]54 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



The National Orange Show. — One lias only to visit these annual 

 exhibitions, like that of San Bernardino or at Sebastopol, Sonoma 

 Comity, to be an enthusiastic advocate of such expenditure of time and 

 money. They stand well up as admirable educators in ways of orchard 

 management. The recent exposition at San Bernardino, February 17 

 to 25, 1915, was interesting as an example of real excellence in quality 

 of fruit. As at the Sebastopol Apple Show, the judges would examine 

 critically whole boxes of fruit and find no mar or blemish. That our 

 growers are becoming wise in ways of selection and grading is fully 

 demonstrated, yet there was at San Bernardino a considerable variation 

 in the care and skill shown by different exhibitors, which proves that 

 there is still need of these expositions. The fact that Lindsay, Tulare 

 County, took the sweepstakes in oranges and many other prizes, and 

 Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County, was like fortunate in its exhibition 

 of lemons, shows how widely our citrus area pushes out on the map of 

 the state. Etiwanda, San Bernardino County, was among the first as 

 to excellence of fruit of many varieties, as also was Riverside. We feel 

 safe in predicting that very soon our whole citriLS territory from Chula 

 Vista, San Diego County, to Glenn and Tehama counties, will be able to 

 take prizes at such exhibitions as delighted the crowds of visitors at 

 San Bernardino last month. — A. J. C. 



Potato Pointers. — Very few agricultural products are so worthy to 

 be knighted as the potato. It is a staple food article, and we have 

 only to give its composition to indicate its rare worth. Tnie, it has 

 hardly more than 2 per cent of protein, yet we know that protein 

 can be greatly reduced if the conserving starch or sugar is in abund- 

 ance. Potatoes contain 18 per cent of starch. Starch is nature's 

 favorite carbohydrate. In all the past starch has been a coveted 

 food element. We thrive on what has nourished us from our infancy 

 and from the infancy of the race. Potatoes carry only one tenth of 

 1 per cent of fat, the hardest food element to digest, and 78f^ per 

 cent of water. We have only to remember this last to gain a higher 

 appreciation of the protein content of the potato. Where else other 

 than in the potato field can we secure such a return per acre? Good 

 husbandry may expect 500 bushels per acre of these nutritious 

 tubers, a wealth of production scarcely equaled in any other field of 

 agriculture. 



We see then that whatever strikes at our potato industry is a certain 

 menace to the welfare of the State. It is an alarming fact that our 

 potato production in some of the best potato sections has been reduced 

 to one third of its former magnitude, and the end is not yet. In the 

 recent past some growers have planted to reap little or nothing. Yet 

 we are free to say that this decline is wholly owing to bad husbandry. 

 Some of our growers, the wise and prudent ones, have produced banner 

 crops, upward of 500 bushels per acre. Others in Oregon, Washingtoii, 

 Idaho, ('olorado, Wisconsin, and Maine are equally successful. The 

 British Isles, Germany, and the Netherlands eclipse even our ])est spud 

 men in their production. Germany is reported to produce eighty mil- 

 lion tons of potatoes annually. This is more than a ton per capita. If 

 this report is correct, it is very suggestive. Is it not wise and Avorthy, 

 then, to make every effort to improve our cultural methotls, that we 

 may reinstate the old-time success in the production of this excellent 

 food product? We can not afford to do otherwise, as good clean seed 



