136 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



duce, and plow in the debris so early in the spring that 

 no appreciable injury will be done to the trees, unless he 

 is on that line of light rainfall where every possible effort 

 is demanded to receive and conserve all the water that 

 falls. If that be the case he has to cultivate to conserve 

 moisture both winter and summer and should not think 

 even of winter vegetables in the orchard. 



Perhaps the chief objection to winter vegetable grow- 

 ing is due to the fact that the crop is usually planted too 

 late and is allowed to occupy the ground so late in the 

 spring that the soil can not be brought into fine tilth which 

 is necessary to save moisture. Instead of this the impacted 

 ground on which the vegetables stood is turned up in clods 

 which no amount of crushing will reduce to tilth and the 

 orchard loses by defective cultivation more moisture than 

 the vegetables consumed in their growth. 



The summer growth of vegetables in the orchard is a 

 more dangerous operation and whether it should be under- 

 taken or not depends upon local conditions previously 

 outlined. Perhaps a specific instance may enforce the 

 point and show what may be taken as favored soil and 

 moisture conditions. In the lower lands of the Santa 

 Clara valley, near San Jose, there have been constant con- 

 tributions to fertility by overflows from mountain water 

 bringing leaf mold and other materials found in the de- 

 posits of * ' slum, ' ' which renew and keep up the fertility 

 of the soil. Much of this land has been under cultivation 

 50 years and upwards, and yet is known as garden soil. 

 Much of this land is adobe, naturally remarkably produc- 

 tive, aside from its benefits from overflow. Such soils have 

 proved able to produce, without apparent exhaustion, or- 

 chard trees and the crops that are grown among them. 

 There' is an abundance of artesian water for use when 

 needed. It has been a common custom in this artesian 

 belt, so noted for strawberries, to grow onions on the 

 ridges between the strawberry rows, and along the sides 

 of other berry bushes. Onions are thus grown during sev- 

 eral successive years until the ground is too crowded. 



