Fruit Growing 23 



Bananas in California. 



Is there any reason zcliy bananas would not grow and bear in the 

 vicinity of Merced if they had plenty of zvaterf Or would the cool nights 

 at certain seasons keep them front bearing F IVould they do better in the 

 Imperial valley f 



Bananas would suffer too severely from frost to be profitable at 

 any point in the interior valleys of California. A plant would be 

 killed to the ground at least every year unless under glass or other 

 protection. There are a few places practically frostless where 

 bananas can be grown in this State, but there is no promise in com- 

 mercial production because they can be so cheaply imported from 

 the tropics. 



Carobs in California. 



Will the carob tree (St. John's Bread) do well in the Sacramento 

 valley, and is it a desirable tree for lining a driveway? 



Carobs have been grown in California for thirty years or more 

 and they will make a handsome driveway and give a lot of pods for 

 the kids and the pigs — for they are "the husks which the swine did 

 eat," and both like them. They ought to be much more widely 

 planted in California because they grow well and are good to look 

 upon. 



Spineless Cactus Fruit. 



/ have about tivo acres of high land in Fresno county that can't be 

 irrigated. It is red adobe soil and there is hardpan in it. Which kind 

 of fruit trees will grow and pay best? How near may the hardpan be 

 to the surface before I have to blast it? 



It is a hard fruit proposition. Try spineless cactus, the fruits of 

 which are delicious. Blasting would help if there is a moist sub- 

 stratum below the hardpan and might enable you to grow many 

 fruits. If your land is hard and dry all the way down, blasting 

 would not help you unless you can get irrigation. Presumably your 

 rainfall is too small for fruit unless you strike underflow below the 

 hardpan. 



Cleaning Fruit Trays. 



What do you advise for killing and removing the whitish mold that 

 forms on trays used for drying prunes? Would sunning the trays be 

 effective, or washing in hot zvater, or is there some suitable fungicide? 



Good hot sun and dry wind will kill the mold. The spores of 

 such a common mold are waiting everywhere, so that your fruit 

 would mold anyway if conditions were right. Still, scalding the 

 trays for cleanliness and a short trip through the sulphur box for 

 fungus-killing is commended. 



Killing Moss on Old Trees. 



/ have some Bartlett pear trees that are covered with moss and 

 mold, and the bark is rough and checked. I have used potash (98%), 



