256 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



of a cover-crop and plowing down, with the addition of barnyard 

 manure, have been found to be the most efficient means of adding 

 nitrogen to the soil; and I believe that the addition of the cover-crop, 

 whether it is planted or whether it is the ordinary vegetation which 

 comes in the soil, will produce humus, which helps especially this 

 latter bacteria. This is just a little interesting item that I thought I 

 would add to Mr. Mills's excellent address. (Applause.) 



MR. JUDD. We would like to hear from Professor Stubenrauch. 



PROFESSOR STUBENRAUCH. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentle- 

 men : I did not intend to have much to say at the Convention, because the 

 work which I am doing is hardly ready to give out. I dislike to get up 

 and say what I am going to do. I would rather wait until I have done 

 something and then give you results. This morning you heard from 

 Mr. Reed something of the work of the U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture in southern California dealing with the investigation of the causes 

 of decay in citrus fruits. I had the honor to be connected with that 

 work and that is part of my duty in the winter. I am, however, taking 

 up the interesting line of investigation dealing with the cold storage of 

 California fruits. W e attempted to keep some of the deciduous fruits 

 in cold storage last year and also this past season, dealing with the 

 peach and the plum and the pear. Going on further, also studying the 

 behavior of our apples, particularly those from Watsonville and the 

 Oak Glen country, and also the study of the storage of different varie- 

 ties of California grapes, the idea being in this last investigation to see 

 if we can not get for the California table grape the trade and market 

 which now go to the Almeria. I had occasion to look into this matter 

 when I was in Washington and found that about a million and a half 

 dollars are spent annually for . Almerian grapes, and it has been my 

 dream or my hope to find some way of prolonging the market season of 

 our own excellent table grapes so that we might get at least a portion 

 of this mighty trade. This work is in progress now. In a small way 

 we began last season, using about fifteen varieties, selected from the 

 San Joaquin Valley, from the Tulare station conducted by the Univer- 

 sity, and packed them in different ways. This was merely a prelimi- 

 nary investigation to find out, if we could, the style of package, to see 

 how the grapes should be handled and packed to keep in storage. We 

 tried different packing materials, including cork dust. The Almeria 

 grapes all come in cork dust. We were trying to find some material 

 that could be used as a substitute for this cork dust. We also experi- 

 mented with storing in the ordinary open crate. Our investigations 

 last year showed that we could not keep the grapes as long in the open 

 crate as when using some material in which to pack them. Cork dust 

 was the best thing we had last year. Next to that we tried wheat 

 bran, which did very well as far as it went, but after a time in storage 



