RAISIN CULTURE.
The Pacific Rural Press, referring to the raisin vineyards in the San
Joaquin Valley, California, states: -
"What is especially interesting to the home-seeker in connection with
this information, is the fact that everyone of these vineyardists is
prosperous. No other horticultural industry is so profitable as the
culture of the raisin grape, in no other is the work so pleasant, and no
other yields a return so quickly."
An acre of Muscat vines in full bearing will yield from two to three
tons of grapes on good heavy soil. At 5-1/2 cents a pound in the
sweat-box, this means from 225 to 325 dollars per acre, gross. Numerous
instances are known, however, where the yield of an acre of Muscats
amounted to as much as 450 dollars, this being the result of careful
cultivation and favourable circumstances. Some grapes are borne on the
vines when they are one-year old, while two-year old's have been known
to bear a crop. At three years the vines pay the expenses and interest
on the money invested, and at four years from planting they bring the
first large paying crop.
The Merced Argus says of raisin culture: -
"One of the great charms of raisin culture is the extreme simplicity of
its operations. WHAT CAN BE MORE SIMPLE than to pick a bunch of Muscat
grapes from the vine, and lay it on the ground. In six days the bunch of
grapes, without being meanwhile touched, has assumed the appearance of a
bunch of raisins, and has flattened out as if it had been pressed. It is
then carefully turned over, so as to expose the underside to the direct
action of the sun. In eight days more it is a perfect bunch of raisins,
and no act of man can improve it even in appearance. All the operations
of fancy packing are so simple, that a child may learn them in a day. A
single acre of raisin vines in a Merced Colony lot means handfuls of
bright, golden double eagles to the bright-eyed children of the Merced
farmer in the near future.
Harper's Magazine for January, 1891, contains an article on
California, which all persons interested in that State would do well to
read. I extract a few statements: -
IRRIGATION.
"A piece of land at Riverside, below the flow of water, was worth 300
dollars an acre. Contiguous to it was another piece not irrigated, which
would not sell for 50 dollars an acre. By bringing water to it, it would
quickly sell for 300 dollars, thus adding 250 dollars to its value. As
the estimate at River side is that one inch of water will irrigate five
acres of Fruit land, five times 250 dollars would be 1,250 dollars per
inch, at which price water for irrigation has actually been sold at
Riverside.
"The standard of measurement of water in Southern California is the
miner's inch under four inches pressure, or the amount that will flow
through an inch-square opening under a pressure of four inches measured
from the surface of the water in the conduit to the centre of the
opening through which it flows. This is nine gallons a minute, or, as it
is figured, 1,728 cubic feet or 12,960 gallons in 24 hours, and 1/50 of
a cubic foot a second. This flow would cover 10 acres about 18 inches
deep in a year; that is, it would give the land the equivalent of 18
inches of rain, distributed exactly when and where it was needed, none
being wasted, and more serviceable than 50 inches of rainfall as it
generally comes. This, with the natural rainfall, is sufficient for
citrous Fruits and for corn and alfalfa, in soil not too sandy, and it
is too much for grapes and all deciduous fruits.
"But irrigation, in order to be successful, must be intelligently
applied. In unskilful hands it may work more damage than benefit. Mr.
Theodore S. Van Dyke, who may always be quoted with confidence, says
that the ground should never he flooded; that water must not touch the
plant or tree, or come near enough to make the soil bake around it; and
that it should be let in in small streams for two or three days, and not
in large streams for a few hours.
OLIVE CULTURE.
"The growth of the olive is to be, it seems to me, one of the leading
and most permanent industries of Southern California. It will give us,
what it is nearly impossible to buy now, pure olive oil, in place of the
cotton seed and lard mixture in general use. It is a most wholesome and
palatable article of food. Those whose chief experience of the olive is
the large, coarse, and not agreeable Spanish variety, used only as an
appetizer, know little of the value of the best varieties as food,
nutritious as meat, and always delicious. Good bread and a dish of
pickled olives make an excellent meal. A mature olive grove in good
bearing is a fortune. I feel sure that within 25 years this will be one
of the most profitable industries of California, and that the demand for
pure oil and edible fruit in the United States will drive out the
adulterated and inferior present commercial products."
SPECIAL OPENINGS.
There are now at Merced special openings for a nurseryman and a
dairyman; the latter would be by growing alfalfa (lucerne) and raising
poultry for at present the Merced people often have to get poultry and
eggs from San Francisco, 150 miles off.
POTATO GROWING.
A settler might make a really good return out of potatoes while his
Fruit trees are maturing, which is a food more in use in America than in
England.
