One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered Part 33

Less Water and More Heat.

What chemicals should I put into the soil to insure a good crop of vegetables, such as tomatoes, string beans, or other over-ground producers? Last year my tomatoes and string beans grew plentifully, but never produced any tomatoes or beans, yet turnips and parsnips were all right.

Vegetables which behave like your tomatoes and string beans, making too much growth and not enough fruit, do not need fertilization. The land is perhaps too rich already, or you may have used too much water. Use less water so that the plants will make a more moderate growth, and they will be fruitful if the season is warm enough in the later part of summer.

This, of course, would be one of the drawbacks to growing tomatoes and beans in San Francisco. Turnips and parsnips do well with less heat. You may have to modify the San Francisco summer climate by wind screens or gla.s.s covers.

Continuous Cropping With the Same Plant.

What would happen on the crops of cuc.u.mbers, tomatoes and eggplants, etc., planted on the same place continuously?

There would be in time a decadence of crop from soil exhaustion, but that you could prevent by fertilization. The greatest danger from continuously growing these vegetables on the same land is the multiplication of bacteria which injuriously affect them, in the soil.

The plants which you mention are all subject to "wilt" diseases from this cause, therefore, they should have new ground. If you have to use the same garden ground continuously, the plants which you mention should be rotated with root crops or with other kinds of vegetables, so as to frequently change plants and soil within the general area which has to be used for them.

Big Worms on Tomatoes.

I have a nice patch of tomatoes in my garden, and only recently I notice large green worms on them with one large brown horn on their head. They strip the leaves off. They look to me like a tobacco worm.

They are tobacco worms; that is, they are the larvae of hawk moths, some of which take tobacco, tomatoes, grapevines and many other plants, including some of the native weeds of your valley. Pick them off and crush them, or give them a little snip with the scissors if you do not like to handle them. They are so large and easily found that such treatment is easily applied, as in "worming tobacco."

Loss of Tomato Bloom.

I have tomato plants which are very strong and healthy and full of blossoms, but there is something cutting the blossoms off and just about to ruin my plants.

The trouble with your tomato plants is that life is too easy for them, that they have so much moisture and plant food that they can grow comfortably and rapidly without thought of the future. So, because they do not have to think of making fruit, the blossoms drop off. This is a very common occurrence with tomatoes, especially in home gardens where the owners have not the experience or the information on the subject that they might have, and give the tomatoes too much water. Many other plants act the same way and will not set fruit while they can grow easily, and only begin to produce when they have made a great growth or when moisture begins to get a little short. If you irrigate the tomatoes, stop, and put no more water on until the plant begins to set fruit as if it meant business, or gives some sign that water would be appreciated. If the ground is naturally moist you will have to wait until the plants make more growth and the weather gets drier and hotter, and the plants will then set fruit. Some growers have found that by tr.i.m.m.i.n.g up the vine and staking it, the fruit sets much more readily.

Part III. Grains and Forage Crops

Wants Us to Do the Whole Thing.

Can you help, me to determine a good product to plant somewhere in California; also what particular section would be most suitable for the raising of that which you would advise? I wish a crop of permanent nature (as orchard trees). I also desire advice on some product which would give a quick return while I am waiting on the more permanent one to mature and bear. I have not procured land yet, and am thinking seriously of trying to get government land, therefore, you are free to give me the best location for the raising of that which you would, suggest. I want a money-making product and one which is not already overdone.

The choice of crops depends quite as much upon the market demand and opportunity as it does upon the suitability of the soil and local climate. Choice of crops indeed involves almost the whole business of farming, and although we can sometimes give a man useful suggestions as to the growth of plants and the protection of plants from enemies, we cannot undertake to plan his farming business for him. He must form his own opinions as to what will be most marketable, and therefore profitable, if he succeeds in getting a good article for sale. A wise man at the East once said: "You can advise a man to do almost anything.

You can even select a wife for him, but never commit the indiscretion of advising him what to grow to make money. That is a matter he has to determine for himself."

Pasturing Young Grain.

Would it be advisable to herd milch cows for a few hours each day on a field of black oats which is to be grown for hay? The oats are now about four inches high and rank, as the land was pastured last year. The land is sandy, rolling soil and will soon be dry enough so that the cows would not injure the plants. The idea is that the leaves which are green now will all dry up and are really not the growth which is cut for hay; therefore, I should think it would do no harm to feed it down a bit.

Over-rank grain with abundant moisture will make a more stocky growth and stand against lodging if pastured or mowed. The leaves which you speak of as being lost in the later growth of the plant serve an important purpose in making that growth, and removing them is a repressive process which is not desirable when rain is short. We should allow the plants to push along into as good a growth of hay as a dry year's moisture will give.

Dry Plowing for Grain.

We have land that we could very easily plow now with our traction engine and improved plows, but the people here claim that it does not pay to dry-plow, that is, before the land has had a good rain on it and the vegetation has started. I believe in dry plowing. Two of our oldest farmers in Merced county dry-plowed, that is, they commenced plowing as soon as harvesting was over.

If the rainfall is small and likely to come in light showers, dry plowing, if it turns up the land in large clods, might yield poorer results than land which is plowed after rain, because there would be so much moisture lost by drying out from the coa.r.s.e surface when it came in amounts not adequate for deep penetration. Plowing after the rain for the purpose of killing out the foul stuff which starts is, however, quite another consideration. It is a fact that dry plowing and sowing is not now desirable in some places where it was formerly accepted, because the land has become so foul as to give a rank growth of weeds which choke out the grain at its beginning. Such land can be cleaned by one or two shallow plowings and cultivations after there is moisture enough to start the weeds to growing. These are local questions which you will have to settle by observation. In a general way, it is true that opening the surface of the ground before the rains, reduces the run-off and loss of moisture, but whether there would be any loss of moisture by run-off or not depends upon the slope of the land and also upon the way in which the rain comes, and the total amount of moisture which is available for the season.

Sub-varieties of California Barley.

Can you tell where I can buy seed of varieties of California six-rowed barley, described as "pallidum" and "coerulescens," and what the seed will cost?

No one knows where the six-rowed barley, known as "common" barley in this State, came from, nor when it came. It has been here since the early days and it has naturally shown a disposition to vary, so that it is quite possible to select a number of types from any large field, of it. These variations have been studied to some extent by Eastern students who are endeavoring to develop American types of barley for brewing purposes as likely to be better than the brewing varieties which are famous in Europe. In Europe brewing barleys are chiefly two-rowed.

Under California conditions the plant is able to develop just as good brewing grains on a six-rowed basis, and this seems to be a commendable trait in the way of multiplying the product. The names "pallidum" and "coerulescens" indicate two of these varieties recognized by Eastern students. It is not possible at this time to get even a pound of selected grain true to this type, and no one knows when it will be worked out to available quant.i.ties.

Chevalier Barley.

Has Chevalier barley more value to feed hens for egg production than common feed barley or wheat?

Chevalier barley is no better for chicken feed than any other barley which is equally large and plump. Brewers like Chevalier because of its fullness of starch to support the malting process; also, because it is bright, that is, white, and not stained or tinged with bluish or reddish colors. Color points do not count for chicken feed, but good plump kernels do. Besides this, however, darker kernel (not chaff) usually indicates more protein, and therefore a darker kernel of either wheat or barley might be more valuable for feeding. A hard, h.o.r.n.y kernel is richer than a softer, more starchy one, either in wheat or barley.

Barley on Moist Land.