218 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 431 



pounds of soft soap, four quarts of kerosene, two quarts of 

 crude carbolic acid and two gallons of water. This is then 

 diluted in one hundred gallons of water, and it should be 

 sprayed on the trunks and wherever the larvae are seen, 

 and the ground about the base of the trees, where the 

 insects are found in the form of pupa?, should also be 

 sprayed. This last work should be very thoroughly done, 

 because the insects can be easily attacked and killed in 

 this way, and their destruction at that season will prevent 

 the ravages of the beetles next year. 



Of course, in large towns, or wherever there are large 

 estates, several owners can unite together and purchase a 

 steam spraying outfit, by means of which much more rapid 

 work can be done. Several men can be employed at once 

 to manage different lines of hose, and while two or more 

 men are directing the spray into as many trees the same 

 number are climbing adjacent trees, so that the engine and 

 its attendants are occupied all the time. If the nozzle is 

 moved rapidly about, a large tree can be sprayed in three 

 minutes. Some arrangement for climbing large trees with- 

 out using telegraph-clamps, or creepers, as they are called, 

 ought to be devised, because these sharp metal points 

 penetrate the bark and leave the tree a prey to other insects 

 and fungi. Spraying is not an expensive matter where 

 there is any cooperation, and the machine can be used 

 against other insects, like the tussock moth, which attacks 

 trees of other species. In several places in the country 

 enterprising men have gone into the business of spraying 

 fruit and shade trees — that is, they have one or more com- 

 plete outfits of machinery, which they send with skilled 

 men to operate them, taking the contract for a certain num- 

 ber of applications during the season at the proper time. 

 No one now attempts to grow orchard fruits on a large 

 scale without facilities for spraying against insects and 

 fungi. It is just as necessary to use these remedies in the 

 case of trees planted for shade or ornament as it is for trees 

 planted for fruit. — Ed.] 



Close of the California Orange Season. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — The orange season is practically at an end in California. 

 There are a few scattering car-loads of Mediterranean Sweets, 

 St. Michaels and Valencias still to go forward, but all of the 

 Navels have been sent east. About 5,600 car-loads have been 

 shipped, and the early estimates varied between 8,000 and 

 10 000 car-loads. 



The prices realized have been the best for the past five years. 

 A large proportion of the Navels were sold at from $2. 50 to $2.94 

 a box, free on board in southern California. The average price 

 for good Navels has been about $2.20, which nets the grower 

 the satisfactory sum of $1.70 a box. Seedlings and other 

 varieties have also sold well, but the crop of these has been 

 smaller than in former years. A result of these conditions 

 has been to create a great demand for Navel nursery stock, 

 both north and south, the demand for these trees exceeding 

 the supply. Two or three years ago there was a general dis- 

 position to test the Mediterranean Sweet and other late varie- 

 ties. But the Navel has been such a favorite in the markets 

 of the east this winter that it now holds undisputed place as 

 the representative California orange. 



That Orange groves are still considered a good investment 

 is shown by the proposed plantings this season. There will 

 be a considerable addition to the acreage of southern Califor- 

 nia, particularly in San Bernardino County, where the crop has 

 been large, not appreciably damaged by frost, and sold at good 

 prices. Investors in the northern part of the state, encouraged 

 by the returns from the early shipments from Palermo and 

 Oroville, will also make some extensive plantings. It is stated 

 that one orchard to be planted near Palermo, if the trees can 

 be obtained, will consist of fourteen hundred acres. Prime 

 trees in the nursery three or four years ago were worth from 

 $1.50 to $200 each. Then there was a collapse in prices, 

 owing to overproduction, and an almost total cessation of 

 demand, until trees sold as low as ten cents each. Hundreds of 

 acres of nursery stock were grubbed out and burned. This year 

 there is a demand, not only from California, but from Arizona, 

 Mexico and Florida. Prices have risen to fiftv and seventy- 

 five cents a tree, and it is predicted that the Navels will be 

 worth at least a dollar apiece next year. Many nurserymen 



who have a stock of late varieties are budding them over to 

 Navel buds, although it is a disputed question whether the 

 resulting trees are strong and healthy. As it requires four 

 years to mature a tree for transplanting from the seed there 

 will probably be good prices for all the trees now in the 

 nurseries. 



Reports from different parts of southern California indicate 

 that the Orange-trees are setting heavily, that the climatic con- 

 ditions have been favorable so far, and that, barring hot winds 

 in the summer and frosts next winter, the coming crop will be 

 a large one. 



About forty per cent, of this year's crop has been handled 

 by the Southern California Fruit Exchange, and those who 

 have adopted this method of sale are said to be very well sat- 

 isfied with the returns ; the Exchange has received the highest 

 prices in its history. 



Some criticism has been made about the statement which 

 appeared in the issue of Garden and Forest for February 

 5th, as to the degree of cold in Riverside on December 29th 

 and 30th, last winter. It has been argued that it was unfair to 

 place the lowest record of the thermometer at Riverside at 

 seventeen degrees, and in other near-by places but twenty-six 

 degrees. Nevertheless, the mercury did fall to seventeen 

 degrees at one point near Riverside, although this degree of 

 cold was not reached anywhere else. But the injury resulted 

 not so much from an extremely low temperature as from its 

 long continuance below freezing-point. The effect of this was 

 not only seen in ruined fruit, but also in some groves in that 

 locality from which the leaves have fallen and new foliage is 

 appearing. To make the best of the matter, the frost was a 

 very serious calamity and the results show that the original 

 statements were substantially correct. At least 1,500 car- 

 loads of oranges were rendered unsalable by the frost at Riv- 

 erside, and the 500 car-loads shipped east immediately after 

 the frost was damaged and brought reduced prices, so that lit- 

 tle was realized above the cost of picking, packing and for- 

 warding. The total shipments to this time are about 1,900 

 car-loads, and there are said to be about 100 car-loads now 

 remaining in Riverside. Much of the fruit sent from River- 

 side since the frost, exclusive of the first 500 car-loads, has been 

 sold at good prices, some of it as high as $2.75 a box free on 

 board. Just what proportion was first-class fruit and what of a 

 lower quality I do not know. Of course, it is unfair to make 

 comparisons, and to state that any section was more seriously 

 damaged than the facts warrant. The loss by frost this year 

 was a loss not to any single locality, but to all of southern Cali- 

 fornia, since it emphasized the disagreeable fact that the 

 Orange groves of this section are liable to a certain degree of 

 damage by frost. 



In spite of this fact, Orange groves are held to day at very 

 good prices. The best are not for sale at any reasonable price. 

 Good young orchards from five to six years of age may be 

 bought at from $500 to $600 an acre. Others are held higher. 

 One that I know of, of twenty acres, the crop of which brought 

 this year $2,300, at six years of age, is held at $18,000. It is 

 expected to produce a very much larger crop next year. From 

 $800 to $1,000 an acre is the ruling price for such bearing 

 groves, in the best localities, as are for sale. An acquaintance 

 quoted to me a return of $325 an acre from an orchard of old 

 seedling trees. The largest yield that I have heard of and 

 believe to be authentic is one of $18,000 from forty acres, an 

 average of $450 an acre. These oranges were Navels, and 

 were sold at the highest price. The best five acres in the tract 

 brought a ret'irn of $800 an acre. I believe an average profit 

 of $ 1 00 an acre a year to be reasonable and not an overestimate. 

 Redlands, Calif. Wm. M. Tisdale. 



Notes from West Virginia. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — We have been fortunate in escaping drought through 

 local rains. Our pasture-fields were seldom greener, but 

 farmers only six or eight miles away complain that the 

 ground is dry as powder, so that the Corn has not begun to 

 germinate. The Yellow Locust, which is more abundantly 

 planted in this neighborhood than any other tree, is past flow- 

 ering, and the Clammy Locust, Robinia viscosa, and its varieties 

 are in full bloom. 



A group of young Laburnums and White Fringe trees is now 

 the most beautiful object in our shrubberies. These trees 

 are most effective when planted together. Both have hand- 

 some foliage and drooping flowers which open at the same 

 time. Some bushes of Scotch Broom, planted near them, 

 combine to make a sunny picture of their little shrubbery. The 

 Chionanthus Virginica, or White Fringe, is, perhaps, the most 



