130 STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



times there is in store a plentiful supply of naoisture. Should 

 I stop here and say that this is the one thing needful, I 

 presume there are some who might declare it a fallacy, and 

 quote their own experience in proof. In fact, in my inquiries 

 I consulted one orchardist who had irrigated thoroughly three 

 different plots, respectively four weeks, two weeks, and one or 

 two days before the first hot wave this spring, and yet a large 

 percentage of his crop went to the ground." 



Wm. C. Fuller, of Colton, says: "I find the best crops near 

 the heads of irrigating streams, and use the method described 

 as so fatal by Mr. Messenger. To be sure I do not get as large 

 a crop as some who use this same method. I had twelve 

 carloads from about fifteen acres." 



Yellow and Variegated Leaves on Orange and Lemon 

 Trees. — It is doubtful if there is a section in the State where 

 orange and lemon trees can not be seen with yellow and 

 variegated leaves. This has been ascribed to various reasons, 

 such as too much or not enough water, too much or lack of 

 cultivation, excessive cold, excessive heat, etc. 



Prof. S. M. Woodbridge, of Los Angeles, says: "Without 

 wishing to offend any one for ill treating so good and paying 

 a friend as the orange or lemon tree, we would suggest the 

 answer in one word: Starvation. The remedy then would 

 naturally lie in feeding. In reviewing the analyses of the soils 

 in Southern California, one is naturally struck with the defi- 

 ciency in sulphuric acid that such soils show. Having been 

 brought up in a section of country where it was definitely 

 settled that the 'only expensive ingredients that any soil 

 was likely to be deficient in were nitrogen, phosphoric acid, 

 and potash,' and considering that there the form of phos- 

 phate was invariably a superphosphate, i. e., made soluble 

 by sulphuric acid, and further finding that untreated bone is 

 the usual form in which it is used there, and also being con- 

 vinced that the soil-analysis theory had been exploded years 

 since and discarded by people the world over who are looked 

 upon and considered 'authorities,' and having shown, by 

 actual field tests, that potash was beneficial even on soils that 

 had been reported as very rich in potash, and when the theo- 

 retical advice had been given that no potash would be required 



