PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SLXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 67 



advantage if you have a large acreage. These are the three proven 

 successful commercial varieties in our locality. Whether they will do 

 so in your locality I can't say. but on general principles they should, 

 and are worthy a trial. In Yolo County the Peerless is a great favorite. 

 In some localities the I X L is said to be a good bearer. If so. it is a 

 good nut to plant there, because it is a good nut and will not meet with 

 much competition from other localities. 



PLANTING. 



Secure the best trees you can get. It is poor policy to plant an 

 inferior tree because it is cheap. There is great opportunity for some 

 one to become a benefactor of mankind by developing superior strains 

 of the best varieties of nuts as well as other kinds of fruits. It is a 

 fact that there are some trees in every orchard no matter what the 

 parentage, which grow better and bear better than others growing by 

 their side and of the same parentage. I am sure that this will be 

 found to be true in fruit trees as it is in the animal kingdom, yet how 

 utterly indifferent we have all been on this great point which means so 

 much on the commercial side of our work ! In good soils, where the 

 growth of the tree will be vigorous. 25 by 25 feet is plenty close to 

 plant. When the trees are twenty years old their branches will touch, 

 and they will need room for twenty or thirty years more. 



PRUNING. 



The first three years you will need to shape your tree. After that 

 you will only need to remove water sprouts and an occasional cross 

 limb, until your trees get very large, when you will need to cut out 

 some of the big wood and open up the trees. Mr. Adams, my neighbor, 

 says ' ' Prune so a bird can fly through the tree, ' ' and he is about right. 

 The tree requires much less pruing than a peach tree. With the peach 

 tree we prune to lessen the pieces of fruit, but with the almond tree 

 Ave want to increase the pieces in number. I never knew of any one 

 having to thin a crop of almonds although in 1908 we did have some 

 limbs as large as my arm break with their load of fruit. 



SPRAYING. 



You will need to spray your almond trees sooner or later. You may 

 have to fight the fungus growths. If so, then you will find a friend in 

 some form of lime, sulphur, or bluestone. You may have to fight red 

 spider; then sulphur is a good remedy. It may be you will have to fight 

 the peach moth larvae ; then some form of the arsenicals. In the writer's 

 judgment you can just as well use your materials dry as wet. I have 

 used the dry or dust spray exclusively for three years and am quite 

 well satisfied with results. The great difference is on the commercial 

 side of the expense account. The method we use is as follows : In 

 December we spray with lime, sulphur and powdered bluestone (sal 

 Bordeaux). We use 40 pounds of lime (Vigorite brand), 5 pounds of 

 sulphur (Anchor brand), and 2 pounds of sal Bordeaux. This makes 

 a very good treatment for two acres. When the trees are in full bloom 

 we spray again with the same mixture and add to it 2 pounds of Paris 

 green or 2 pounds of arsenite of lime. If there is evidence of the peach 



