i8 



P A C I I-" I C TREE AND VINE 



PACIFIC TREE AND VINE 



NINETEENTH YEAR. 

 The exponent of the fruit growing, 

 farming, stockraising, poultry lieeping, 

 and home making interests of the Pacific 

 Coast. 



Issued Montlily at 

 18 South Market St.. - - San Jose. 



Address all communications and remittan- 

 ces to 



PACIFIC TREE AND VINE. 



18 South Market Street SAN .lOSE. CALIFORNIA 



FAYETTE MITCHELTREE, • - - Editor 

 JOHN ISAAC, - Associate Editor 



CONTRIBUTORS: 



Franklin Hichborn James Hague 



J. C. Williams B. T. McBain 



Edward Ehrhorn 



Subscription Price, One Year : : : 50c. 



Correspondence solicited on all matters 

 of interest pertaining to farm life or de- 

 velopment of the resources of this coast. 



Pacific Tree and Vine is published 

 monthly; subscribers not receiving their 

 paper promptly sliould give notice so 

 that the cause may be ascertained. 



Renewals. — The date printed with 

 your name on the paper or wrapper 

 should show to what time your sub- 

 scription is paid. Thus Jan 08 indicates 

 that payment has been received up to 

 .January 1, 1903; Feb 03 up to Feijruary 

 1 , 1903; and so on. Some time is required 

 after receipt of money before the date, 

 wliich serves as a receipt, can be clianged. 

 If you find or believe an error has been 

 made in the date notify this office at 

 once. 



Discontinuances. — A subscriber wish- 

 ing to stop his paper must notify tlie 

 publisher and pay up all arrears, other- 

 wise he is res|)onsible as long as tlie 

 paper is sent. 



Change of Address.. — A subscriber 

 wishing to have his address changed 

 should give both the old and the new 

 address. 



We Notice that some of our Southern 

 California exchanges are indulging in 

 learned dissertations on the work of the 

 thrip and the damage done by tlirips. 

 .Now, tile word thrips is singular and its 

 plural form is thripidac. We trust our 

 learned contemporaries in the South will 

 note this strange fact, and not display 

 their lack of entomological knowledge by 

 using the singular for the plural form of 

 the word and for the singular a won! that 

 has no standing. 



TiiEKE IS now little question as to the 

 outcome of the present season. The 

 copious rains of the early part of March 

 have put the finisliing touches on a very 

 promising season, and made its promises 

 a certainty. With a few late showers, 

 which we are reasonably sure to have, 

 crops of all kinds will be very good, and 

 even without further rainfall tlu'y will be 



fair. Keports from all the counties of 

 the State are to the effect that grain and 

 hay never promised better than at ]>re6- 

 eiit, and unless the unlooked for should 

 happen, we shall have a bounteous har- 

 vest. With this is the assurance of good 

 prices, for farm products. Wheat is now 

 at a better figure than for years past, and 

 the demand is likely to co.itinue, as crops 

 in Australia, which has had very much 

 to do with the demand for coast wheat, 

 are again a failure, and a competitor has 

 become a customer. Fruit trees of all 

 kinds are lieavily laden with bloom, and 

 the probabilities favor an excejitionally 

 lieavy crop. Very often hot weather in 

 January starts the sap in motion, and 

 forces the trees in bloom prematurely, 

 only to have the blossoms caught in the 

 hue frosts and the fruit crop materially 

 lessened. We have escaped this this 

 year. Cold weather during the first 

 months of the year have kept the trees 

 back, and tliere is little danger from 

 damage by frost new. It now looks as 

 though unusually vigorous thinning will 

 be required to produce marketable fruit. 

 With hops, and beets, wool and stock, 

 the prospects are equally promising both 

 as to yield and prices. Altogether the 

 season of 1903 is the most promising Cal- 

 ifornia has had in vears. 



One of the most useful implements of 

 the modern, up-to-date farmer or fruit 

 raiser is the spray pump. In the orchard 

 it is one of the necessities. It is almost 

 impossible for the fruit grower to get 

 along without it, for it is the only wea- 

 pon with which he can combat his num- 

 erous insect enemies and keep them in 

 check suiliciently to allow him any part 

 of the re,sult of his labors. It is a neces- 

 sary adjunct to the poultry yard, and is 

 the best possible means of keeping the 



i/>"5 



chicken liouses in healthy condition. It 

 is the eheapest and handiest means of 

 whitewashing outbuildings, fences, and 

 will be found useful for a score of pur- 

 piL-^es. Every farmer should have a good 

 spray pump, and it should rank with the 

 plow, the harrow and the mowing mach- 

 ine as one of the indispensible imple- 

 ments of husbandrv. 



Angora. 



The Angora goat is as different from 

 the hairy goat as the sheep is differ- 

 ent from the Angora. It has its fields 

 of usefuhiess that canno; be denied by 

 the most ardent sheep breeder. The 

 principal use to which they can be put 

 is that of brush extermination; next, 

 mohair products; third, as meat pro- 

 ducers. In clearing land of brush this 

 animal seems to have no equal. The 

 sheep will take to brush, killing it if 

 forced to do it; the goat takes to it 

 because it is nature. He is a browser 

 first and a grazer when there is no 

 browse. In killing out the brush grass 

 will come to cover the earth and such 

 lands can be followed by sheep. It is 

 really an interesting way to clear land 

 of brush and they have been in demand 

 for that pui (lose, says The Homestead. 



The fleece is called mohair and is 

 used for making plushes of all kinds. 

 It is also extensively used in making 

 rugs, astrakhan cloaks, etc., and the 

 demand is greater than the supply, 

 which has a tendency to keep the price 

 well up in the scale of profit. The 

 dressed skins with the hair on are used 

 for rugs and robes, and many of them 

 are used in the manufacture of capes 

 for children, collars, muffs and cloak 

 trimming.s. When made up in this 

 manner it is seldon sold under its true 



