Grains and Forage Crops 137 



Don't Get Crazy About Special Crops. 



/ zvant information about flax as a cro[y. I have been luwing some 

 land graded for alfalfa and I have had to 'Miit so long I am nozv doubt- 

 ing the advisability of seeding it all under these conditions until fall, as 

 hot zveather will soon come. I zvant some good crop to plant in the checks 

 and give tzvo good irrigations. What zvould you think about rye for sirazu 

 for horse collars? I do not zvish to consider corn, as the stalks zvould 

 be troublesome. Potatoes zvould necessitate disarranging the land too 

 much and zvould require more attention than I am in shape to give just 

 nozo. Everybody grozvs zvheat, barley and oats. I zvant something that 

 I can get a special market for. 



To succeed with flax, the seed ought to be sown in tlie fall, or 

 early winter, in California, and the plant will make satisfactory 

 growth under about the same conditions that suit barley or wheat. 

 Spring sowing would not give you anything worth while except on 

 moist bottom land. Rye is also a winter-growing grain. To grow 

 rye straw for horse collars would be unprofitable unless you could 

 find some local saddler who could use a little, and it is probable you 

 could not get a summer growth of rye which would give good straw, 

 even if you had a market for it. You could get a growth of stock 

 beets, field squashes, or pumpkins for stock feeding. In fact, the 

 latter w-ould give you most satisfaction if you have stock to which 

 they can be fed to advantage. Sorghum is our chief dry-season crop, 

 but that makes stalks like corn and would, therefore, be open to the 

 same objections. Has it never occurred to you that people grow 

 the common crops, not because they are stupid, but because those 

 are the things for which there is a constant demand and the best 

 chance for profitable sale? Eflforts to supply special markets are 

 worth thinking of, but seldom worth making unless you know just 

 who is going to buy the product and at what price. 



California Insect Powder. 



What part of the plant is used in making insect pozvdcr and hozv is 

 it prepared? Is the plant a perennial? What soil suits it best? 



The plant is Pyrethrum cinerariaefolium and has a white blossom 

 resembling the common marguerite. The powder is made of the 

 petals and the seed capsules or heads are thoroughly dried in the 

 sun and ground with a run of stone such as was formerly used for 

 making flour. The powder must be finely ground, and only good 

 powder can be made in a mill suitably equipped for that purpose. 

 The plant is a perennial, beginning to bloom the second year from 

 seed. It will grow in any good soil with ordinary cultivation. Twenty- 

 five years ago it was thought that a great California industry might 

 be established on that basis, but there is at the present time but one 

 establishment, which grows about all the material it can use on its 

 own ranch in Merced county, on a fine, deep loam which the plant 

 seems to enjoy. 



