California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



away by the winds. This, we are satisfied, is 

 as true in practice an in theory, and we ac- 

 cept it as a fact, notwithstantling some men 

 may differ from us. 



All plants absorb moisture from the soil 

 where they grow. Most weeds are greedy 

 absorbents of water, and no weeds should be 

 allowed to rob the water from grain-iields and 

 orchards. It pays to go over grain-fields 

 and pull out mustard, and to cultivate and 

 hoe orchards and gardens as long as there is 

 any sign of growing weeds. 



We call attention to experiments made in 

 June, 1870, bj' Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, of 

 England, to ascertain not only the amount of 

 water in land lying fallow, but also in that 

 on which a crop of barley was growing. In 

 making this experiment, each nine inches of 

 earth, to the depth of four and a half feet, 

 were separately tested. These analyses 

 showed that an acre of dry soil three inches 

 deep weighs 1,0(JO,UOO pounds or fiUO tons ; 

 tilty-four inches deep weighs eighteen times 

 as much, or 9, ODD tons ; when wet, about 

 one-eighth more. 



The following table shows the per ceutage 

 of water in the land at different depths : 



Fallnw land, Burluy land. Diffejence. 

 iRt nine inchcB . . 2l),:llJ II.'.H H.« 



2nd " " . . 2il..'>3 19. 32 10.21 



3d " " . . 34,84 22.83 12.01 



4th " " . . 34..-i3 2.5.09 9.23 



Mb •' •< . . 31.31 2C 98 4.33 



(ith " " . . 33..5D 20.83 7.17 



Mean . . . 30.65 22.09 8.56 



From these figures is appears that the bar- 

 ley crop must have jjumped up and evapo- 

 rated 1,035 tons of water per acre. 



Messrs, Lawes and Gilbert say : "As the 

 excavation proceeded, barley roots were ob- 

 served to have extended to a depth of between 

 four and five feet, and the clayey subsoil ap- 

 peared to be much more disintegrated and 

 much drier where the roots Jiad penetrated 

 than where they had not." 



Aside from the main subject of this article 

 we can see plainly, by this experiment, one 

 of the great advantages there is in 



SnilMEn-r ALLOWING. 



By summer-fallowing, that is, plowing the 

 ground in the Spring and leaving the surface 

 light, so that moisture cannot readily escape 

 into the aij, and keeping weeds and jjlants 

 from growing that will draw away moisture 

 from the soil, nearly all the Winter's rains 

 remain stored in the soil during the season to 

 be added to by another rsiiny season. The 

 great benefit of summer-fallowing, then, 

 seems to be the supplying of such soils as 

 are not thoroughly saturated by one season's 

 rain, with two season's rain for one crop of 

 gi-ain. At any rate, this is one very impor- 

 tant consideration of summer-fallowing ; and 

 crops can be grown by this means, where, 

 with but one season's rain alone, they would 

 dry out before maturity. When' grain is sown 

 early so as to profit by all the moisture of win- 

 ter weather, and the foliage covers the soil be- 

 fore dry weather, the growing grain in a meas- 

 ure protects the soil from drying sun and 

 winds. 



M 



Farmers, White Your ExrEKiENCE.^It is 

 not so much by publishing new theories, as 

 by keeping tried and tested facts before its 

 readers, that the agricultural press benefits the 

 farmers, and there is no one but may contrib- 

 ute something from his observation and expe- 

 rience that will benefit his neighbor. 



A SAN JOSE PRUNE ORCHARD. 



Probably the best prune orchard in the 

 world is that belonging to Mr, J, M. Patter- 

 son, of San Jose. It is not a very extensive 

 orchard — less than 2,000 trees — but it is a 

 very profitable one. The trees, set in rich, 

 moist, alluvial soil, 12 feet apart, are remark- 

 ably thrifty, and produce crops of very supe- 

 rior fruit. 



Last season 600 Gross Prune de Agen trees 

 produced some twenty-five tons of fruit, 

 woi'th, at wholesale, not less than four cents 

 per poind, or $52,000. The fresh fruit 

 brought, in 20- lb boxes, in New York, twenty- 

 five cents per pound, and in San Francisco 

 was worth, nicely packed in smaU boxes, from 

 six to eight cents per pound. The same va- 

 riety of prunes, pitted and dried by the Alden 

 process, were sold here, wholesale, to an 

 Eastern firm for thirty cents per pound, and 

 thee pounds of green would make one of 

 dried fruit. 



There were produced in the same orchard 

 over five tons of the Petit Prune de Agen, a 

 small, very sweet prune, and one in demand 

 for its excellence. These are prized as drying 

 prunes, and will only lose one-half by evapo- 

 ration. The difference in flavor between this 

 prune and the large Gross Prune de Agen is 

 considerable: the small prune is very sweet, 

 while the larger is quite tart for a prune. 

 There were several tons of Damson plums 

 and a quantity of Green Gages and other 

 plums jsroduced in this orchard, all of very 

 fine quality. Every Heason the fruit is thinned 

 out nearly one-half when from one-quarter to 

 one-half grown, to keep the trees from over- 

 beariufj.' The advantage in this is, the trees 

 are prevented from breaking and what fruit is 

 left grows to a very large and uniform size. 



Mr. Patterson's experience in the pnine 

 and plum business is valuable to himself, and 

 would be to any one who contemplates going 

 into the business of cultivating such fruit. 

 He expresses the opinion that the Fellenberg 

 is the very best prune for drying that has been 

 yet produced. It is about as tari as the large 

 prune, the pit separates freely from the fruit, 

 and it dries very readily with little more loss 

 than the small prune. 



The "American taste," as a nurseryman 

 said lately, while we were talking upon this 

 subject,- "demands tart frnits, and we have 

 to be governed in our selections of varieties 

 by this taste." With some exceptions, this 

 is true; and probably a tart prune may be 

 more in demand than the sweetest Petit Prune 

 de Agen, although this fruit must always be 

 in demand for its delicate flavor and sweet- 

 ness. 



Mr. Patterson says that the genuine Green 

 Gage plum will long be in good paying de- 

 mand for canning and jelly. There is a large 

 demand and ready market for almost any 

 <]uantity of such in the States east of the 

 mountains. There is such a demand, in fact, 

 that the Imperial Gage is palmed oft" for the 

 Green Gage in cans and jellies. Also there 

 are counterfeit jellies that never saw a plum 

 at all. This Mr. P. spoke of as most deplor- 

 able, and a subject for investigation. Cali- 

 fornia fruits are generally held, like California 

 honey, as far superior to anything put up 



up East, and the business of putting up fruits 

 here for the Eastern markets should be so 

 firmly established in honest practice as to re- 

 tidn its good name and make it remunerative 

 and satisfactory. 

 , Mr. Patterson says that there is a difference 

 of two years in the bearing age of plum trees 

 between the budded and grafted trees, the 

 grafted trees bearing two years sooner than 

 the budded ones. This is his experience. 

 Grafted trees four years in orchard, set when 

 one year old, bore ten pounds each. When 

 the trees are eight to ten years old they will 

 bear one hundred pounds to the tree on an 

 average. T^n acres in plums and prunes, on 

 suitable soil, are all that any one family would 

 want or need. It would bring in a liberal in- 

 come every year. Twelve feet distant (300 

 trees to the acre) is far enough apart to set 

 plnm and prune trees in the orchard. When- 

 ever a tree does not produce the variety of 

 fruit wanted, he cuts the head off and grafts 

 at once. It is poor policy to have trees in the 

 orchard that do not produce the kinds that 

 are profitable. 



Mr. Patterson is, this Spring, whitewashing 

 the trunks of the trees up into the limbs as 

 far as he can reach handily, to kiU all parasit- 

 ic plants and insects. He is sure that lime 

 wash does not injure the bark, but rather pro- 

 tects it from heat and drying winds by its 

 coating, to the advantage ol the tree. The 

 surface soil is kept well cultivated, so as to 

 prevent the waste of moisture from the lower 

 soil by evaporatien and to keep all weeds from 

 exhausting the moisture and richness of the 

 soil. He does not prune heavily, but thina 

 out the fruit. 



He is offered $2,000 a year for the fruit his 

 orchard contains without further expense to 

 himself than cultivating and caring for the 

 trees. This, on about six acres of orchard, 

 many of the trees of which are too young to 

 bear much. 



HOW THEY LIKE THE AGRICUIc 

 TURIST. 



We often receive cheering words from onr 

 subscribers who renew their subscriptions. 

 We do all we can to make a good, practical 

 journal, and of course we like to see that our 

 efforts are in a measure successful. A lady 

 writing from Washoe, Nevada, and paying 

 two years in advance, writes : We all like 

 your paper very much, and feel that we can- 

 not do without it. May you gain a rich re- 

 ward for the noble stand you have taken and 

 maintained pgainst intenqierance and other 

 evils ; and that all true friends of Eight may 

 aid you is our fervent prayer. 



Mr. J. T. Wood, of Carson, Nevada, pay- 

 ing his subscription and sending a new one, 

 writes : I believe there is not another paper 

 in America that furnishes so miich useful 

 reading for so small a subscription price. So 

 long as I live you will have me for a friend 

 and subscriber. You deserve to prosper, and 

 no good man will keep you out of your sub- 

 scription money. I wiU get some more sub- 

 scribers. I consider it a loss to Nevada that 

 the California Agricultukist has not a more 

 extensive circulation here. 



Moses Hopkins, of Nicolans, Sutter Co., 

 California, writes : " I prize your paper for 



