The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 28, 1903, Page 9

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, MONDAY, DEC 1603. MPER 2R BRIGGS TELLS OF STATE'S DAIRY OUTPUT, VALUED AT MILLIONS; CRAW Industry Earliest Make Its Re- turns. —_— to Affords Reliable ln-;' formation for New- comers. Dl BY ARTHUR R. BRIGGS. lifornia give therefore d is en- usideration pe to se- e Uving and have been presented to come to enjoy the opportu good living at the out- ¥ = 2 dairy farm- as time to make r he new condi- a fair return from ving the methods £ and other branches of f Trade has occa- “How can year?” and quired for one n a profitable ba- The St ques- wered. The second in a general way, estimate of cost man to reach of what is daily rag. Y-ACRE FARM. nd (with water 850 ) orses, etc...... 400 Te Ifa first 100 »out his house d and vine- 4 T 33 land it is mot s full payment payment, or ily the rule, carried one, ual amounts, ical farmer may new home on forty rnia aboldt district, oldt and Del district, mprises »f Stockton to Shasta ( the mountain district, which ses L Plumas, Sierra and San Joaquin which comprises the Stockton on the north Range on the south, California district, that part of the ehachapi Range. CONDITIONS. er widely in these vari- id yet generally the ter produced is fairly t the average high stan- ) thi st bien 1 report of Bureau the quantity in the year 1902 was , representing a value f which 21 ,021 pounds creameries and 9,935,741 idual dairies, against younds in 1897, of which 10,- 566,646 was from creameries and 17,811,- unds from individual dairies. illustrates the growth of the in- the tendency of dairymen through creameries rather to compete with these ate attempt h is not as uniform in quality high in grade as the creamery duct the principal features of dif- ference in the districts mentioned is the cter of feed. In the Humboldt dis- trict the industry is about stationary, A the avallable range for cows is etty well occupied. In this district e are about forty small creameries, the butter in the district chara i most of but few creameries. ict is not holding its own in butter n owing somewhat to disad- but also to the de- rancisco for milk, which this source. The Sac- dist is on the in the vicinity of Sa reclaimed islands are cipal producing points mountain district, nt of quan- an Joaquin m tity, b own. The Valley exhibits rap the estimated gain being 30 to 33 per cent in 1903 as compared with 1902. Here is @ wide area in alfalfa, and this \g largely from year to year. and dairy farming increase The southern district de- listrict ke ratib ends on cultivated crops and aifaifa INDUSTRY ABLISHED. industry as a whole is well es- blished on a profitabie basis through- the , though it has not yet ached the limit of coast consumption. 1k as a whole, the industry now -presents e, including the in- hogs, of upward of $18,- annuslly. The State Board of je predicts that it will develop rap- the future until California will & extensively toward Eastern ,rkets, instead of standing in the list dairy States as an importer. At certain times in the year, when lo- a1 conditions favor it, large quantities Eastern-made butter are now shipped to the San Francisco market. This butter does not come up to the n va ete., £hippi returns | by home- | sion prevails that | in farming in | State is famed. Ac-| with butter made on the | growth, | DESCRIBES MANNER IN WHICH" ¥ -}F RGEAE = | | ! {1 Nl | W 1 {1 4 | | ‘ J | | i | I | NA [ S \7 N \F \/ | & & standard in quality of the California| | S remedy where the scale was a native product and is usually sold at prices ’ - than our artificial appliances. slightly below the market for State| | Once started in this direction, our or- product. || chardists held meetings, in Los Angeles | Prices of butter in San Francisco are | | especially, and discussed ways and | uniformly maintained on a higher basis | | means to have an expert sent to Aus- | than are obtainable for creamery but- tralia to make a search for the parasite | ter in the Middle West, and for this| | that prevented the great Increase of | reason under ordinary conditions deal- | | that scale in Australia and introduce it | ers are able to make a fair profit on the | | into California. | imported article, even when marketed | Frank McCoppin of San Francisco | here at lower prices than the State pro- was appointed United States Commis- | duct commands. This business is, how- | % sioner to the World's Fair in Melbourne | ever., more or less speculative, and at ; used. On alfalfa feed cows well-con- in 1888 and generously put aside $2000 of times is attended with considerable | gitioned should give 200 to 350 pounds the funds allowed -him for his expenses | loss. | of butter annually, but where native to defray the cost of an expert ento- | The tendency in butter-making is|feed only is had the return per cow mologist to be attached to his retinue. more and more to creameries, but | ranges from 125 to 150 pounds. Albert Koebele was selected and he dis- there is a disposition to decrease| The matter of increase in calves is 4 | covered and sent us the Vedalia cardi- rather than increase the number | important. Dairies are renewed from nalis, a lady-bird that was hardly of these factories. Experience seems |the young stock. The dairyman has grown from seedling trees or propa-|known by the entomologists of its na- to demonstrate the claims that | his hogs, which are fed and raised on gated from locally grown trees and, tive country. |large institutions can minimize the |the skim milk. These sources bring! were free from pests. The orange and Since then the State Board of Horti- | cost of butter-making, and that un- | considerable additional revenue. Cows | lemon trees were bright and free from culture has taken the precaution to der good business management, such | properly cared for will yvield a return | smut. The bright and thrifty condition | keep a stock of this valuable lad)j‘bird as is necessary to successfully con-|of $5 to $7 per month each, or $60 to| | of the trees induced our pjoneers of | SRJ¢r propagation in confinement in'the duct large operations, dairymen secure better results than by making butter on the farms or working through small creameries. Centralization of the industry .in the respective districts gives uniformity to quality and’ “to some extent prevents unprofitable competition in marketing the product. GREAT PRODUCTION. ° | The largest' creameries in the State { are in Los Angeles, Fresno, Stanislaus, | 8an Joaquin ‘and Sacramento counties, | with capacity ranging from about 325, 000 to 900,000 pounds of butter an- nuall The output of these institu- tions js capable of large increase with- |out enlarging present manufacturing | capacity. | In cheese production the dairies and creameries of the State have not gained the high reputation earned for butter. A large portion of the cheese | made is of ordinary q ity, lacks rich- ness and flavor, and is marketed be- fore it is sufficiently aged to give it | the merit of Eastern product. The quantity of cheese manufactured here for the year 1902, according to the re- port of the State Dairy Bureau, aggre- gated but 6,503,441 pounds, represent- ing a value of $702,371. Experiments have been tried in the manufacture of the description of cheese known as Chedder by dairymen as Dr. Flint of San Juan and E. A. Davidson of Giiroy, but these did not give satisfactory financial re- sults and were discontinued. Cheese | equal in merit to the Eastern product | {San Francisco market preferred the Eastern product because handled on a better margin of profit. | Consumers also gave preference to the | BEastern cheese. One creamery is operating at Selma, in Fresno County. The management proposes to demonstrate the ability of creameries here to compete on merit with the Eastern product. None of the Selma cheese has yet been placed on the market nor will it be until it has been aged at least six months and is well matured. This product is aged under the cold. curing process. The dairy industry in California is largely in the hands of men who have been bred to the business, Swedes, Italian-Swiss and Portuguese. Americans control about one-half the dairies in the State. The business is open to all, and there is no reason why any class should be more success- ful than any other, with equal intelli- gence and experience. Near Sacra- mento, San Jose and Fresno the busi- pess is largely in the hands of Amer- |icans. The number of American | farmers in this branch is rapidly in- | creasing, particularly in the irrigated districts and where the dairymen are | owners of the land, not renters. | Where the foreign element predomi- | nates they are generally renters. IMPROVEMENT THE RULE. Dairy herds in California are being constantly improved. The day of na- tive cows with long horns is Shorthorns, Jerseys and Holsteins have come to remain. Alfalfa, which a few years ago was not regarded as suited to the making of Migh class butter, is now recognized as the ideal grass for dairy stock, and the peculiar advantage | that a deiryman has in an alfalfa dis- i trict is in the greater number of cows {that can be maintained. On alfalfa fields the quantity of milk per cow is greater than under other conditions. While ten cows and their increase can be maintained well on fifteen, at most twenty, acres of alfalfa the year round, ten acres of land is necessary to sup- | | | such | was made, but the commission men in | it could be‘ Danes, | past. | | $85 annually. | HELPS THE FARMER. | The San Joaquin Ice Company at Fresno a few years ago secured a herd of high-bred cows, Holsteins and Jer- seys, and inaugurated the policy of sup- | plying them on lease contracts. | farmer owning his farm or who has | made sufficient payment on a purchase | of land or inv ed enough in improve- ments to class him as a permanent set- ‘Hor can on application to the company - | secure as many cows as he can prop- erly care for, be it five or fifty. The purchase price is stated in the lease. The farmer has full possession and control, with the increase. He con- tracts to care for the stock well, to de- liver all the eream or butter fat—except what is necessary for home require- ment—to the creamery and to permit one-haif the monthly returns to be ap- | plied as part payment on the contract. | From actual experience it is shown that the majority of cows put out on lease are fully paid for in two years. The | farmer has his monthly income, amounting to one-half the yield from the cows, all the increase and the hogs | he has been able to support meantime. With ordinary care cows are profita- { ble for dairy purposes until they are | from ten to twelve years old, and can | then be fattened and sold for beef. | This industry affords wide opportu- | nity for men of moderate as well as | men of large means. The dairyman who delivers the product of five cows | to the creamery stands on exactly the | same footing as to price and other con- ditions as one who has fifty or one hundred cows. In this business there is no partiality or preference. The farm- | er has success in his own hands, and the measure of that success is his in- | dustry, economy and business capacity. — e Growth of Stanislaus County. At the annual meeting of the Stan- islaus County Board of Trade Frank A. Cressey was elected president, Dr. B. F. Sorryhne vice president and T. C. Hocking, H. G. Turner, C. T. Elliott, H. Christ and C. R. Tillson trustees. The address of the retiring president, T. C. Hocking, set forth that to the board belongs the credit of the cele- bration that will be held in April. A part of Mr. Hocking's address is as fol- lows: “The value of organization has been strikingly manifested to the people of this community and of this county through your body. Uniting originally under the guise of a Board of Trade for the purpose of ending the intolerable condition of depression and retrogres- sion born of our own apathy and cow- ardice as a people in respect to the ir- rigation question, you plucked courage from successive defeats, the agitation meantime rousing the people to a real- izing sense of their situation, and final- ly victory crowned your efforts. From that day dates Modesto’s new era, and to-day she is conceded to be ‘the com- ing town.’ Enterprise moves where apathy so long made her seat, energy has dethroned lethargy, business holds | sway where ruin perched, prosperity ! has supplanted poverty, gloomhas given way to cheer, the knocker is dead and a people long bitterly arrayed in op- posing factions are as one and with one | voice proclaim, ‘It is well.”” ———————————— { The Placer Representative says that | 3. Parker Whitney shipped more than 1,000,000 oranges this year and for- warded his last carload from Rocklin to Chicago on December 8. B \ According to the Modesto Herald a co-operative creamery will be estab- vort a single cow where native feed is|lished at Ceres. Any; £ | SCENES IN THE fiOETHERN CALIFORNIA DAIRY DIS- TRICTS. | | 3~ Friendly Insects Are | Found to Do the Work. Dangerous Scales Meet Their Deadly Enemies. e BY ALEXANDER CRAW. When Californians first suggested the idea of controlling the injurious in- sect pests of our orchards by the aid of beneficial or friendly insects, some | of the prominent entomologists of the country ridiculed the proposition, and one even advanced the statement that few pests meant few parasites. Cer- tainly if there were only few injuri- ous insects, they could hardly be con- sidered pests, and few parasites would be required to keep them in subjection. It is now a well recognized fact that injurious insects are those that have no parasites to keep in check their ex- cessive increase. Insects that live at the expense of | growing plants, trees or shrubs, must | be considered injurious and the greater | their numbers the more destructive will their presence be to the trees at- tacked. Some injurious insects are more or less restricted in their food habits or tastes, and again others at- tack a great variety of plant life and, on this account, are difficult to control by artificial methods, such as poisons, sprays or fumigators. Artificial methods have in no in- stance exterminated or even prevented the spread of insect pests when once established in a district. Their too rapid increase and spread have been checked to greater or less extent by such remedies, and it would be the height of folly to awalit the advent or introduction of a parasite or beneficial insect to destroy the pest, when it can be destroyed in great numbers by either spraying or fumigation. Exter- mination is out of the question with either method, and the work has to be repeated at least once a year and, in the case of certain insects, from two to six sprayings are necessary in order to save the crop (as with apples and pears) from destruction by the codling moth. METHODS OF NATURE. No member of the late Board of Horticulture, or the Commissioner of Horticulture, Oor any one . connected | with his department, has ever advo- cated the “let alone policy” with re- spect to the comtrol of injurious in- sects for which we have no parasite or predaceous insect enemy. It was only after very heavy loss and ex- pensive experience that we determined to try nature’s method and introduce the insects that keep such pests under control in their native country. The pioneer orchirds of California, those planted before 1849, were mostly l the fifties and sixties to bring or send for new varieties. The soft brown scale was introduced into the orchards and gardens of Los Angeles and spread with alarming rapidity. Orange trees were killed by that scale and orange- planting was stopped. Years passed and the parasites of this scale were un- intentionally introduced upon olhe!‘l plants and now this scale is not classed | as a pest unless where the constant presence of ants prevent the parasites | from accomplishing their destruction.| The parasites of the soft brown are| both chaleid flies. | One is parasitic of the small scales ard the other attacks the full grown scale. One deposits but one egg in each scale and the other from one to eight, | and each egg develops into a maggot| and then into a perfect fly all under the scale. They are exceedingly small in- sects, each with four wings, six legs| and two antennae. The orange growers overlooked such diminutive insects and | their valuable work was ascribed to! some mysterious disease, or, as several growers stated, “‘the scales had run their course and were naturally dying out.” BLACK SCALE KILLER. The next serious scale that was in- troduced was the “black scale.” This is a more general feedér, and besides olive trees it also attacks orange, lemon, lime, plum, peach, apricot, pepper, ole- ander, crataegus, pittisporum, abutilon, pelargonium, photinias and a variety of wild shrubs and weeds. We have a native internal parasite that in some seasons destroys from twenty-five to seventy-five per cent, but as each scale produces from 1500 to 2500 eggs, it will| be readily seen that the parasite alone could not cope with such a pest, as it has but one generation each year. The black ladybird was introduced from Australia by -«.lbert Koebele when collecting beneficial insects for the State Board of Horticulture of Califor- nia. Twenty of these valuable beetles reached us alive, and tkey have been of great service in cleaning out the black scale in the coast regions. In the southwestern portion of Ala- meda County Willlam Barry, Horticul- tural Commissioner of that portion of the county, made a canvass in Wash- ington Township of the orchardists having five acres and mgore and learned that since the introduction of this bene- ficlal fnsect nine vears ago they have saved over $171,000 in disinfection. The “black ladybird” breeds the year round and destroys the eggs, larvae and adult “black scale.” Unfortunately they do not appear to thrive away from the sea breeze. At Ellwood, in Santa Barbara County, Mr. Cooper before the intro- duction of this ladybird spent from $3000 to $5000 per annum in spraying his orchards with kerosene emulsion. Since then he has relled upon the ladybirds and his trees bear better and cleaner olives. THE COTTONY CUSHION. The next serious pest introduced was the “cottony cushion scale.” This cime on trees brought into Menlo Park from Australia in 1868 and in the eighties it had spread over a great portion of the State and it was such a destructive in- sect that the orange industry was threatened. Two years after it attacked the Shorb groves at San Gabriel. It reduced the crop from fifty carloads per annum to | six cars of inferior oranges on that es- | tate alone. The expensive fight made against this pest in California with sprays, fumigators, etc., resulted in more advance in the study of economic entomology than any other one thing and was the cause of our belief that na- ture had a more efficient and cheaper | breeding jars. | readily understand | eyshion scale” has a hard struggle for San Francisco office. In this way we can generally furnish colonies promptly upon application of our orchardists. Colonies have also been sent to Cape Colony, South Africa; Egypt, Portugal, Mexico, Hawailan Islands, Society Isl- ands and to Florida. When sending colonies of Vedalia within the State we request the appli- cants to send us a box of scale infested twigs at our expense. In this way we secure food for our colonies in our Besides the Vedalia we have prey upon this scale alone. We have also two internal parasite flies. With such a list of active workers you can that the “cottony existence in California. OTHER VICTORIES WON. Another foreign pest that has done serious injury to orange and lemon groves is the “yellow scale.” L. J. Rose of San Gabriel purchased a small Jap- anese orange tree and planted it on his Sunny Slope estate. The existence of scale was overlooked at the time. The scale spread to other orange trees in the vicinity, and soon after the cele- brated avenue of four rows of grand old trees appeared to be hopelessly ruined. Mr. Rose ordered the trees cut back to the trunks and the latter scrubbed with soap solution, but even such he- rolc measures failed to check tha spread of the pest, for as soon as the trees again sprouted the leaves were found to be again infested. This was in the early seventies. The effect of this scale was to cause the leaves to turn yellow and droop and thus injure the health and productive- ness of the trees. In 1889 I called the attention of the orchardists to the ex- istence of an almost micrescopic inter- nal parasitic fly that was reducing the numbers of the yellow scale at Sierra Madra, and advised that no spraying or fumigation should be dome in that neighborhood. Colonies of the parasite were sent to other infected districts and now the yellow scale is rarein the seven southern counties. The horticul- tural commissioniers of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and even. Riverside al- low the parasite to fight it out and it is most efficient. scale, is a native of Japan. A hard fought battle was waged against the so-called San Jose scale. Although it has a local name, it is nevertheless of foreign origin, and, ac- cording to Professor C. L. Marlatt, it is a native of China. The late James Lick was a great lover of and experi- menter with trees and plants from other countries, and it is claimed this scale was first observed in his or- chard. The San Jose scale is not plaa- tiful now in California, owing to an in- ternal parasite, Aphelinus fuscipennis, assisted by the “twice stabbed lady- bird,” Chiloccrus bivulnerus and Rhizo- bius toowoombae. Professor W. G. Johnson records having ‘bred 1478 in- ternal parasite, Aphelinus fuscipennis, in Maryland from a peach shoot four inches long, that was seriously infested with San Joge scale. As each parasits destroys the scale it attacks before the scale reproduces, it cannot long remain in injurious numbers. The brown apricot scale’ was a very flithy pest on prune, apricot, peach and plum trees, owing to the great amount of honey dew exuded by the insects. The leaves and fruit were consequently badly attacked by black smut. Since its parasite became established in in- fested orchards it is not so troublesome, It takes two years to thoroughly stock an orchard when 90 to 98 per cent of the scales are killed by its parasits. There is but one generation of this scale and its parasite, so its work Is three Australlan lady-birds that | This parasite, liké the | FRUIT PESTS ARE DES | | | 1 | given by TROYED Pl Live Communities Are Making Advance Solidly. Northern District Pro- duces Many Oranges. . The Sacramento Union says of the Sacramente Valley citrus fruit crop of 1903: “Oranges are being shipped in large quantities from Sacramento Val- ley orange districts. The orange season of this part of the State is now weil advanced and revorts indicate a good crop. The Oroville district reports spe- cial orange trains, the business exceed- ing the capacity of the regular trains The California Citrus Unicn, which is handling the crop of the valley di tccts, is labeling the fruit with the locality where n name of the loc: n accord e v the last Leg he law The San Ber dino Daily Ti Index says reg ng the southern or- ange crop: nless all signs 1. Southern California will this year mar- ket the largest and best crop of oranges in its history. Present conditions war- rant the predicticn that the crop will | be from 25 to 50 ¢ t. larger than it 90 carloads we )st conservative estimate the crop 2nt conditions good weather at 28,000 car- increase over last Others ) sent to market. growers and shipp of 1903-4 judged by and counting on fa throughout the seas loads, which is an year of just about 25 per cent predict that 33,000 carloads is not t high an estimate, if the weather copn- ditions rem: right for the next few months. This would be an increase of nearly 50 per cent. over last season's crop, and some optimists say prolonged warm, growing weather and absence of frost would expand the crop probably to 35,000 or 36.000 carloads. Few are so optimistic, however, as to an!i('lp’fl'l? a crop of such enormous dimens s. According to the Merced Star, the orange trees about the rthouse park in Merced produced 250 to 300 boxes of fruit. A comprehensive plan of tree plant- ing has been proposed for Bakersfield and Kern. A first-class commercial hotel is to be constructed at Redlands. The real es- tate men of the city are back of the movement, so says the Redignds Facts. The following figures of the shipments in carloads of green aad dried fruit from California for the season of 1902-3 are published by the California Fruit Grower: Canned fruit 7000; citrus fruit, 23.871; dried fruit, prunes, 6367; raisins, 3600; fresh fruit, 8367; total, 53,217 That is over 1000 cars per week for every week in the year. Other important shipments of farm products’ are as follows: Almonds, 327; bean: 6100; 00; beet sugar, honey, green vegetables, wheat, 50,000; total, canned vegetable 2000 tomatoes ; walnuts, 70,267. Barley, oats, wine and other products are not included. But even this is an average of about 1350 cars per wee | or 225 cars per day. The figures are calculated to stagger even a Californian. At this rate we shall before many years be shipping 500 cars per day, on an average, of prod- ucts of our farms and orchards. The ‘Colusa Sun says that free weekly excursions to Colusa from Sitss will be the merchants of Colusa to promote better acquaintance between the people of the county. The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat says that the Supervisors of Sonoma County will sell franchises for rural telephone systems. Applications have been made for franchises for telephone systems for the . Russian River, Windsor and Forestville sections. - e not as effective or expeditious as other internal parasites, still, it is a valuable enemy of this scale. We sent out coio- nies of this parasite during the end of May and early in June. KILLS THE KATYDID. Twenty years ago the large gre katydid did much damage to the b som twigs of orange trees in the south- ern counties. It is very rare now, owing to a very interesting parasite that attacks its eggs. The katydids are large and voracious feeders and would be destructive pests were it not for the work of our friendly Eupelmus. What has been accomplished by the South African parasite of the “black scale,” Scutellista cyanea, will be inter- esting. This parasite was introduced through the kindness of Professor Charles P. Lounsbury, Government En- tomolagist of Cape Colony, two years ago. Several colonies were sent by Pro- fessor Lounsbury to E. M. Ehrhorn, Horticultural Commissioner and Ento- mologist of Santa Clara County. He bred a colony in confinement, but did not succeed in establishing them out of doors. On October 1, 1901, Professor Louns- bury wrote me that he would send me on the following day two boxes con- taining parasites. The packages tock thirty davs to reach us and we bred seventeen Scutellista cyanea. and a few secondary parasites. The latter we de- stroyed. Only four of the true para- sites were females and unfortupately one of those was killed by a small spider, leaving but three with which to stock the State. On February 17, 1902, the Scute’lista began to issue from tha scales and the descendants of those three have increased to millions and wonderful work has been accomplished by them in this short time. During July I made an extended tour of the southern countles and reported my observations of the work of the Scutellista to State Commizsioner of Hertietlture Coover. Since then we have had most encouraging reports from County Horticultural Commis- sioners, orchardists and others, show- ing that the good work still continues. State Horticultural Commissioner Cooper is stil] making determined ef- forts to introduce other friendly insects that will be of incalculable value to the fruit growers of California. A beautiful framed picture makes a g00d New Year's present. The only large assortment of goed things is at T & Vaila g