One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered Part 27

I have land in Yolo county that has made an average yield yearly of from 12 to 18 sacks of wheat and barley. A beet sugar company proposes renting this land and plant it to sugar beets and I would prefer not to consider any agreement of less than five years' duration. The particular point that I would like to have you advise me on is the effect sugar beet has upon the soil.

You certainly have good soil, and it is not strange that a sugar company should desire to rent it for its purposes. There is, however, a great question as to whether it would be desirable to run to beets continually for five years. Beets make a strong draft on some components of the soil, and it is a common experience that they should not be grown year after year for a long period, but should take their place in a rotation, in the course of which one or two crops of beets should be followed by a crop of grain, and that if possible by a leguminous plant like alfalfa or an annual legume like burr clover used for pasturage, and then to beets again. Beets improve soil for grain, because of the deep running of the root, and because beet culture is not profitable without deep plowing and continuous summer cultivation. This deepens and cleans the land to the manifest advantage of the grain crop, but still the beet reduces the plant food in the soil and some change of crop should be made with reference to its restoration. We would much prefer to lease it for two years than for five years of beet growing.

Topping Mangel Wurzels.

Does it harm the mangel wurzels if their tops ore cut off once a month?

Removing leaves will decrease the size and harden the tissues of the beet root. If you wish to grow the plant for the top, the root will continue to put out leaves for you for a time; if you grow it for the size and quality of the root, you need all the leaf-action you can get, therefore do not reduce the foliage.

Blooming Brussels Sprouts.

Are Brussels sprouts male and female? Some of my plants are flowering and show no signs of sprouts, while those that are not, show some small eyes at stem that look like young sprouts.

Brussels sprouts ought to form the sprouts without flowering, just as a cabbage heads without flowering. Those plants which show flowers have been stopped by drought or otherwise, and have taken on prematurely the second stage of growth which is productive of seed and is undesirable from the point of view of growing heads.

Blanching Celery.

I desire to know the different methods by which the celery is bleached, and particularly whether boards or other material other than earth is used for this purpose.

There is some blanching of celery with boards, cloth wrappings, boot-legs, old tiles, sewer pipes, etc., in market gardens in different parts of the State, but the great commercial product of celery for export is blanched wholly by piling the light, dry earth against the growing plant. As we do not have rains during the growing season and as the soil on which celery is chiefly grown is particularly coa.r.s.e in its texture, there is no rusting or staining from this method of blanching.

It shakes out clean and bright. Conditions which make earth-blanching undesirable in the humid region do not exist here.

Corn in the Sacramento Valley.

Is it practical to raise corn in the Sacramento volley? Are the soil and climatic conditions suitable?

The success of corn on plains and uplands in the Sacramento valley has not yet been fully demonstrated, although good corn is grown on river bottom lands, and it is possible that much more may be done with this grain in the future than in the past. Corn does not enjoy the dry heat of the plains, and even when irrigated seems to be dissatisfied with it.

How far we shall succeed in getting varieties which will endure dry heat and still be large and productive will ere long be determined by the experiments which are in progress. The old Sacramento valley farmer has been justified to some degree in his conclusion that his is not a corn country. Still it may appear so later.

Plant Corn in Warm Ground.

I also put in a lot of corn and none of it came up. The ground was damp and rather cold, as well as being alkali.

Corn should never be planted in cold, wet ground - in fact, very few seeds should be. Besides, corn has no use for alkali.

Sweet Corn in California.

I have been informed that sweet corn cannot be raised in this part of the country, an account of worms eating the kernels before the ear has matured. Is there any method of overcoming this difficulty?

You have been correctly informed concerning the difficulty in growing sweet corn. Although many experiments have been made, no method of overcoming this pest has yet been demonstrated. For this reason canning of corn is not undertaken in this State, and for the same reason most of the green corn ears sold in our markets have the tops of the ears amputated. It is sometimes possible to escape the worm by planting rather late, so that the ears shall develop after the moth, which is parent of the worm, has deposited its eggs.

Forcing Cuc.u.mbers.

Give information on growing hot-house cuc.u.mbers, and also if you think it would pay me to go into the business in southern California.

Forcing of cuc.u.mbers has been undertaken for a number of years in California and formerly was considered unprofitable because cuc.u.mbers grown in the open air in frostless places came in before the forced product could be sold out at sufficiently high prices to make the venture profitable. Recently, however, owing to our increased population in cities and larger demand of products out of season, forcing becomes more promising and is worthy of attention. Forcing of cuc.u.mbers in California can be done at very much less expense, of course, than elsewhere, because of the abundance of winter suns.h.i.+ne and the fact that sufficiently high temperatures can be secured in gla.s.s houses with exceedingly little if any artificial heat: The chances of growing cuc.u.mbers out of season for s.h.i.+pment eastward and northward can be discussed with the officers of the California Vegetable Growers' Union, which has offices and warehouse in Los Angeles.

Cuc.u.mber Growing.

I have a piece of red so-called orange land which has produced excellent wheat. Will you give information about its adaptability to cuc.u.mbers?

Are there pickle factories in the State which would demand them in quant.i.ties, and is there much other demand for them? About when should they be planted, and how much water would they need?

The cuc.u.mber needs a retentive soil which does not crack and bake, and such a soil is made by abundance of organic matter. Your orange soil, unless heavily treated with stable manure and given plenty of time for disintegration, would probably give you distressful cuc.u.mber plants, if it has come right out of wheat-growing. Besides, cuc.u.mbers do not like dry heat, even if the soil be kept moist by irrigation. Oranges will do well under conditions not favorable to cuc.u.mbers. Cuc.u.mber plants must come up after danger of frost is over. The amount of water they require depends upon how moist the soil is naturally, and as the crop is chiefly grown on moist river lands and around the bay, it is chiefly made without irrigation. Such lands have a cuc.u.mber capacity equal to the consumption of the United States, probably, and the pickle factories can usually get all they can use at a minimum transportation cost.

Large-scale plantings should only be made by men who know the crop and have definite information or contract for what they can get for it.

Ginger in California.

We have ginger roots in a growing condition with sprouts and bulbs growing an them, but we do not understand how to raise the plants.

Growing ginger in California in a commercial way has not been worked out, although roots have been introduced from time to time. Plant your roots in the garden, just as you would callas, where you can give them good cultivation and water, as seems to be necessary, and note their behavior under these favorable conditions before you undertake any large investment in a crop.