136 One Thousand Questions in Agriculture 



You could probably grow alfalfa to advantage if the soil is 

 deep and loose, getting less, of course, than by irrigation, but still 

 an amount that would be very helpful in your chicken business. 

 Otherwise, as the land lies higher and perhaps out of sharp frosts, 

 you could grow winter crops of vetches and peas and thus improve 

 the land while furnishing you additional poultry pasture. The latter 

 purpose could also be served by growing beets, cabbage or other 

 hardy vegetables during the rainy season. This is prescribed be- 

 cause of the apprehension that the soil may not contain moisture 

 enough for summer cropping without irrigation. 



No Grain Elevators in California. 



Is California zvheat shipped in hulk or in bags at the present time? 



There are no elevators in this State, owing to the fact that 

 hitherto grain cargoes have been acceptable to ship only as sacked 

 grain, because of claimed danger of shifting cargo and disaster dur- 

 ing the long voyage around the Horn. A novel by Frank Norris, 

 entitled the "Octopus," describes a man being killed by smothering 

 in a grain elevator at Port Costa, but there never was an elevator 

 at that point, and consequently there never was a man killed by 

 getting under the spout thereof. Answering specifically your ques- 

 tion, California grain is shipped in bags and not in bulk. It is 

 handled in sacks from the separator to roadside or riverside storage, 

 to the loading point into the ships and out of the ships on the other 

 side — still in bags. 



New Zealand Flax. 



Give information about Phormium tcnax (Neiv Zealand Uax), which 

 I see is imported to San Francisco in large quantities yearly for making 

 cordage and binder twine, and is said also to be the best of bee pasture. 

 Can I get the plants on the coast, and is California soil and climate adapted 

 to the culture? 



New Zealand fiax grows admirably in the coast region of Cali- 

 fornia. You will find it in nearly all the public parks and in private 

 gardens, for it is a very ornamental perennial. Plants can be had 

 in any quantity from the California nurserymen and florists. It 

 produces plenty of leaves, but we should doubt whether it is floriferous 

 enough for bee pasturage except where it occurs wild over a large 

 acreage. You could get vastly more honey from other plants grown 

 for that purpose. 



No Home-made Beet Sugar. 



Is there any simple process of making sugar from beets so that I 

 could make my own sugar at home from my oivn beets while sugar is so 

 very expensive to buy? 



There is no simple way of making beet sugar. It can only be 

 economically done in factories costing hundreds of thousands of 

 dollars. 



