464 Transactions of the American Institute. 



■when confined to a straw stack, can lay on the excellent steak, or the 

 delicate tenderloin. Every minute atom for the nourishment of 

 plants must be changed from a solid to a liquid condition, and be 

 brought in contact with the spongioles at the extremities of the radi- 

 cles, which cannot leave their places to go after one drop of nourish- 

 mentjbut they must remain stationary with mouths ever open to 

 catch the minute particles as they are washed downward by the 

 descending rain drops. Therefore, the finer the coarse fertilizing 

 material can be reduced, and the more thoroughly the seed-bed can 

 be comminuted before the germs are planted in the mould, the more 

 readily will the roots perform their office of building up strong and • 

 healthful stems, and of developing abundant crops. 



SouTHEEN California. 



W. W. Eumford, of Tulare Co., Cal.— Can the Farmers' Club 

 give any information about orange trees ? The general idea seems to 

 be that an orange is about the same thing the world over. Yet we 

 hear of sweet oranges and sour oranges ; some have thick skins and 

 others thin, and there is considerable diiference in the size, but still 

 thej have no distinctive names such as are applied to our northern 

 fruits. The seedlings that I have seen here are very slow coming into 

 bearing, and the fruit inferior. Xow, if there are superior varieties 

 that have names I would like to be made acquainted with them, and 

 put in the way of obtaining buds or grafts. The same may be said 

 of the lemon, and I am equally anxious to become acquainted with 

 the best varieties of that fruit. I think that certain portions of this 

 valley will be found perfectly adapted to semi-tropical fruits, and I 

 am about to give them a trial. I shall keep a daily record of tem- 

 perature, direction and force of wind, and amount of rain, and if any 

 of your subscribers wish information about the country I will be glad 

 to furnish it. We have thousands of acres of as good wheat land as 

 any in the State, open to pre-emption or homestead, and there are 

 plenty of locations now within three miles of town where we have 

 good stores, post-office, telegraph office, and express office ; also, good 

 schools and churches. The soil of tlie plains is mostly a dark clay 

 loam, from two to three feet deep ; but there are places where it 

 changes to a sandy loam, and even a loose sand. My weather 

 record for the half month of November is as follows : Highest tem- 

 perature, 80 deg. ; lowest, 37 deg. ; mean, 56.70 deg. ; fair days, eleven ; 

 variable, one : stormy, two ; direction of wind about equally distributed 



