-18 CULTIVATION 
fifteenth, and carefully cultivated, will produce fine 
blooms in the autumn. Irrigation is essential, prefer- 
ably the furrow system. A furrow each side of the row 
of plants has the water turned into it for nearly ten 
hours, a moderate flow, allowing the soil underneath 
the plants to become thoroughly soaked. Hoeing, 
raking, cultivation in some form, must follow the water 
as soon as possible each time it is used. Bone mea! is 
sprinkled throughout the furrow after the water sub- 
sides, and is covered with soil. 
Pests seem rampant in California. Red spiders, 
aphides of all sorts, mealy bugs, and ants abound, be- 
sides thrip, not to mention blight and mildew. Poultry 
will keep down some of the insects, while overhead 
spraying for several hours without letup will entirely 
put an end to the insect troubles. But this has to be 
done when the daily temperature is 100 in the shade, 
and between 1 20 and 1 30 in the sunshine. The flowers 
are inevitably injured, but would be utterly ruined by 
insects if the spraying was not done. 
Then there are several dahlia climates on the Pacific 
coast. Dry air is the general menace, from the south, 
to as far north as Seattle. San Francisco may be said 
to be perpetually shrouded in sea fogs, but Oakland, 
directly across the bay, has more sunshine. Only 
twenty miles distant, San Mateo and San Rafael regard 
a fog both as a curiosity and as a good fortune. Mon- 
terey, Del Monte, and some other places are foggy. 
The labor is exclusively Japanese. 
