The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 25, 1895, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1895. APICULTURE AN HORTICULTURE, D THE DAIRY IN CALIFORNIA. Written for +«The Call” by Distinguished Authorities. Bees in California. E COOK. | ance of bee-keeping as an | industry is rarely appreciated as it de- serves .to be. n some form is a| necessary food e We could not | live without it. Witheut question, honey | isone of the most wholesqme of all the sugars. Excellent physicians have as- | serted that some of the distinctively mod- | ern diseases may be due to the exchange | of for cane sugar as the principal | Eac r, through the | ons of pounds of this | e collected from the flow- | would otherwise go to 1z then conserves the of the flowers and aads substan- | to the wealth of the people. rther value that is of te to the industrial econ- | T act as rriage | world, carrying | 1 one tlower to another. | bsolutely neces- v of our| prove | -pol- | st val- d prove farm | the De-| letin No. ology, by nty-two r < experi- by their own pollen y, and that 004 sugar of the work of bees, mi valuable food ers, all of waste. , Lawrence | perimented and my ex- sions of mportance of cross- | experimented with arieties of plum, one of cherry, one of B: 1 and several vari Vith the exception of the navel v sterile w w, then, toa omology, one of lifornia, re- | to convey | § | season i thrips, etc., te the na- , etc., they equate to the requirements | Again th i digenous insect they cannot be d year Deilephila d for afew | m here at | were very the pu weeks swarmed 0! Claremont. Tk The comm s peculiarity of that the 1 trees in pro- artificial pro- accom- Here can only be gh aid of bees. mes 4000 nectar-lo in a single api , we have a most valu re. As Professor referred hin two o that if the latter, ice, drives off n ¥ ver permitting the fruit to | rripe as bees never puncture | sip oozi when | een punctured bird or | t by overripeness, or is bees trouble seri | scon | or chaff hives are provided. | boney is also of first grade. | famed thyme honey of Mount Hymettus | meay | from t may be covered, or the bees removed dur- ing the drying season. The latter, how- ever, is impracticable, as there are so many bees in hollow trees, rock crevices, and es- pecially in the walls of buildings that are beyond control, that removal is impossi- ble. Iti id that there are more thana thousand colonies of bees in the buildings of Los Angeles. The pecple of Italy seem to be in advance of the people of portions of our own country in this matter of the relation of bees to fruit. Italy is one of the most impertant fruit re- gions of the world, and is equally ceie- brated as a bee-keeping country. Yet there the value of the bees is universally recognized, and there is no quarrel oran- tagonism between the pomologist and the apiarist. Through the farmers’ institutes and clubs California is rapidly coming to the same condition. Our more intelligent fruit-growers already recognize the im- portance of bees to their industry, and welcome the presence of the beekeeper and often offer an inducement to secure the location of an apiary in close proxim- heir orchards. equal if not superior to the most d regions of the world as a bee- keeping State. She hasno “winter prob- lem” to solv e produces honey of the highest excellence; she furnishes honey in quantities rarely equaied and never ex- celled ; she produces an average per colony of bees which is a surprise to other bee- keeping regions; she can keep more col- onies in a single apiary than any other region so far as we know. The wintering of bees in the East isa rock on ch prosperity is oiten wrecked. Often whole apiaries are destroyed in a single winter, and even the most intelli- gent beekeeper is not exempt from this e. To meet this enemy, costly de- positories, packing-boxes, or donble walled The Califor- nia beekeeper has no occasion to provide expensive apparatus agamst the winter. The sage honey, product of white and ball or black sage, Audibertia polystachya and Audibertia palemeri, is confessed), ual to white clover honey, which is say. world. The orange-blossom honey and that from the common wild buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum, and alfaifa are not quite so white, but unequaled in ex- cellence of flavor. The bean and fruit The far- is not a bit superior to that which comes in such abundant profusion in the apiaries of our own California. The product of honey par excellence from a single colony of bees in a single almost beyond belief. Six hun- 1ds from one colony is by no ional in our best seasons. d and fifiy pounds per colony dred po One hu for the entire apiary of hundreds of colo- nies is common im such years. This ex- ordinary production is accounted for e fact of exceptionally lone periods of bloom. White sage is in bloom two months or more, and buckwheat even longer, while citrus bloom is rarely absent from the lemon and orange orchards. | Thus the honey season is so prolonged that enormous productions can be counted on in ons favorable to nectar secretion. But all seasons are not equally good. | In the last twenty years seven years have been remarkable, giving a yie 150 to 600 pounds per colony. Nine have given an average surplus of from ten to sixty pounds, while four years were so un- favorable that the bees had to be fed to prevent starvation. The average, how- ever, in ail these years has been seventy- two pounds per colory per season, These figures are from the Sespe apiary of J. F. Meclntyre, which has about the average lo- cation. This is a most encouraging show- ing, especially when we consider that the expense in labor and materials is reduced nearly to zero in the off years. Again, the usual cause of failure is scanty rainfall. Occasionaily dry hot winds vrove disastrous, but the character oi the rainiall is known before the season opens, so the misfortune is minimized. The bee- keeper does not buy the apparaius neces- sary to store his crops, and can arrange beforehand to engage in other pursuits. The beekeeping industry will never lan- guish where an annual production like that of California is assured, especially as the expense and labor is only required for three-fourths of the year, and is at its height for haraly more than one-third of the time, when the production is tremen- dous. The number of colonies that can be profitably kept in one location without ny apparent overstocking of tie pastur- age is equally exceptional. In the East ELWOOD COOPER, PRESIDENT STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE, that it is as fine as the finest in the | 100 colonies in one place are all that can be kept with assurance of success. In California five times as many are kept and a maximum yield secured, which is four or five times that of the best localities and seasons of New York and contignous States. This seems to show that the nectar is more abundant in the flowers of California, as well as more pro- longed in its secretion. This feature is one of no small importance to the beekeeper. Inthe East the beekeeper has his beesin four or five localities, separated from each other Ly two or three miles. In California the same number of bees can be kept profitably in one location. Thus much labor, inconvenience and expense are avoided, There are seeming disadvantages in Cal- ifornia apiculture, which nevertheless have their bright side. The apiaries are usually in or near the mountain canyons, and the beekeeper must, during the months of summer, live far from society and the comforts of civilization. But even people of wealth prize such an experience, and often snffer the inconveniences of temporary camp life to enjoy it. The bee- keeper can be better circumstanced and can have his comfortable house and be surrounded with the best of comforts, even to the most choice literature, as all the apiaries are hard by the railroad trains, and in consequence, of the express nnq mail service. He can be in a grand gorge of the mountain, and quench his thirst from the beautiful and delightfully cool streamlets, which, with the whisper- ing songs of the mountain foliage, sing charming duets, which lull him to slum- ber after the hard labors of the day are ended. I bhave never been in more lovely or in grander regions than when visiting apiaries of Southern California. The iso- lation, then, while it is to be regretted and is often not appreciated or made to serve its best usage, may be made a rich summer outing which shall give a store of vigor that ought to insure a hearty physique forall the remainder of the year. It is also unfortunate that the bee- keeper is ofttimes from his ‘‘bee ranch” almost exclusively, except from May to August, when the weork of the season is in active progress. This “out of sight cut of mind” causes his bees to be neglected. Indeed, neglect is perhaps more common among California beekeepers than ameng any other apiarists of the world. Thus frequent losses occur—almost always from —which could be prevented with but little expense of money and labor. The most serious obstacle in the way of high success, which the naturai resources abundantly prowmise to the intelligent and the State of California, both north and south, thus harmonizing those sections in such a manner as to place all dairymen on an equal footing. After the incorporation our first abject in view was to introduce such new methods as would improve upon all existing methods. This, of course, necessitated considerable of an outlay financially to produce the desired results. We are now in position to represent our State as one of the leading dairy States in the Union. At the time we formed this corporation there was very little creamery butter manufactured upon this coast, but now we have in the neighborhood of 150 creameries, some of which at the height of | the past season turned out as much as 3500 | ! pounds of butter daily, and by this we | were able to place all of our surplus stock upon the Eastern market, thus relieving ourselves of an oversupply which had been accumulating for some time previously. ‘We now find California is looked upon to supply a certain amount of the Eastern re- quirements. The dairymen and the general public did not realize the magnitude of this in- dustry until it was brought to their notice by our labors. Statistics will show that only one industry in the State of Califor- nia exceeds that of dairying, and that is wheat. Another thing this combination of dairy- men has endeavored to do has been to prohibit the sale and manufacture of oleo- margarine or imitation butter in this State, and, although it took two years of hard work to bring this about, we now find that very little of this article is sold in our market, and it 18 only recently that ar- rests have been made in the Los Angeles market by a representative of the State Dairy Bureau and the guilty parties made to pay the fine imposed by the laws of the State. It is not to be supposed that the dairy- men have. finished their work. There is considerable to do yer, for even to-day we | find that inferior grades of butter are being imported from the East into the City of San Francisco by parties who have not the interest of the dairymen at heart and which has a detrimental effect on our mar- ket. There is great necessity for the fur- ther concentration of the dairymen’s forces for the purpose of insisting upon their rights. Not until the dairvmen had com- bined did they appear to have any rights whatever in this State outside of State laws. Dealers in butter and other dairy products invariably looked to their own pecuniary benefits, ignoring those which the dairymen were entitled to. One fact that has been established during | the past years has been that just as good bickward in formulating such plans as would bring aboat the erection of buiid- ings and the employment of teachers for this purpose. Connected with the dairy scheol there are subjects 100 numerous to mention that would be of benefit to the general public were they carefully studied. Our milk in- spector, who for the past few weeks has been endeavoring to aid our dairymen and has filled his difficult position in such a creditable manner, would, I believe, be willing to aid the dairymen in every way possible to have our State represented properly in a convention held at some lo- cality—this convention to be composed of representatives from all the States of the Union. 3 The dairymen, as well as the general public, heartily appreciate the manner in which the San Francisco CALy has endeav- | ored to place them before the world at large, and itis evident if all the news- papers, both great and small, in the State | were to devote as much time and space to the interests oi the State as they do to the lighter, more sensational topics of public interest there is no doubt but that their circulations would increase, and that the increase would be among people who would not take the paper merely for the sensational articles expected to appear in it. The dairymen have just passed through a season that has provedl, upon the whole, unprofitable to them, but the question is, What coutd they have turned their hands to that woul@ have paid them any better? There is no commodity that has com- manded any better prices upon the mar- ket during the past season than butter. T California Olives. By ELWOOD COOPER. From the time of the occupation of the coast of California by the Franciscan fath- ers and the founding of the mission churches from San Diego to San Francisco, until 1865, little progress was made in fruit culture. From San Luis Obispo to the southern boundary of the State a goodly number of olive trees were planted at every mission. These trees were cared for and the fruit harvested, being mostly made into oil, which was used in the religious services of the church. It also entered as A FOUR-YEAR-OLD PRUNE. TREE IN THE SAN 27 JOAQUIN VALLEY. enterprising beekeeper of our State, is the fact of the depressed markets. The bee- keeper is offered often not mcre than 3 cents per pound for his heney, while the consumer pays three or four times the game amount. The price of honey is abominably low and the freight rates East, where most of the honey must seek a market, are ruinously and exorbitently high. The orange men of Southern California, through the Citrus Fruit Exchange, are snceessfully controliing similar evils that | confront their industry. The bee men look hopefully for similar relief. Steps were taken at the last meeting of the Cali- fornia State Association to form a Califor- | nia Honey Exchange and a movement was inaugurated that promises much for the honey producers. A committee of bright, able, wide-awake men are at work and it 1s hoped and expected that an organiza- tion will soon be in full working order that shall bring as full relief to apiculture as the Fruit BExchange has accom- plished for the pomologist. The bee- keepers of all our southern counties promise full co-operation, and pledge not only patronage but all necessary financial support. Itis apparent, then, that a most auspicious outlook speaks cheering words to the beekeeper and gives rich promise of improvement in every department of the industry. Dairymen’s Union. By WARREN DUTTON. Several years ago the dairy business was S0 prosperous there was no necessity for the dairymen to look for better times or for a better market, and I, like my many associates, did not endeavor to study up new propositions or make any effort to improve the manner in which we manu- facture butter, relying principally upon the fact that we could manufacture our butter in almost any manner and secure such prices as would enable us at the end of the year to show a handsome profit on the investment. Gradually as time went on, matters began to change. Four years ago I saw the necessity of being associated with a great many of our representative deirymen for the purpose of placing our industry in a different light before the peo- ple. It was also necessary to study better methods for the manufacture of an article that would find a market throughout the whole world, as our own market was inad- equate. To these ends there was formed a stock corporation, composed wholly of dairy- men representing the different sections of butter could be produced in the southern | sections of the State as is manufactured in the northern counties and the. largest | creameries now being operated in the State | of California are situated in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. At the recent dairy convention held in San Francisco there were several interest- | ing papers read ‘on the dairy industry, and | a very warm discussion took place regard- ing short-weight butter. The dairymen have been accused by the consumers for several years past of practicing deception by forcing upon the people short-weight butter and obtaining as much for this short-weight butter as they would for full weight. The law recently enacted by the Legislature prohibiting the sale of snort- weight butter does not seem to be perfect, and consequently the sale of butter has not been affected by the law. In no way are the dairymen responsible for butter being made any less than full weight. The consumers demand a cheap article, and the retailers, to offer a cheap article, have the weight reduced for this purpose. If the consumer was to insist upon receiv- ing two pounds of butter when purchasing a roll he would certainly get it, for the dairyman receives no benefit from putting sixty-five rolls weighing 100 poundsina box, when by putting the same butter in fifty rolls he could save about one yard of cloth and about 10 or 15 cents freight on each box. The amount of labor necessary to make 100 pounds of butter into sixty-five rolls is also considerably more than in making it mto fifty rolls. Nevertheless, the con- sumer, the retailer or the wholesaler does not seem to be overanxious to force deal- ers to sell nothing but full-weight butter, and consequently it remains for the dairy- men to put this into effect, and to do so the dairymen of the whole State should make arrangements to hold regular con- ventions semi-annually in their respective districts, and when the annual convention is held in S8an Francisco make it an entire success by having proper representatives of their districts at the convention.® By this means they would be able to get the views of the butter-producers of the whole State at one time and act accordingly, and also‘formulate plans for future action. Another point which would interest the dairymen very much is that the mode of manufacture which is being used now by a great many of the dairymen can be im- proved upon by their manufacturers at- tending a dairy school properly equipped and taking a regular course of instruction in the same. However, as this State has Do dairy school it is necessary to establish one that will do justice to the State, and a carelal study of all such schools in other States would enable us to improve upon them. These schools have proved a suc- cess throughout the whole United States and wherever tried in foreign countries. There is no reason way the intellectual people we have in Caiifornia should be a food product into everyday use. The reasons why this industry, destined, in my opinion, to be the.leading one of Califor- nia, did not attract the attention of the in- telligent settler do not come within the scope of this article. Suffice it to say that the wisdom of these early fathers and the example set by them almost appears as a providential dispensation and claims our gratitude. In the spring of 1868 an inieresting article was published, giving an account of the missions, with special reference to the olive and the importance of its culture, and-about that time several orchards were set out in the southern counties. Early in April of the above-mentioned year I visited Santa Barbara and saw the mission olive orchard, which was, even as late as April, hanging full of fruit; and I was so imnpressed by its beauty and appar- ent productiveness that two years later, when I decided to make California my future home, I began at once to prepare for olive-growing. The result of that de- termination is well known throughout the State, and, in fact, throughout the country. In the development of an indus- try entirely new to me I had, of course, much to learn. Much labor and study was requisite, which I entered into with an en- thusiasm that knew no bounds. I pro- cured all the books on the subject that could be had in the different languages, and those translated which 1 could not master. In the study my interest in- creased, so that in the progress of my knowledge of the subjectits importance was more and more manifest, and now the impressions received are more strongly marked than ever be- fore. The dawning of the day is at hand, and I expect to see the realization of my hopes. The olive, as far as I have experienced, seems to thrive on every kind of soil where well drained. On my ranch the trees have been planted in black adobe, on sandy loam, subsoil brick clay, on deep bottom land, on sandy and stony hillsides, on adobe hillsides, on clay soil and on red lands. All are thriving, the higher up ap- parently the more thrifty: the highest ele- vation, however, is not over four hundred feet above the sea level, and is distant from the sea less than three miles. The tree will grow in a dry climate where no other fruits could be successful, and will live throuzh an extremely dry year; but it could not be expected to give much fruit such years, nor is it known just how long thereafter the tree would take to overcome the want of moisture. The effect of irri- gation on olive trees does not come within my experience, as here we have never irri- gated. I have noticed that the berries I have purchased were larger in size with irrigation when grown inland where the summer heat was greater than at Fllwood ; but as to the relative value per tree for oil- making I have no experience. In universal olive culture as outlined in G. F. WEEKS, EDITOR BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN. this article & great number of horses and | the bottle. The berries must not be a'l- mules will be required. These can be pas- | lowed to stand in heaps, or in sacks, or, in tured among the orchards, in ravines, on | fact, in any sort of pucknge long enough to slopes where it would be too difficult to get | heat; otherwise the oil mll_ become musty the fruit, and on the orchard margins, |or rancid. Absolute cleanliness should be without injury to the trees; hence, neigh- | practicea in every branch of the nianufac- borhoods engaged in the culture would be | ture. 5 & saved the expense of fencing. I have| The quantity of fruit of a wWell-grown been assured by neighboring olive-growers | tree from twelve to fifteen years old will that they.-allow their horses to roam in | produce in a good year 1s from 200 to 250 fields adjoining unfenced orchards, and | pounds. Such results were not uncom- that in no case have the trees been injured. | mon in my neighborhood the pust year. This absence of fences would be a large | The best results in the oil product the margin of profit as compared with other | same year, as weighed from the trees, was Fuits: eight and a half pound of berries to the The climatic conditions necessary for | 1arge bottle of oil. These olives were of successful olive growing in California have | the mission variety and the year an extra- not been fully determined. It is believed | ordinarily fruitful one. 2 that the tree will thrive and produce | In this brief account I cannot enter into fruit in nearly every part of the State, In |all the details of the olive industry, I localities where the thermometer, Fahren- | must therefore refer those who anticipate heit, would {fall below 20 degrees, or in | Planting to the compilations of the State regions where the heat is very great and | Board of Horticulture from 1885 down to continuous during the summer season, it | the present time. These books are acces- would be well to experiment before ex- | Sible in all the libraries of the State. If I tensive planting. I have read that in the | can encourage planting by urging upon tropics the olive will not bear fruit. On | the people the importance of this industry the coast it is claimed that the tree will | I Will be amply repaid for this article. Tt grow more rapidly and bear more abund- | is not that we should plant merely for the antly; and while this is conceded, those | Purpose of money-getting or of increasing inland claim an equal advantage in less | the prosperity of the community or State, trouble from insect pests and fungoid dis- | there is moreinvolved. Itisto be hoped eases. that the saying ‘“History repeats 1tself” Regarding the variety of olive to plant [ Will prove true in the present instance, for profit, opinions are very much at|and the uses of this yulunble product will variance. Formerly the mission was the | be as well known as it was ‘h‘)““"d? of only variety planted. Some claim that | years ago. The substitution of noxious there were several mission varieties, while | mixtures, introduced and falsely repre- others claim that all came from the same | Sented to the consumer, has well nigh de- original stock first brought here by the | Stroyed the true character of the pure mission fathers, and that while there are | Product. Let us encourage the production different types it is the result of climatic of a»suhsunce' of such economic value and conditions or location. I am inclined to | 80 highly nutritious. this latter opinion because there is an ap- | Flant olive trees. parent difference in the size and shape of the fruits in different locations, while all of them reproduced in the same orchard show no difference. The cuttings I planted were from the missions of Santa Barbara, San Fernando and San Diego, and from the Tajiuas ranch. In recent years many different varieties have been brought from Europe and are on sale at the different nurseries under vari- ous names. I have no controversy with those parties who claim superiority of special named varieties, but until they are proven by experience to produce more fruit or better fruit or better oil and better pickles, I shall plant only the mission variety. There is too much con- fusion and uncertainty, since different authors have different names for the same variety. New varieties have been planted and are fruiting, so that the question of their relative values will soon be deter- mined by the experience of olive-growers in California. Many things are to be con- sidered in selecting varieties. A rapid growing tree easily shaped isa very im- portant feature, asit gives good bearing capacity. Some varieties grow unshavely and are with difliculty kept from break- ing. Different locations may require different varieties, but above all other con- siderations is the quality of oil produced. The varieties that will make the best oil should in all cases be selected provided the quantity is a fair average to a given acre- age planted. This rule will be applicable as well for pickling, unless the fruit is too small for economic handling. The quan- tity and quality of the oil contained in the fruit gives the value to the pickles. | Making olive oil is a simple process; still it is necessary that the maker should know how. The quality will depend on the care exercised from the picking of the fruit through every different stage of the manufacture until it is tightly corked in San Joaquin Fruit. By GEORGE ¥F. WEEKS., From a horticultural standpoint that part of the San Joaquin Valley lying south of the latitude of San Francisco is the youngest portion of the State historically., ‘While orchards and vineyards were in sue- cessful cultivation in the extreme south, along the coast, about the bay region, in the Sacramento Valley and in the foothill counties, the great southern San Joaquin Valley was still a range for cattle and sheep, and that it could ever be anything else was scouted by those who should have been the best acquainted with its resources and possibilities. The first experiments in the line of hor- ticulture in the valley counties to the south of San Joaquin were regarded almost as the freaks of lunatics, and he was in- deed a brave man and serenely disregard- ful of the sneers and jibes of his neighbors who, twenty years ago, made the venture of planting orchard or vineyard on the most limited scale anywhere in the greater portion of that region. But the agricultural and horticultural history of California has been full of sur- prises. The ideas of the ‘“‘oldest settlers” have in a great majority of cases come to naught. The predictions of the most skillful experts have proven unfounded. The experience of the most experienced elsewhere has been demonstrated as una- vailing here. Men of pluck, determina- tion and enterprise have experimented on | a large scale, and though many mistakes WARREN DUTTON, PRESIDENT DAIRYMEN'S UNIOM