68 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



moth larvae at work in the buds later, we spray again the last of May 

 so as to catch the second brood, using the same formula as in the pre- 

 vious sprajdng, though the sal Bordeaux may be cut down one half or 

 omitted entirely if there is no evidence of fungus about the trees. If 

 red spider makes its appearance, then a treatment of the sulphur alone 

 will settle Mr. Spider and turn the foliage from yellow to green in 

 three days' time if you do not wait too long before spraying. In apply- 

 ing this dust spray we use a power machine which is quite inexpensive, 

 mounted on a wagon and driven by a two-horsepower engine, the whole 

 outfit weighing only about 1.000 pounds, drawn by two horses and 

 operated by two men. which readily treat forty acres per day. The 

 amount of material seems small to be effective, but being applied as a 

 mixture instead of a chemical solution, as in the wet spray, it is every 

 bit active. The principal thing, however, is to spray if needed, and if 

 you don't want to use your application dry. use it wet, but be sure and 

 use it. 



CULTIVATION. 



None of our orchard trees yield quicker or more decisively to good 

 cultivation than the almond and the principle involved seems to be to 

 maintain a sufficient degree of moisture. We are trying an experiment 

 on a block of fifty acres of old almond trees, having seeded it to alfalfa 

 last April. We shall water this as often as necessary, but cut no hay. 

 allowing it to grow and fall on the ground as a mulch. If the trees do 

 not bear with this treatment I will have added to the soil any way. 

 When our orchard trees get to be over fifteen years old they will require 

 irrigation where they got along very well before with good cultivation. 

 Of course, I am speaking of conditions in our locality where the soil is 

 deep and retentive of moisture under good cultivation, but without any 

 subirrigation or summer rains. 



HARVESTING. 



Presuming that we have secured a crop and that it is time to gather 

 it, we now come to the matter of harvesting, which is no small item in 

 a commercial proposition. I am told that about fifteen years ago a 

 company in our neighborhood who had about one hundred tons of a 

 crop to harvest and having no machinery, advertised in the San Fran- 

 cisco papers for five hundred hands to help harvest their crop. About 

 three hundred came a week ahead of time, and then it became necessary 

 to bring out a squad of policemen from the city. We would not think 

 of requiring over fifty people to handle such a crop now. 



When the hulls on the nuts are loose from the shell, as will be indi- 

 cated by their bursting open, it is time to begin gathering if you wish 

 to hull them. If they get too dry you will have to wet them before 

 hulling or you will break the shells. If you wish to shell them, then the 

 drier the better. It will not pay to begin until the nuts about the 

 crotches of the trees are ready and they will be the last to ripen. That 

 is, it will not pay to go over the ground twice. When they are all 

 ready you can get all at one gathering. Have some sheets made of 

 heavy unbleached sheeting or light duck or sail cloth. Mine for large 

 trees are 15 by 30 feet. Two men to a sheet and two sheets to a tree. 

 Spread the sheets under the tree one on each side, lapping the edges 

 where they join. Then the men take willow or bamboo poles and by 



