Imperial Valley press. (El Centro, Calif.) 1907-current, 1934-04-09
CANTAL0UPE:
OUTLOOK IS
ENCOURAGING

The March report of B. A. Har-
rigan, county agricultural commits
sioner states the lettuce season
closed earlier this year than for any
year in the history of the lettuce
! industry, due principally to the I'M
usually warm winter. The proration
of lettuce was quite factor in sta
bilizing the market.
| Tomato picking started January
in the inland district and has con-
tinued all winter. This is the first
time that tomatoes have been
grown on a commercial basis in the
valley during the winter months. 1t
is quite probable that the valley
winter grown tomatoes will be real
competition to Mexican grown to-
matoes in the future.
Cantaloupe season is the earliest
on record. Melon picking during
March was quite general through
out the Westmorland and Mt. Sig
nal districts. The outlook for can
taloupes is exceptionally good be-
cause of the wide spread from the
early start to the late melons. Sew
eral growers are still planting late
melons. The quality for the first
shipments has been exceptionally
good due to the warm spring and
winter with practically no heavy
winds.
There has been an extra heavy in
festation of grape leaf hoppers this
spring. A great deal of experimental
work has been carried on with new
types of rotenone and pyrethium Oil
sprays, also with different methods
of application. The grapes are shat
tering unusually bad and the out
look is for a very light crop.
Heavy infeStations of graSShop-
pers have been reported, principally
from the north end of the valley.
While some poison bran has been
put out for the control of the hop
pers, the present outlook has every
indication of an unusually short
crop of hay.
The following goods were inspec-
ted and passed into Imperial coun-
ty during March: 1913 ornamentals,
Is water plants, 148 gladiolus bulbs,
1T miscellaneous bulbs, 81 Easter
lilies, 100 rose bushes, SO stocks, 300
ferns, IL poinSettia cuttings, gra-
Villa flat, "a violets, chrysanthe-
NUNS, l lantana, 289 elm trees, II
jasmine trees, Is shade trees, S
guava trees, acacia tree, 1000 euca-
lyptus trees, 500 Arizona ash trees,
q cypress trees, oak trees. pine
trees, 3 bottle trees, Is carob trees,
l willow tree, 7 deciduouS trees, 6
apple trees, pecan trees, persim-
mon tree, Is mulberry trees, 3 palm
trees, 8 peach trees, 100 apricot
trees, 10 fruit trees, ounce tree,
371 grapefruit trees, 81 Valencia
trees, IA fig trees, 3 plum trees.
Two trumpet vines, 2 bougain-
villae vines, l arbor vitae, 6 dew
berry plants, 6 grapevines, 1920
grape cuttings, SO youngberry plants,
16,100 strawberry plants, 1000 sweet
potato plants, carloads bulk corn,
l shipment household goods
One sack avocado melon seed, 6
sacks honeyball seed, % sacks can
taloupe seed, sack asparagus seed,
ITO sacks alfalfa seed, sacks wa
termelon seed, sacks honeydew
seed, / sack casaba seed, SO truck
loads oranges, IL shipments lemons,
7 carloads bananas.
Quarantine reflections included:
10 lantana plants rejected because
of mealy bug and scale, eugenia,
81 ornamental plants rejected be-
cause of scale, 78 boxes oranges re-
jected because of scale.
Outgoing shipments consisted of:
l car chicory, car greens, 5 cars
sweet anise, SO cars grapefruit, 1853
cars carrots, IS cars asparagus, l car
fava beans, 750 cars lettuce.
Standardization reflections includ-
ed; $40 crates lettuce rejected for
not meeting the requirements of the
California fruit, nut and vegetable
standardization law.
Apiary inspection consisted of 80
apiaries inspected, 1884 colonies in
spected, IS colonies destroyed and
burned because of American fou!
brood.
Weights and measures inspected
included: l wagon scale tested and
sealed after correction, 81 counter
scales tested and sealed without
correction; ! counter scale out of
order, spring scales tested and
sealed after correction, 6 spring
scales tested and sealed without cor
rection, computing scales tested
and sealed after correction, 80 COM
putting scales tested and sealed
without correction, computing
scales out of order, platform scales
tested and sealed after correction,
20 platform scales tested and sealed
without correction, platform scale
out of order, 2 measuring pumps
tested and sealed after correction,
rs measuring pumps tested and
sealed without correction, IL mea-
surfing pumps out of order, l weight