264 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



of producing large fruit, and also keeping in view 

 the object of not overloading the tree with a lot of 

 worthless small fruit. 



Some writers claim the object of pruning is to thin 

 out the tops of the trees to let the sun shine on the 

 fruit, but this I think is of little importance. 



Pruning that I might recommend might not do for 

 the coast counties, hence the grower must be his own 

 judge as to how he wants to prune. 



You will find articles on the subject of pruning in 

 the reports of 1887, 1889, 1890, 1891 and 1893, also in 

 Wickson's "California Fruits;" all these are good 

 articles. The time for pruning is when the trees are 

 in their dormant state; beginning about January 1st 

 is usually a good time. 



When I can have my choice in pruning all varie- 

 ties of deciduous trees 1 prefer doing the work when 

 the sap begins moving in the spring of the year. 

 Pruning at this time, all cuts of the wood heal over 

 better, and the pruner can see how the buds are set- 

 ting and then use his best judgment as to how much 

 wood he wants to cut out. 



Pruning is of great importance, and as growers 

 we ought to meet with each other in our orchards, 

 compare methods and examine results. By this 

 means we can get some of the practical ideas 

 wanted. There is much room for improvement in 

 our methods of pruning, so let us compare ideas and 

 try to excel in pruning as we have in other lines of 

 fruit culture. 



The Small-Farm Animals. Of all the forage 

 crops under the sun none lends itself to the needs of 

 the diversified farm so thoroughly as does alfalfa. 

 Beginning with the yield of eight to ten and more 

 tons per acre under proper cultivation, it is cheaply 

 harvested, cured without difficulty in the arid climate 

 and requires no housing because there is but little rain 

 to harm it. But it is in its all-round feeding quali- 

 ties that its greatest value lies. As a feed for horses 

 it is not superior, but they thrive and grow fat upon 

 it if not subjected to severe labor; then a ration of 

 grain as a supplement completes the combination. 

 For dairy cows the alfalfa is one of the best of feeds, 

 both summer and winter, either as pasture or when 

 fed from the stack. Beef cattle fatten upon it in the 

 coldest winter of the arid region without any other 

 feed and at a very low cost per pound of meat. An 

 alfalfa swine pasture is all that the porker needs from 

 little pighood up to the last four months of his life, 

 when an addition of grain quickly fits him for the 

 barrel. For a small flock of highgrade sheep nothing 

 will make fatter or heavier mutton than an alfalfa 

 pasture in summer and free feeding from the stack 

 in winter. We believe that even the ten-acre farmer 

 will find profit on a few alfalfa fed sheep of high 

 grade, after the custom of the English farmer. As a 

 poultry food, however, alfalfa is most surprising, and 

 if the small farmer thinks he cannot afford to raise 

 grain in his alfalfa field he has an all-the-year-round 

 food for the poultry, for the dry alfalfa hay softened 

 up with warm water in winter, becomes just as 

 palatable and useful to the fowl as if it were pecked 

 from the open field. The conclusion is that the small 

 irrigated farm with an alfalfa field may show as great 

 a diversity in the animal product as in the vegetable 

 line. 



Good Fruit Well Packed and displayed hand- 

 somely is half sold. The extra price obtained and 

 quick sales will more than repay the extra cost. Ad- 



vertising is what pays. The pretty packages of 

 prunes, raisins, etc., constitute a good advertisement 

 of these California products. Foreigners are fine 

 packers who know how to tickle the eye as well as 

 the palate. Goods sent abroad should be put in at- 

 tractive packages. A big market could be obtained 

 in England for our dried fruits if shippers would only 

 adopt good advertising and distributing methods. 

 Gilroy Gazette. 



Speculative Farming a Failure. The cotton 

 planters of the South, the great wheat growers of the 

 West, and the hop producers of the Pacific coast are 

 essentially speculative farmers. So long as the hop 

 men got good prices they were on the top wave, but 

 the low figures secured for the crop at a time when 

 they could least afford it opened their eyes widely, so 

 that they now see clearly that the single crop system 

 is foolish in the extreme. Intelligent southern plant- 

 ers told the writer a dozen years ago that it was exclu- 

 sive cotton culture immediately following the war 

 period, stimulated by abnormal prices, that caused 

 greater loss to the South than did the war itself. Since 

 that time, while the total cotton yield has increased, 

 yet greater attention to corn, pork, vegetables and 

 fruit has vastly strengthened the southern farmers. 

 In Arkansas alone the increase in other products than 

 cotton in one decade was about $80,000,000. So the 

 lesson goes the whole country over. Diversify, di- 

 versify, diversify. 



Home Production. The great lack of the new 

 west is the production of sufficient food products for 

 home consumption. The chief tendency of farmers 

 everywhere seems to be to produce one or two crops 

 and let the rest go even if it requires the purchase for 

 cash of the commonest articles of food. The folly of 

 this is shown in many western irrigated valleys where 

 great crops of alfalfa are produced, but not half 

 enough animals kept to consume it, while the farmers 

 buy their beef, butter and even condensed milk and 

 eggs. The result is a comparative overproduction of 

 alfalfa in many of the interior valleys with corres- 

 ponding low prices, while the farmers have to pay 

 high prices for the necessary foods for the family 

 which might as well be produced by feeding alfalfa 

 itself. Barring California, scarcely one of the States 

 of the arid region produces a month's supply of 

 either pork, eggs or butter, and a rough estimate 

 shows that these States pay fully $100,000,000 each 

 year to the Mississippi valley and eastern States for 

 these items. No wonder money is scarce under such 

 conditions! With a thoroughly diversified agricul- 

 ture there would be less howl about the government 

 handling of the currency problem. 



The New England Abandoned Farms are 



still being countedby the hundreds in the yearly re- 

 ports of the State boards of agriculture. Some of 

 these are sold as low as from 82.00 to 10.00 per acre, 

 and slow to find purchasers at that. Being New En- 

 gland born and raised, the writer from his western 

 experience is sure that a large proportion of these 

 so-called abandoned farms might easily be made of 

 great value by the practice of irrigation during the 

 drouth season, which drouth is the chief cause of the 

 crop failures" and low values for these places. To 

 find an abandoned farm in the irrigated valleys of 

 the West would be about as easy as to pick up a gold 



