CHAPTER. AV. 
FERTILIZERS FOR FRUIT TREES AND VINES. 
Californians are but just beginning to use fertilizers in their 
orchards and vineyards. Some people have even held that Cali- 
fornia soils would never need fertilization, and that there is 
something in our soil and climate which releases us forever from 
repaying anything to the ground for the wealth of produce 
which we take from it. Such a view is, of course, without foun- 
dation, and yet it is not difficult to see how it arose. Early 
attempts to enrich the soil by the turning under of coarse stable 
manure, as is done in other countries, was undertaken here on 
light soil in a region rather short of rainfall. The manure did 
not decompose, and its coarse materials made a soil, already too 
light to retain moisture well, so open and porous that its mois- 
ture was quickly carried away by evaporation, and crops did not 
grow so well as upon adjacent land which had not been manured. 
So the fiat went forth against manure. The corrals* became 
undisturbed guano deposits, and manure piles were fired in dry 
weather to get the soil poison out of the way. Innumerable tons 
of bones were gathered and ground in San Francisco and 
shipped away to countries which need fertilizers. Nature did 
much to foster the popular delusion, for field crops were glo- 
riously large, and trees and vines grew rampantly and bore fruit 
the weight of which they were unable to sustain. How could 
there be more conclusive evidence that manure was a detriment 
to California soils? 
It is foreign to our purpose to discuss the general subject of 
the use of fertilizers in California, and the changes in belief and 
practise which have recently gained ground. Of course, the 
marked falling off in the yield of shallow-rooting cereals gave 
the first unmistakable intimation that there was something 
wrong about the old theory of the perpetual youth of California 
soils. The lands used for fruit will be last to show exhaustion, 
because trees are deep feeders, and the soils, as they are often 
the very best and deepest of the State, selected for fruit because 
of that very character, possess, in an eminent degree, lasting 
*Inclosures for live stock of any kind. 
(154) 
