T. Jones has kindly consented
to keep US posted as to the exact mo.
ment when it begins to bloom
LOMPOC APPLES
Lompoc Record: The Lompoc apple
crop has never failed. The frosts nevel
affect this class of fruit with us, while
peaches. apricots, and often cherries
are caught and DANA ged. This being
the case. together with the fact that the
Goblin moth is a stranger within the fog
belt, makes this a most desirable place
for the apple.
NATIVE ORANGES,
Harper's Weekly: There are two va
rieties of oranges which are indigenous
to the soil, and grow wild in the dense
thickets, yielding. under unfavorable
conditions, heavy crops of fruit. This
only orange grove cultivated as such OF
which the writer has knowledge consist
ed of 10 acres of trees, and is near Ma
yaguez. 1t is customary to let al
young plants live where they spring up
in the shade of the coffee plantations, in
the fence rows. and on the roadsides
no particular attention being paid then
beyond the harvesting, perhaps, of what
remains Of the crop after the wander
ing poor have enjoyed many luscious
globe stoned from the branches.
There grows another variety of or
anges in the island, which is bitter
sweet when green, known by the natives
as ''naranja' Cthe Spanish name OF
orangel, in contradistinction to the
sweet green orange called chino" The
trees differ slightly, in that the naranja
has a supplementary heart shaped pen
dant on the end of each leaf
What a veritable paradise this land
will be for the American orange grower
who carries with him his often bitter
experience and careful methods of cul-
tivation, gained in the sandy wastes OF
Florida!
The thin-skinned lemon is not indig-
enous to Porto Rico; there is, however
small citron, which looks like an i'm
mense lemon with a rind nearly a halt
an inch thick, which cracks open as the
fruit yellows. 1t is rather dry and not
fOly oOu1, SIlO tullC JulCC ~ dSEQ WILL
sugar and water as a beverage. The
rind is highly aromatic, and has an
economic value. There are no draw
backs to future lemon culture, the soil
and the climate Of the mountain up
Lands being very suitable. Sweet lem
ones with bitter-sweet taste, grow very
profusaly in several sections, though
they are seldom gathered, unless it be
to make from them a sort of conserve
or to use them incidentally since they
are considered of some therapeutic
value in malarial fevers.
A FRUIT PEST.
Kern County Californian: The ap-
pearance of new fruit pest-new in
Kern County-calls attention to the
danger that threatens the fruit interests
through failure TO provide against the
importation of diseased nursery stock
For some months past the Supervisors
have declined to appoint Horticultural
Commission, and judging from the
county's experience with said commits
sion in the past, there are some good
reasons for the boards inaetion. 1t is
claimed and there is good ground for
the assertion, that membership on the
horticultural Board carried with it but
little labor and that the expense to the
county for it's maintenance was out OF
all proportion to the benefits derived
There may be truth in this contention
but with the advent of the new pest il
becomes evident that the orchards OF
the county are facing a grave danger
one that bids fair to destroy the fruit
industry in more than one section. This
~ ho xx,icn or If
the Supervisors could at least provide
some plan for the inspection of all nur-
sery stock shipped into the community,
and it would seem that some arrange
ment might be made whereby this could
be accomplished without putting the
county to the expense of maintaining
a regularly salaried commission. Here
tofore the board has been called upon
to audit claims for the commissioners
covering So per day for each and every
day in the month, and to escape this
burden the Supervisors have become
"deadlocked'' whenever the matter of
the appointment of a new board has
come up. But would it not be the part
of wisdom to place this business in the
hands of some responsible nlan-one
one who will consume no more time
than is justified by the duties of the
the end that the law may be
properly enforced and the fruit inter-
ests of the country protected against
dealers?l
MISTAKES ABOUT. REDWOOD.
Alameda Encinal In an Interesting
article about the redwood forests of
Henry Gannett of the United
States Geological Survey writes in the
National Geographic Magazine:
1.-THE habitat of the redwood is Pc
culiar. It is found only in a narrow
strip closely Ehugging the Pacific Coast,
stretching from the southern boundary