1882.] 



75 



FARM LUXURIES. 



It is something to be wondered at, that so 

 many farmers' families are so blind to, or, 

 rather, so willfully neglectful of, their oppor- 

 tunities to have and enjoy many of the 

 physical luxuries of life. We often see 

 homes about which no fruit-trees grow, and 

 the garden, if there is one, is but little more 

 than a patch of Potatoes and a bed of Onions, 

 with perhaps a few forlorn-looking Cabbages. 



This is not as it should be. Every farm- 

 er's home should have a garden, and that a 

 good one. I have worked in the garden, and 

 observed the results to be obtained from it, 

 enough to be satisfied that at least one-third 

 of the living for an ordinary family can be 

 raised from a garden of half an acre. To do 

 this, the garden must be properly attended 

 to. You would not put in Com and expect it 

 to take care of itself. You cannot expect 

 vegetables to do what Corn will not. You 

 should see that the soil is rich enough to 

 encourage and sustain a vigorous, healthy 

 growth. You should work it up thoroughly 

 when you make your beds. You cannot have 

 it too fine and light. After planting your 

 seed, you should see that all weeds are kept 

 down. You can raise but one crop from 

 your garden. If of vegetables, weeds must 

 be destroyed ; if of weeds, your vegetables 

 must be given up. Of course you can grow 

 something you may call vegetables in a gar- 

 den partially overrun with weeds, but they 

 will be hardly worth the name. To grow 

 them in perfection, all the nourishment in 

 the soil must be given them. 



When you come to think out the list of 

 vegetables that you can raise, you will begin 

 to understand how much variety a garden 

 * can give to your bill of fare. Potatoes, Corn, 

 Cabbages, Onions, Beets, Parsnips, Peas, 

 Beans, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Squashes, 

 Lettuce, — is not that a goodly list ? From 

 half an acre, well worked, you can have 

 vegetables every day through the season of 

 them, and there will be a good quantity left 

 for use during the winter. Such variety you 

 would not think you could afford, if you had 

 to buy them. The use of them, in combina- 

 tion with your other food, will be conducive 

 to health. If you were to estimate the value 

 of what you can raise in a small garden, and 

 see how large a part it plays in the cost of a 

 year's living, you would satisfy yourself that 

 the garden pays the best of any part of the 

 farm. 



Every farmer should grow fruit for home 

 use — Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackber- 

 ries, Currants, Gooseberries, Grapes, Cherries, 

 and Apples ; quite a list, you see, and most 

 people esteem the fruits of which it is made 

 up as luxuries. The same is true of the 

 vegetables which can be grown in the gar- 

 den. And when to this list of fruits and 

 vegetables you add fresh milk and cream, 

 sweet butter and honest cheese, honey, 

 chickens, and eggs, do you not see that 

 the farmer has more luxuries within his 

 reach for the gratification of his appetite 

 than any other man can have ? The wealthy 

 man can buy what the farmer can raise, but 

 he cannot have it m its freshness, as the 

 producer can. — Have a garden. 



Eben E. Rexford. 



THE RIVERSIDE CITRUS FAIR, 



Among the attractions of Southern Califor- 

 nia none claim more interest than their 

 annual and semi-annual Citrus fairs, and con- 

 spicuous among these — a bright and shining 

 Ught among them — is the Citrus Fair of 

 Riverside. 



That this young daughter, with her crown 

 of golden fruits, should eclipse the Los 

 Angeles mother, who, for many years, has 

 worn her matronly crown of Orange blossoms, 

 is doubtless a source of trial. We none of us 

 like to be introduced by our own patronymic, 

 and then listen to the addenda that we are 

 the husband, wife, or daughter of some more 

 distinguished individual. It really requires 

 some extra stamina of character to smile 

 gracefully at such introductions. But all 

 this is just what bright, sunny Riverside, with 

 her modern business-like way of dealing, with 

 her Golden Apples of Hesperides, is doing to 

 the olden, half-Spanish way of raising and 

 marketing this queen of Southern fruits. 

 The city housewife receives her supplies, 

 carefully wrapped in tissue paper, from the 

 former city, and certain well-known names 

 reconcile her to paying an extra price, 

 because Lemon-pies from this source are a 

 certain success, and from the ordinary 

 method of dealing in Lemons it may or may 

 not be true. 



These careful business methods have en- 

 abled Riverside to construct and pay for 

 a fine pavilion, in time for the Fair of the 

 current season ; and have enabled the exhibi- 

 tors, for the first time, to do themselves jus- 

 tice in showing their beautiful products. 

 These were supplemented with additions 

 from Pasadena, San Gabriel, San Diego, 

 Orange, Santa Barbara, Pomona, and San 

 Bernardino. 



The best display of fruits from a south- 



[ ern county was generously awarded to D. 

 MeCray, of San Diego ; the second to G. B. 

 Adams, of San Gabriel. The finest display 



| of budded fruit would naturally fall to River- 

 side, as so large a proportion of their young 

 orchards are in the fine new varieties so 

 popular with the fruit-loving world. The 

 Riverside Navel has an enviable reputation, 

 and a pyramid of these attractive fruits is 

 a delight to behold. Of this variety there 

 are two others, the Australian and Florida 

 Navels, both of these undoubtedly originat- 

 ing in Bahia, Brazil, but inferior to the one 

 brought to Riverside from Washington, much 

 thicker in skin and coarser in pulp. The finer 

 quality of this variety is a source of constant 

 attraction at whatever fairs they are shown, 

 and overshadow ordinary varieties in a most 

 exasperating manner. The second place is 

 quite unanimously accorded to the paper rind 

 St. Michaels — a most delicate, thin-skinned 

 variety, but smaller than the preceding. The 

 third place is usually accorded to the Mediter- 

 ranean Sweet, the Du Roi being considered 

 only a synonym for the former variety. The 

 fourth place is given to the Maltese Blood. 



But Riverside boasts of other products, and 

 not among the least of her fine displays at this 



j attractive exhibit was her wonderful array 

 of Lemons and Limes, the latter of the Aca- 

 pulco variety, attaining nearly the stature of 



1 a well-grown Lemon, this sort forming the 



connecting link between the two fruits, hither- 

 to conspicuously a missing link. The pre- 

 mium for the finest display of Lemons was 

 accorded to P. D. Cover, as also that for best 

 display of Limes. The favorite varieties of 

 Lemons have hitherto been the Lisbon and 

 Eureka, as giving the highest percentage of 

 acid, and free from bitterness. This season 

 the preference was given to the Eureka, as 

 a higher attainment in both these regards. 

 To bring the market price up to the Sicily 

 Lemon is only possible when the poorer qua! 

 ities shall cease to come into our markets. 

 It has been proposed as the only remedy 

 ' to copy the plan of the wine manufacturers, 

 j and carry the war into the enemy's country 

 by sending a cargo to market by way of Sicily 

 for a time, and so produce a cure. 



The first effect on entering the pavilion is 

 to impress one with the reckless waste of 

 splendid material, the lavishness, the tons 

 upon tons scattered with a profusion only 

 known among Calif ornians. There were grot- 

 toes in whose plenishing were sacrificed loads 

 of the golden treasure, temples of green and 

 gold, whole cities, fairs in themselves. A 

 lovely device was a Gypsy Camp Kettle, the 

 poles made of threaded Oranges and the 

 kettle covered In the same maimer, the fill- 

 ing being delicious jellied Oranges. This 

 was suspended by a wire, and the whole was 

 trimmed with Smilax. The pyramid from 

 Cover and McCoy, of only 30 Oranges but 

 Brobdignagian in size, was wonderful. There 

 were measurements of rivals for the pre- 

 mium, and one grew dizzy and incredulous at 

 the same time to hear of 14x14, then 1 (ixl 5, 

 and, to cap the climax, 17x17. It was a 

 relief to turn to the dainty little Sanguines 

 and the luscious St. Michael of such modest 

 dimensions. Think of juvenile dismay over 

 a holding-place on such leviathans ! 



That unfortunate committee on the best 

 Orange, what untold sympathies they deserve ! 

 How cordially one can hate a committee who 

 fail to see our particular merits. Are they 

 not fitting subjects for some future vendettas ? 

 The ingenuity of the one before us entitles 

 them to a better fate, giving themselves two 

 chances for life — a sort of Kilkenny-eat ar- 

 rangement, setting the rival parties at each 

 other instead of the committee. A premium 

 for the best seedling, and one for the best 

 budded variety. The former was taken by 

 Mr. Cover. Mr. Richardson, of San Gabriel, 

 came in for the latter, but, by the usual irony 

 of fate, it was given for a Riverside Navel 

 grown at San Gabriel. 



It has been long ago said that Oranges 

 ! enough were already planted to give ten 

 I daily to each individual in the United States. 

 With the present supply, somebody is eating 

 more than his share. The veteran Orange- 

 grower, M. Sarey, gave the history of that 

 fruit as belonging to Southern California in a 

 delightful resume, and other essays and poems 

 were of a high order. The cleanliness of all 

 the exhibits spoke volumes in their favor, and 

 every effort will be made to avoid the depre- 

 dations of the scale and other insects. Last 

 year's raisins were shown, of fine quality, and 

 silk-worms and cocoons, soon to be a power 

 in the southland. Mr. Elwood Cooper's olive 

 oil from Santa Barbara gave, as usual, no 

 opportunity for competition, the crop always 

 selling from one to two years in advance. 

 Long live our cities' exhibitions and River- 

 side's beautiful homes ! 



Mrs. N. W. Winter. 



