90 



dit-covered it. Two or thr e of the leading citrus counties do this work 

 at the treasury's expense, afterwards collecting from the lands treated. 

 Los Angeles County still requires the orchardists to do their own 

 fumigation. No new scale pests have developed since the last reports 

 were out, nor is there evidence that parasites have taken the contract 

 to disinfect the orchards of Southern California. 



Upon the question of marketing you have heard a greater voice than 

 mine, one that has been heard all along this coast audits influence felt. 

 It is not boasting to say that Southern California has set the pace for 

 cooperative effort among all other farming communities. Great as the 

 actual achievements in this line have been, greater is the feeling of 

 permanent security that has been engendered by the success of the 

 Citrus Fruit Exchange. Were it not for the work of this cooperative 

 institution, there would be no breadth nor vitality in my subject to- 

 night The association has given to the agricultural world its greatest 

 example of the elimination of the unnecessary elements of a great in- 

 dustry, without the formation of a trust. f Jt has increased the profits 

 of the producer without taxing the consumer to do it. The man- 

 ipulator, speculator, and even honest but depleting fruit merchants 

 have been apportioned to thirty or forty per cent, of the orange crop. 

 They hold on to that through a strenuous endeavour that would appall 

 even our great President. The idea of charging producers just what 

 it costs to sell their fruits has unified the policy of 4,000 orange- 

 growers, and made the Southern California Fruit Exchange the greatest 

 fruit merchant the world has ever seen, giving that organization the 

 record of handling millions of dollars every year, with losses from 

 collections and disbursements so small that they do not amount to the 

 value of 15 carloads in an aggregate sale of 25,800 made since the 

 Exchange assumed control of its own fruit from the orchard to the 

 market end of the line. 



WATERING YOUNG TREES AND SHRUBS. 



Amateur gardeners as a rule do not understand the art of watering; 

 in dry weather. When they see that the flowers and shrubs are droop- 

 ing, they attach a hose to a btar;dpipe and thoroughly wet the surface. 

 They rarely think of looking to see how deep the water has penetrated, 

 and would be astonished to find that after half-an- hour's hose play the 

 soil is only wetted to the depth of less than a quarter of an inch Such 

 watering is worse than useless. Far better to mulch the soil, and trust 

 to that for the preservation of moisture than to form a thin layer of 

 damp soil, which ouly attracts the roots upwards to it that they may 

 be parboiled by the hot morning sur». 



A good way to water shrubs is one which we adopted wi h perfect 

 success in the case of some valuable coffee-trees during a very dry 

 season. We took a number of beer bottles, and, with a tap of a pick 

 on the bottom knob, drove the bo torn neatly out These bottles were 

 then buried neck downwards close to the tree. Every night they were 

 filled with water, which slowly drained away beneath the surface — 1 

 foot below. The rootlets then sought the needful moisture downwards 

 instead of upwards, and the plants grew luxuriantly. The surface was 

 never watered, but by capillaiy attraction it was kept fairly moist. 



