Do you recommend putting fertilizers in irrigating water? I am about to water the orchard and am thinking of putting some nitrate in the water. You can distribute any soluble ferti...
Would it pay in returns to use large potatoes for seed in preference to culls? Large potatoes are better than culls, but medium-sized potatoes are better than either. Many experime...
What variety of blackberries or raspberries are the best for drying purposes? Are berries successfully dried in evaporators? This is a natural berry country. Wild blackberries are...
What breed of dairy cows do you think would be preferable to keep for butter, at an altitude of about 1800 feet, in Nevada county - Jerseys, Guernseys or Ayrshires? I do not mean t...
Is there anything that will make olives keep their black color when put into lye? When I put my first picking of ripe olives in lye, a large part of them turn green, the black leav...
What shall I feed cows when they are fresh and when they are dry! When they commence to freshen, give some green feed, such as alfalfa or corn; if possible, also give, say, two or...
How can I tell when a watermelon is fully ripe? What is the method used by growers in picking for commercial shipping? Gently press the sides of a melon and if it crackles a little...
We are going to plant about 20 acres to corn on a sidehill and intend to put some fertilizer on, but want to give it to the corn only. Would it be a good plan, after we have marked...
When the root of an orange or other fruit tree is exposed or brakes by the cultivator, what is the best way to treat that root? Where a root is actually broken it is best to cut it...
I had good success with the peach trees which I grafted to almond last spring, getting about 95 per cent of a stand, and many of the grafts now are one and one-half inches diameter...
What is the effect of coal ashes on the red clay soil of Redlands or wood and coal ashes combined? Coal ashes are exceedingly desirable upon clay land because their mechanical mixt...
I have a cow which gave rich milk all the time, but now every time I milk her some yellow, hard substance will come out instead of milk. First from one teat, then the next, and whe...
What variety of grain adopted for poultry food will be the best to grow, with and also without irrigation? Wheat is a standard grain for poultry feeding, and Egyptian corn is also...
There is no grass which grows quickly enough to be worth seeding in the fall for spring plowing. It is a good deal better to use a grain, either barley or rye, for the seed is chea...
I planted cowpeas between peach trees which I have kept irrigated; when should they be plowed under? Cowpeas will be killed by frost in most places and should, therefore, be plowed...
I would like information about spurry. How much frost will it stand? What is time for sowing? Its value as crop to plow under? From a California point of view, spurry is a winter-g...
Advise me as to plowing under a crop of last year's weeds where I intend to plant beans, corn, etc. The soil is "slickens," on the Yuba river, and the weeds grew up last year in a...
What is the proper time for pruning the walnut? Is it bad for the tree to prune during the active season? I have recently acquired a long-neglected grove in which many large limbs...
What caused these squashes, of which I send you samples, to be so hard and woody? They were grown without irrigation. Your squashes were grown without irrigation under conditions w...
There are ditching-machines that do efficient work. The best are costly. Most of the work on farms will continue to be done with ditching-spades. The ground should be moved when we...
Where soil and climatic conditions are favorable to the raising of apples, what effect has irrigation an them? The commercial product of California apples is chiefly made upon deep...
Please give the formula for peeling peaches by dipping them in caustic soda or lye. Lye for peeling peaches is used at the rate of half to one pound to the gallon of water, accordi...
Thorough underdrainage is costly, but it is less so than the farming of fields whose productiveness is seriously limited by an excess of water. The work means an added investment....
Last fall one of our horses was taken ill and had a swollen jaw. He died soon and we supposed that he had been kicked and died of lockjaw. This spring another was taken ill. He beg...
Are "horse beans" a leguminous crop and how does their feeding value for hogs compare to cowpeas and Canadian field peas? They surely are legumes, and they resemble so closely in c...
Can the Navel orange be grafted on the osage orange? I understand it is done in Florida, and would like to know if it has been tried in
We have summer-fallowed land which we know will grow good alfalfa, and as we have just had four inches of rainfall upon it, we were wondering if we could not plow the twenty acres...
The inoculation of the soil with cowpea bacteria is necessary to best results in most regions new to the plant. Self-inoculation is quicker in the cowpea than in alfalfa because th...
Would Canadian field peas and cow peas be valuable as a forage crop for cows and hogs; also as fertilizer? Please tell us also when to plant, how to plant, etc. These plants are of...
What shall I do for a young cow that milks herself? Fit a harness consisting of two light side slats and a girth and neck strap in such a way that the cow cannot reach her udder. U...