32 



TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



growing possible, and this is the point especially pertinent to this dis- 

 cussion. With little if any rain after the middle of June, by the deep 

 plowing and fine surface mulching, trees are kept in vigorous growth 

 until October without irrigation. 



But in spite of its marked success this new system has been and 

 probably will be of slow growth, for reasons easily appreciated. One 

 reason, previously mentioned, is that the average agriculturist there as 

 here is slow in adopting new methods, especially if somewhat radical. 

 But the principal explanation is that while the processes are simple, 

 the work must be done intelligently and at the right time, and this 

 requires an extra expenditure of time and care, and special tools, not 

 readily afforded. But in spite of this slow growth the new system of 

 soil handling has helped bring about a wonderful change in that great 

 semi-arid region. During the first half of the 90's, a quarter of a million 

 of people abandoned that section because the ordinary crops and the 

 old methods of handling the soil proved failures. During the last five 

 years the influx to these same lands has been even greater than was the 

 outgo. More claims were entered in that dry region last year than in 

 any previous year of its history, and lands have increased in value an 

 average of 100 per cent within the five years. Eventually this improved 

 system of handling soil is to be at least an equal factor with the dis- 

 covery of new crops adapted to the dry climate, in peopling and making 

 productive a strip of varied width, stretching a thousand miles from 

 North Dakota to Texas, capable of sustaining many millions of people. 



To-day the whole nation celebrates the Louisiana purchase of one 

 hundred years ago. Less than a hundred years from now, populous 

 States then occupying nearly half of that great purchase, which during 

 all the century have been considered practically uninhabitable, may 

 celebrate the achievements of modern agriculture. 



I have dwelt upon this because the conditions seem not unlike our 

 own, and I believe this new system of agriculture may do as much for 

 us in Southern California as it is doing in those semi- arid regions. 



The experiments now being made with the powerful English steam 

 plow in the beet fields at Oxnard are in this direction , and will be watched 

 with much interest. If a root bed twice the ordinary depth not only 

 increases the product, but also doubles the length of time the soil can 

 profitably be used for that exacting vegetable, it is reasonable to expect 

 that a bed of extra depth will prove of vastly more advantage to the 

 deeper rooting fruit tree. 



And this is not a matter of mere opinion. Others as well as myself 

 have put the theory to practical test sufficiently to be convinced beyond 

 a doubt of its value. For five consecutive years, excepting one, I have 

 planted orange trees on ground plowed from 12 to 16 inches deep, actual, 

 in holes 2 feet deep by 2£ feet in diameter. Modern after-treatment was 



