Sometimes our labors seem as lost 



And all our jyearmngs seem in vain. 



And blessings that we pri^e the most 



Are blown in winds or dropped in rain. 



Lemon Notes for Southern California. — I wish 

 every one starting citrus groves could be impressed with 

 the importance of having the trees headed low. This is 

 especially true of the lemon, one of the most obvious 

 reasons being economy in the repeated pickings. Be- 

 sides, experience and observation have demonstrated 

 that the greater proportion of fruit for many years will 

 be gathered very near the ground. I do not know if this 

 latter fact is due to the shade which is thus produced or 

 not ; but it is certainly true, and I believe teaches the 

 importance of a judicious shortening in to produce a 

 closer head than the lemon naturally produces. The 

 value of these low-hanging branches to protect the trunk 

 of the tree from the fierce heat of the sun is also evident. 

 If large two or three-year-old trees are to be planted 

 they should be cut back close to the ground, and as they 

 grow up the shoot selected for the tree should be trained 

 to the true natural pyramidal form, with a main upright 

 stem, from which the branches are sent out as nearly as 

 possible at right angles. All " forks " or branches start- 

 ing at a sharp angle to the trunk should be removed 

 during the first year, else the tree can never bear, with- 

 out splitting with the immense loads of fruit we expect 

 from it. 



For the same reason the branches should be judici- 

 ously shortened in each year at first, to make them 

 strong and stocky. The comparatively few trees which 

 have been trained to grow in this manner are shining 

 contrasts to the stunted, sun-scalded, high-topped trees 

 whose branches, when loaded, must necessarily come 

 down to the ground, and as they are not strong, as nature 

 intended them to be, they split down, and by the wound 

 thus made in the trunk the life of the tree is impaired. 

 One-year-old buds are generally preferable in starting a 

 grove, as they are, or should be, less injured by loss of 

 roots in transplanting and by the consequent necessary 

 cutting back. Still the first fruit may be procured by 

 planting two or three-year-old budded trees. — Harvey 

 C. Stiles, in The Great Soiithniest . 



Oregon and California Prunes. — It will be well to 

 note a few facts developed by our [Oregon's] last year's 

 prune crop, still our most promising and important out- 

 put. Our Italian and silver prunes lead the market, 

 and when we adopt the California system of grading, 

 which we must do, and put up in smaller, fancy pack- 

 ages, will bring double the present prices. Our first 



grade of these fruits are superior in size and quality to 

 anything produced on the continent — this is the decision 

 of Eastern buyers and experts — and are worth to- day in 

 the Bordeaux market, in bulk, i6 cents per pound for 

 fancy packages and confections to eat out of hand. * * 

 The claim that the French prunes are underselling 

 California prunes is based upon sales of the very low- 

 est grades of French prunes, those of go to 105 to the 

 pound, for which the French paper says the American 

 demand has exhausted the supply. Now, the fact is that 

 California and Oregon prunes are not and should not be 

 in competition with these small French prunes. Our 

 prunes do not run so small as that, but should be chiefly 

 classed rather against the first to third grades of French, 

 for which the producer gets from eight to fifteen cents a 

 pound, just as they come from the ovens, the growers 

 being to no expense whatever for packing. These state- 

 ments it is important for the prune-producers of Cali- 

 fornia to consider, and to ascertain where the big mar- 

 gin goes to when a good, large California prune sells at 

 the price of the lowest grade of French. The reports 

 are that California prunes are being preferred at the 

 East, and they should be, for they are fresh and fruity 

 and uncooked ; but to state this, and then in the next 

 breath to say that they must be sold by grocers to deal- 

 ers at five cents per pound, because the poorest French 

 sell below that, is to say "what is the matter with the 

 prune trade." It is not likely that Californians will be 

 long content to take less from prune-buyers than the Bor- 

 deaux merchants allow to the French peasants. — Presi- 

 dent J. R. Cardwell, before Oregon Hortiiullural Asso- 

 ciation . 



Rotting of Fruits in Clay Soil. — Will the editor give 

 the reason and the remedy for the rotting of fruit in 

 heavy clay ? On both young and old peach trees I find 

 the fruit will rot just before ripening ; musk-melons do 

 the same. This I attribute to the soil, as my neighbors, 

 whose trees are in sandy soil, have plenty of good fruit. 

 — C, Georgia. 



[The rotting is no doubt occasioned by fungi, which 

 attack the green fruit. Some of these fungi — as for in- 

 stance that which causes the rot of stone fruits — are 

 tolerably well known to mycologists. All of them, so 

 far as we know, spread most rapidly in a moist atmos- 

 phere or upon moist plants. The heavy clay does not 

 allow the moisture to drain off quickly and it must there. 



