10 June, 1918.] 



itcrican Agriculture. 



351 



This association pays a flat rate of Si cents, a lb., equal to $70 a 

 ton, for all raisins delivered. Then the manufacturing, advertising, and 

 selling expenses are deducted, and the grower gets the balance. Last 

 year they got an extra cent per lb., equal to $90 per ton — £18. This 

 price gives a good return to the grower. Mr. Friselli estimates that the 

 raisins cost him $35 a ton to produce, so that the average net return is 

 $55. Vineyards within a radius of 4 to 6 miles of Fresno sell for $800 

 per aucre. 



The Italian-Swiss colony has a machine for grafting phylloxera- 

 resistant vines. I saw one in operation at the United States Plant and 

 Seed Introduction Farm at Chico. It consists of a lever which operates 

 two knives which can be set at any angle. After the wood has been 

 sorted it is just held to the machines, and one knife cuts a section at a 

 slope of, say, 60°. The second knife then comes down and cuts a tongue 

 two-thirds the way along the slope. The wood can be cut and the 

 tongue cut as quickly as a man can pull a lever back and forward. The 



Workmen's Cottages in a Park of Eucalypts and Palms at Kearney Farm. 

 (Note Alfalfa Stack thatched with Palm Leaves.) 



price is about $40, but I should think it would save an immense amount 

 of labour in grafting. 



The advantage of the grafting machine appears to be that it cuts 

 all similarly sized pieces of wood alike, and makes a uniform cleft in 

 the wood. 



Olives and Figs. — Olives are very profitable at Fresno. They re- 

 quire very little water. The best pickling olives return $175 per ton, 

 and Spanish Queen, an exceptionally good olive, realizes up to $300 per 

 ton. Olives for oil realize $45 to $55 per ton. Oil olives have only one- 

 third the value of the pickling olives. Frozen berries and small berries 

 are used for oil. 



The best pickling olives grown at Fresno are the Mission Olive, 

 Spanish Queen, and Manzanillo. They are planted in squares 25 feet 

 apart, then alternate diagonal rows are taken out, leaving the trees 

 36i feet apart. 



The olive comes into bearing at the fourth year, but the yield is 

 small. The fifth and sixth years they pay for their cultivation. The 



