Imperial Valley press., 1912-05-08
CLARK AOA|R'S RECEIPTS
FOR KILLING FRUIT TREES

many persons living in Imperial val
ley do not know that the very finest
of fruit is growing and can be success
fully raised here. / wish to tell of a
few Of the statements some of the I'M
perial valley land owners and others
have made to me to show that we
need a fruit fair badly.
One of my friends said she had
never seen an apricot that compared
in size and flavor with the coast april
cots; that it was useless to think we
could raise apricots successfully. An
other one said you can raise apricots
all right and fine ones, too, but that
the salt was killing his trees; that
in five or six years the roots would
grow down to the salt and that would
kill the trees.
L asked him how far it was down
to the salt on his land and he said he
did not know. | then asked him how
far the roots had grown down. Again
he said he did not know. / then
asked him if he had drained the roots
and had found that they had grown
down to the salt, and he said no. And
we all, as well as he, were compelled
to laugh, and he remarked that some
of the trees had died, but he did not
know what was the matter.
Another Imperial valley farmer
thought an apricot fair would be the
poorest kind of fruit fair. | asked
him why, and he said "Just look at
my trees; some have died and others,
| am sure will" | tried to get him
% tIo Il
the ground but he would not bite.
saying he did not know what was the
matter and was willing for somebody
to tell him, saying he intended to
continue to plant more fruit trees
every year. He has a fine row of
trees along the road, about sixty feet
high, and some of them are over
foot in diameter These trees lean
lovingly over toward his fruit trees
and appear to be looking down at his
fruit trees just like cat looks down
at a mouse.
Another man said we have too much
wind in Imperial valley. He said:
Just look how the wind has blown
this year. Why, you can not raise
fruit here; the winds will blow ID all
Off the trees | told him the trees
were still full of fruit and that the
winds have not hurt the fruit yet.
The fact of the matter is that the
Imperial valley winds very seldom do
any damage to fruit. We have so
many still days that little breeze
seems to us like a cyclone
| think the worst fruit knocker OF
all was a man who lives on the coast
and was visiting the valley He said
that he was interested in fruit grow
ing; that it was his opinion that we
did not have fruit country. I asked
him if he had seen any ripe fruit
grown in the valley, and he said he
had at Holtville and Calexico, but
that the fruit was badly sun burned
and he was sure that this would al
ways be the case with apricOts. He
said your grapes will badly sun burn
If YOU let the vines suffer for water"
and that it was also true of oranges
then asked him if he did not think
that apricOts would sun burn if tine
trees suffered for water. He said.
Sure" ] asked him if he really
thought that it was the sun that sun
burned the apricots, and he was dead
sure of it. ] then asked him if he
did not think the trouble laid with
the Holtville and Calexico farmers,
and if the sun was not all right. He
then laughed and kindly laid his hand
on my shoulder and said: young man,
it is not natural for fruit trees to
grow below sea level" and that |
would find that fruit trees around
Brawley would be much poorer than
those growing above sea level. | told
him that | had seen fine fruit trees
around Brawley. But. said he. 'The
trees, you will find, will not fruit. He
then broke away and ran down the
street. | tried to stop him, but could
not catch him. l was going to tell
him all about four or five figs I bad
seen at the county fair that were
raised at Brawley.
We need little fruit fair to teach
every man, woman and child SO that
they can fight and fight right for In
perial valley. Success in fruit rails
ing only depends on just one thing
know how. | have about one dozen
good receipts for killing fruit trees.
| am sure the receipts are good, as |
have killed over 200 young fruit trees
in five years.
| have met several persons who
blame the nurseryman for the bad
luck, but l am sure they are using
my receipts for killing trees.
| have a number of receipts for kill
ing baby chicks, and all the work re-
quires is digging little hole in the