500 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



''Mr. Casalegno made big interest on $150,000 this year. Mr. 

 Casalegno owns 120 acres of fruit at Oakdale. If his net profit 

 was only 6 per cent it would mean $75 an acre, or 6 per cent on a 

 valuation of $1,250 per acre." 



I do not question the sincerity of the railroad gentleman, but through 

 what process of divination has he found out that his invited settler is 

 going to secure the same kind of land as Mr. Casalegno 's at $150 an 

 acre, adapted to the same fruits? How did Mr. Seagraves definitely 

 ascertain that the prices for fruit will be the same when Mr. Settler's 

 new orchard comes into bearing in 1920 as was jjaid for Mr. Casalegno 's 

 crop? Mr. Seagraves is the same optimistic gentleman who in 1908 

 was advising settlers that wine grapes were paying $125 an acre annu- 

 ally, only that pipe dream was announced through the Saturday Eve- 

 ning Post, to an audience of about 750,000. 



The great problem of the near future in California is the assimilation 

 and education of the hundreds of thousands of settlers who are begin- 

 ning to pour into California. How shall they be informed, of what 

 California has to offer them in the way of opportunities so that they 

 may undertake lines of work and of investment which shall prove best 

 for them and best for the community? 



Professor Bioletti is starting a careful investigation of economic facts 

 and principles underlying viticulture. Does not the same necessity 

 exist for each and every line of agricultural production in our great 

 State ? 



We need a starting point. Should not that be the establishing at 

 our State University of a chair of agricultural and horticultural eco- 

 nomics? Dean Hunt comes to us "with the ambition, the ability, and 

 the backing to develop the College of Agriculture along broad lines of 

 usefulness. Shall we not help him by telling him what we need most ? 



Chairman Cook. This carefully prepared and thoughtful address is 

 now open for discussion. 



Mr. Nutting. Do you happen to know of any experiments anywhere 

 in growing alfalfa in vineyards for the purpose of cultivation and cover 

 crops? It is an idea that I had in mind some years ago, particularly in 

 reference to a man who used to be in Coachella Valley. The man I 

 speak of is Mr. Phil. Bear of Redbanks, who has an orchard and vine- 

 yard a little way outside of Lemon Cove, I am told : he has some acres, 

 do not know how much land he has. Well, I understand he planted 

 alfalfa among his vines, which he has trellised up, and he used this 

 alfalfa as cover crops and that he gets some plieuomenal results — crop 

 profit from his vineyard ; that he turns his hogs into the vineyards and 

 lets them feed on the alfalfa and so gets a profit from his grapes, fertil- 

 ization from the hogs which live on the alfalfa he raises there. This, I 

 think, is a Avorthy suggestion and study for us. Some years ago Pro- 

 fessor Wickson, I believe, spoke of the idea of alfalfa for fertilization 

 purposes for the grapes and he said he couldn't see why that idea 



