California Agriculturist 



Vol. 7— No. 11.! 



SAN JOSE AND SAN FRANCISCO, CAL, NOVEMBER, 1876. 



{ SuBscBrPTios Pbice, $1.50aYesr. 

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®itn ^iivtkniuji. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR NOVEMBER 



siE quote from the San Francisco 



California IloiiicuUurisi some hints 



on work for November, which 



are written by a practical gar- 



, jj deuer : 



"The flower garden has its worst time 

 during November; flowers are then be- 

 coming very scarce, and florists have 

 difficulty in procuring suflacient for their 

 customers, though every year this want 

 is becoming less and less, owing to new 

 plants being brought into notice, and a 

 more thorough knowledge being ob- 

 tained by those in the business, to sup- 

 ply the wants of flower amateurs. 

 Shrubs and trees should now receive a 

 thorough pruning. After the first rains 

 the ground should receive a good top- 

 dressing of manure, and after that a 

 thorough spading. Whatever is to be 

 transplanted should be done at this 

 time. 



Dahlias are better out of the ground, 

 and stored away in a dry, cool room. 



Greenhouse plants should be watered 

 carefully. Gardeners and others are 

 apt to give too much water during the 

 fall and winter months. 



Cineraries, Cj-clamens, and Chinese 

 Primroses should receive the attention 

 of florists, in order to have them iu 

 bloom at the beginning of January. 

 The best place for them is close under 

 glass. Cinerarias may have plenty of 

 water, if a warm and sunny exposure 

 can be given. Primroses and Cycla- 

 mens do better in a partially shaded 

 position. 



Camellias require abundance of water 

 as their flowering season approaches. 



All kinds of seeds of greenhouse 

 plants and evergreens may be sown in 

 boxes and pots as soon as they ripen. 

 It is much better for seeds to be put in 

 the ground than to lie upon the shelves, 

 especially as without resorting to artifi- 

 cial heat, the autumn and winter months 

 with us are generally more favorable for 

 the germination of seeds under glass. 



Hyacinths can safely be planted for 

 greenhouse and window culture. After 

 potting, place them in a dark room for a 

 week or two, and allow them to form 

 roots before the leaves make their ap- 

 pearance. 



The vines in graperies must be kept 

 very dry and airy," 



To the above we Nvill add a few words. 

 Prune away and clean up all old stalks, 

 dead leaves" and rubbish, so that your 

 garden will look neiit. Protect all 

 healthy-looking tender plants from frost 

 by covering over with paper, cloth or 

 boxes on cold nights. Don't allow the 

 CaDa lilies to get nipped. It will pay to 

 be particular with them. Make a light, 

 ornamental frame out of lathing to hold 

 the covering. You need not remove the 

 frame; if painted green it will look neat. 

 The covering should be put on at night 

 and removed after the air is temperate — 

 an hour or so after sunrise. 



^ 



Now is a good time to transplant 

 violets and all early-blooming, hardy 

 perennials. If watering is required, 

 apply in the morning, as watering at 

 night in cold weather is likely to chill 

 the plants. 



Now is a good season to stir the soil. 

 After a light spading and pulverizing, 

 spread a thick coating of manure on the 

 surface of beds, and cover the manure 

 with an inch or more of saud. This 

 gives a neat ap])earance, and is much 

 better for the soil than clear manure. In 

 fact, the very best surface dressing is 

 manure and sand. The sand on top, 

 during the rainy season, by keeping the 

 manure constantly moist, facilitates its 

 decay and prepares it for plant-food, 

 so that when the bed is spaded iu Feb- 

 ruary it will be in the best possible con- 

 dition. 



Procure gravel for walks now, before 

 the heavy rains. Shelter all tender 

 plants against beating winds, rains and 

 frost, and you will bo well repaid for all 

 trouble. — [Ed. Agr. 



WINTER IRKIGATION. 



In many portions of (.'alifornia the 

 soil is deep and retentive of moisture, 

 and if once filled with moisture will, 

 without late rains, hold enough in store 

 to supply the growth of a crop of grain, 

 hay, or iu fact any crop that does not 

 require an extra abundance of water. 

 An abundance of rain during the rainy 

 season, to fill the soil, will always bring 

 full crops upon such lands. Without 

 the abundant rain to fill the soil, if not 

 irrigated, short crops or an entire failure 

 is sure to result. jVs our rains are so 

 uncertain, and dry years are so frequent, 

 it becomes a matter of serious import to 

 farmers situated upon such uplands to 

 provide against the possibility of failure. 

 It is a matter of "life or death" with 

 them, iu a business point of view. 

 While these lands are generally beyond 

 the raach of summer irrigation from 

 streams of runuing water, they are 

 usually in reach of water courses that in 

 winter almost always run enough to 

 completely flood the lauds were it eon- 

 ducted upon them. That it will pay for 

 farmers to combine together, and take 

 out and utilize the waters that run to 

 waste during the winter, any one can 

 convince himself of by sitting down and 

 figuring upon the costs and profits. It 

 is very seldom that there is enough 

 moisture stored in the soil to produce a 

 full crop. There is not one season in 

 ten that a good soakiug of the soil would 

 not be a benefit. The creeks iu winter 

 are always supplied with surface wash- 

 lugs of liills, and the wati-r is filled with 

 rich, fertilizing matters that, if spread 

 upon the soil, will enrich it more than 

 full cropping will exhaust, so that lauds 

 winter-irrigated will constantly increase 

 in fertility and the crops be greatly mul- 

 tiplied. If the value of winter irrigation 

 was properly understood, no farmer who 

 could possibly make use of it would rest 

 content until" he apphed it to his lands; 

 there would be a general co-operation 

 among farmers to secure the benefits at 



once, instead of the lethargy and the 

 standing in each other's way so often 

 seen in neighborhoods at the present 

 time. We know of instances where the 

 perverseness of some men prevents the 

 developing of measures that would 

 greatly benefit all, and double the pro- 

 ductive capacity and value of farms. 

 This matter of winter irrigation should 

 enlist the action of clubs and Grangers 

 wherever co-operation is necessary to 

 secure it. A few examples in a. county 

 would arouse all the people in earnest to 

 an appreciation of its value. Our laws 

 should be so modeled that every land- 

 owner can demand as his right a just 

 proportion of the waters that naturally 

 lielong to it, and no one should prevent 

 him' from reaching such stream by the 

 direction approved by the surveyor. The 

 lands and streams should be surveyed 

 and mapped oflT, showing the limits of 

 the lands each stream is allowed to irri- 

 gate, and the district should bo asso- 

 ciated for mutual work and agreement. 

 This, with suitable |)rovisions of law for 

 local action and government, would be a 

 foundation for such improvement as the 

 enlightenment and enterprise of the 

 people of each district might demand. 

 No farmer of experience and observation 

 will dispute for a moment that great 

 benefit maj' result from thorough winter 

 irrigaticm. The land soaked one winter 

 will, with ordinary rains, bring two good 

 crops, as a portion of the moisture is 

 carried over from the first to the second 

 year. Often when there is nearly rain 

 enough to bring a crop, even a partial 

 wetting by irrigation would supply the 

 balance necessary to insure success. At 

 any rate, a proper system once adopted, 

 the dams and ditches once made, the 

 further expense and trouble would be 

 but light, while the results would be 

 grand and surprising to all but such as 

 have fully realized the advantages of 

 such a system. We might enumerate 

 instances where heavy crops were growii 

 from land soaked iu winter, while along- 

 side, on equally good soil, there was an 

 entire failure from drouth. But such 

 instances, on a small scale at least, are 

 familiar to every practical farmer on 

 this coast. No argument is necessary to 

 prove the value of winter irrigation. 

 Only a little united action is required to 

 secure its general benefits. 



BEE-KEEPING IN SOUTHERN CAL- 

 IFORNIA. 



BY CUB BEOtTLAK COBBRSPONDEKT. 



Raisin-making has been shown from 



time to tiiiK-' ((► Iu; niii.li more profitable and 

 reBpectftblc tlian wim'-making- A\'liilo irrapes 

 lor wine have this year sol<i for $10 per ton. 

 rainiii gnipcp pay a protit on S-'tO per ton for 

 curing into raiHins. And still there aie grape- 

 growers who pretend to despise the C.\I.I- 

 FOUM.v AcKK I'l.TrRlST for daring to call 

 into question either the protit or the nioi-nlity 

 of wine niakin;,'. The fact that their vhie- 

 yards are generally mortgaged, and they 

 caiMio*. sell wini! for enoULrh to pay the cost of 

 llio casks in which it is stored, is as nothing 

 compared to the deln.sion of phantom wealth 

 thev expect to sec metiimorphosod into a 

 reality. They, too, often .ipoil their manhood 

 trvini^ to save their wine by drinking it. We 

 piiv the poor wine-higot who cannot see, or 

 that will not listen to truthful advice. And, 

 however much enmity we im-ur, we piopose 

 to eoiitiuue to give e'xpres.sion to our honest 

 convictions. 



Ed. .VoBiccLTtjEisT : — There is little to 

 write about in regard to the busy bee, at 

 this time.' Nearly all apairists have 

 cleaned up, and will have but little care 



or trouble with the apiary till the swarm- 

 ing season comes again. But the care- 

 ful apiarist will not allow a day to pass 

 that he does not walk through the apiary. 

 A glance will tell him if all is right. 

 How different this from the Eastern 

 States, wliere tioi" the care and anxiety 

 really commences. To winter safely, 

 requires more labor and more devices 

 than we need to run an apiary the year 

 round, notwithstanding the fact that the 

 moth has twelve mouths in the year in 

 which to depredate. The best remedy 

 for the above mentioned pests that I 

 have found is to keep the colonies of 

 bees strong. 



We have a Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 from which great things are expected in 

 the future, it having organized so late in 

 the season that little can be expected of 

 it this year. And here I wish to soy I 

 think they have made a serious mistake 

 in organizing as they have; not thatthej' 

 have not good officers, but they had it in 

 their power to elect a gentleman as Presi- 

 dent who, from a lifelong experience in 

 the apiary, and in the sale of the product 

 of the same, is pre-eminently fitted for 

 the situation, and the Association would 

 have derived great strength and prestige 

 from putting him iu that place, and 

 would have honored it*// more than /ii;», 

 and justly recognize their obligations to 

 the originator of the industry on this 

 coast, and would have as their leader the 

 largest owner of bees on this continent. 



■This morning I was at work in some 

 willows that fringe the margin of a stream 

 near my apiary, and hearing a familiar 

 sound, I looked to see if mj- ear deceived 

 me; but no, sure enough there was a 

 liurge swarm iu the air, which soon clus- 

 tered. I examined and found a fine- 

 looking queen, and thinking them 

 worthy, I soon had them in a good hive, 

 and I gave them a lift iu the way of a 

 couple of sheets of honey, which sent 

 them to housekeeping rejoicing. I men- 

 tion this simply on account of being ont 

 of season. J\h. 



San Bernardino, Oct. 7, 1876. 



Ever since this magazine was pub- 

 lished we have advocated making a good use 

 of the grape, and have advocated planting 

 vines to produce feed for animals. It will pay 

 on land too dry to produce alfalfa or other 

 succnient feed in abundance. L'pland farms, 

 grain farms, can pro<Ince enough grafes to 

 feed and fatten, in connection with grain, a 

 good many hogs every year, at almost no coat 

 at all. The liogs will harvest the crop lliem- 

 aelves. and the pork produced will bring 

 better returns to the farmer than gi*ain in 

 sacks. Everj' upland farmer should plant 

 vines for this purpose. 



