THE MONTHLY BULLETIIST. 



491 



used a great deal for grain before our grapes have been planted, and I 

 want to have your opinion : what you think would be most important in 

 improving production. 



Prof. Bioletti. There are so many things that can be used with 

 benefit, and it is a mistake to say which would be of real importance. 

 In one section there is one thing, and in another something else. Our 

 growers don't study their business enough. Make a study of your 

 ground, of pruning, and in doing this you could increase your produc- 

 tion all the way from 10 to 25 per cent all over California. That is the 

 only way you can do it. You have got to study, correspond with the 

 agricultural stations ; get all the books you can on the subject ; see what 

 others do and keep track of what you do yourself. Give support to the 

 agricultural experiment station until they have got means and men to 

 bring this kind of information to every fruit grower in the State. ^ This 

 is the means of getting this information, which is now in possession of 

 the best growers of the State. 



Mr. Sessions. I am interested in shipping grapejs. I see that you 

 have the cost of handling there as 73 cents. The grapes I shipped this 

 year cost, after they were delivered at the packing house, 74 cents and a 

 fraction, and my cost of picking and hauling were additional to that. 



Prop. Bioletti. Those are figures based on the report of Mr. Stuben- 

 rauch and he is responsible for these figures, and the report was given, I 

 think, for the use of the Interstate Commerce Commission. These were 

 figures based on the account which Mr. Stubenrauch obtained from vari- 

 ous growers. 



Mr. Shepherd. I am not in the grape business, but we citrus people 

 know very well not only how to prune, but to fertilize. We know .just 

 about what to put into the soil to make our crops fine, and I was think- 

 ing that the same conditions ought to apply to grape culture, and I 

 believe, if our friends would study or look into the matter of what the 

 grape needs, they would pi'oduce better crops. Supply what the grape 

 contains and put that into the soil ; you would have very much increased 

 production. We know that you cannot have oranges, and year after 

 year take off crops from your orchards and return nothing. We have 

 to put in phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash into the soils. Now 

 there must be something that the grape takes from the soil that you 

 have not replaced, and I believe that, if the vineyardist of the Fresno 

 district, and every other district, could appreciate how valuable fertili- 

 zation is to the citrus business, every one of them would go to work 

 to-morrow and investigate that question, and there is no question but 

 that you deplete your soil Your soil here is very sandy, more than 

 ours. We have to put in humus and cover-crops, and supply nitrogen, 

 which vou know the soil needs, and there must be moisture in the soil. 

 I hope that our friend here, who came from abroad to invest his money 

 and engage in the grape business, will take up the matter of fertiliza- 

 tion. You can get plenty to read upon it, and any one, any manufac- 

 turer, without mentioning any names, who understand trees or any 

 sub.ject of horticulture, can tell you just about what your soil needs. 



