The quality, that is, the composition of irrigated crops, is remarkably sensitive to the quantity of water used. The proportion of the nitrogenous, that is, flesh-forming substances in any crop diminishes invariably as more water is used. By growing wheat with small quantities of water the seed produced has contained as high as 27 per cent of nitrogenous substances, or nearly twice as much as was obtained under irrigation. The grains, roots, tubers and fruit, all obey this law. As the matter is more fully studied we may have here a powerful means of competition with the products of humid farms.

The other chief plant constituents also seem to be powerfully affected by irrigation. Crops containing much or little fat or sugar may be produced at the will of the irrigator. In the case of sugar beets, the water supply that will produce the sweetest beets is being well established. Cherries, peaches and prunes contain most sugar and least acids when receiving small irrigations. On the other hand, many other fruits appear to become sweeter under the influence of rather large irrigations. The color and flavor of fruit, the starchiness of potatoes, the woodiness of forage crops, the gluten in flour, and the cooking flavor of fruits, vegetables and other crops are affected strongly and definitely by variations in the quantity of the irrigation water used.

This is a most important matter which calls for careful and elaborate study from our agricultural investigators. If the irrigated regions can place crops of definite quality upon the markets of the world, we shall be able to command the best prices in competition with the products of the humid farms, and what is of more concern we shall help make irrigation agriculture safer and more profitable.

Interesting experiments have recently been conducted that show quite clearly that varying the quantity of irrigation water renders the crop more or less susceptible to disease. For example, the percentage of bitter pit on Gano apples was seven with heavy irrigations, and only about two with light irrigations. If medium applications of water were made up to August 1 and light ones thereafter, the crop was wholly free from bitter pit. This is mentioned merely to show how intricate and complete is the response of the crop to the quantity of water used.

It is really remarkable also that the response does not merely depend on the total quantity of water used. The method of irrigation employed and the time of application change greatly the growth, development and quality of the crop.

From a large and rapidly growing literature I might continue to cite numerous examples to show that the irrigation farmer by varying the quantity of water used, may control, often within large

limits, the acre yield, the development and the quality of the crop, and may at least in a small degree render the crop less susceptible to disease.

I cannot help but feel that in this power of crop control the irrigated regions have a splendid opportunity to help make the civilization that is growing up under the ditch enduring and stable. It may seem to some that it is an impracticable matter, a little thing and only a pretty dream. But let me assure you, as I look back over the last twenty-five years of agricultural research and development, many a dream that looked no more promising, has been made a solid and substantial reality. When farmers generally apply to irrigation the care given it in Riverside, and take the trouble to measure and direct their irrigation water (and that time is near at hand), it will not be a far leap to the thought that water may well be so applied as to obtain more definite results than merely a crop. Irrigation agriculture will advance only with refinements in its methods and aims-and the prosperity and permanence of life under the ditch, in an age of advancing knowledge, will depend upon the development and application of the refinements of practice that science may place before us.

The recent advance in scientific agriculture has been marvelous. Yet every person who has grown up with it, feels that we stand as yet before an undiscovered land. New truths and new applications will transform our views and our practices. Out of the field of irrigation study, scarcely entered by science, will come some of the most interesting developments, many of them made possible by the irrigation farmer's power to apply at his will much or little water to the crops of his fields and orchards. As our body of irrigation truth grows and is applied, it is my firm belief that we shall develop community life under the ditch, second to none in attractiveness. And because of our labors, Babylon and the other waste places of the earth will blossom into life. In this great work, may this station ever do its full share.

REMARKS MADE IN OPENING THE AGRICULTURAL CONFERENCE

F. Q. STORY

President, California Fruit Growers' Exchange, Los Angeles

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Recognizing the great benefit the fruit growers of this state have received through the University of California and its Experiment Station, it gives me great pleasure as a representative of the citrus

industry to act as your chairman this morning. I wish to recall in some slight detail a few of the benefits the state has received from the University and its Experiment Station and from the scientific workers of the United States Department of Agriculture and our State Horticultural Commission.

One of the first, and unquestionably the most serious, attack upon the life of the citrus industry, and one which threatened to destroy it root and branch, was made by the cottony cushion scale. Wherever this pest made its appearance it was impossible to eradicate it from a single tree. Neither spraying nor fumigation seriously affected it. In a few weeks the trees were as white as if covered by snow, and acre after acre of orchard trees was cut down for fuel.

It seemed as though our citrus industry was hopelessly doomed, but Mr. Charles Koebley, through our Horticultural Commission, was enabled to introduce from Australia a ladybird beetle, known as the Vadalia Cardinalis, of such wonderfully virile powers, both as to reproduction, and rapid eradication of the white scale, that it was almost like unto a heavy fog disappearing before the morning sun. The white trees became green again and remained so. It was most interesting to watch through a magnifying glass a newly hatched beetle no larger than the eye of a needle, while partly attached to its shell, catch and kill the first young of the white scale that came within its reach. It was an ecstatic moment for me as I realized that my orchard, which was as dead, would come to life again. Thus, through the efforts of science our groves were saved.

As our industry grew and competition became keen, much difficulty was experienced in making a profit, largely because of the decay of fruit in shipment. The difficulty was not understood and seemed insurmountable. On the urgent request of some of our growers, Mr. G. Harold Powel, then an agent of the United States Department of Agriculture, but now the beloved and trusted manager of our Exchange, was sent to the state to study the problem. He soon determined the cause of the decay as being due primarily to clipper cuts, finger-nail wounds, and improper handling. This he demonstrated conclusively by extensive trial shipments and overcame the injury and loss by introducing careful methods of handling, packing, and shipping.

As the industry grew and extensive areas became planted, the increase of the various scale insects, red spider and the like, caused great damage and the industry would have been destroyed, had not the methods of fumigation been perfected and thoroughly applied. In this advance, the work of Professor Woodworth and Professor Quayle of the University, played an important part.

Many citrus trees of standard varieties have been found to be

unproductive and the large number of poor types of fruit present in some groves has also greatly reduced the profits. In calling attention to this condition and the necessity of propagating from productive trees of good type, Mr. A. D. Shamel has greatly benefited the industry. Unproductive trees and trees producing poor types of fruit can be worked over into good producing strains.

The gummosis of lemons a few years ago caused great damage to the industry. Through the painstaking researches of Professor H. S. Fawcett, first of the State Horticultural Commission and later of the Citrus Experiment Station, the cause of the disease was determined and a successful remedy introduced.

Among the later investigations that are likely to result in great benefit to citrus growers, is the introduction by this station of the use of such winter cover crops as Melilotus indica and the purple vetch. The problem of maintaining fertility is becoming increasingly difficult and the general use of such crops will reduce the fertilizer bill and keep our soils in better condition.

These instances are cited as examples of the benefits to be derived from such work as this station is expected to do. It is a work that should be of great value to the industries of the state.

DAIRYING IN RELATION TO THE CITRUS INDUSTRY H. E. VAN NORMAN

Dean of the University Farm School, Davis

Well-recognized students of the broad problems of agricultural development point out that no permanent system of agriculture has been built up that does not involve livestock as a part of its scheme. So thoroughly understood is this in England where long leases of agricultural lands are in vogue, that by legislative enactment there is provided a legal basis for allowing credit to the tenant for the manurial value of feeds bought and fed on the place; also an allowance is made for the value of animal manures added to the land and of which the renter may not have had the benefit before giving up his lease.

Farm management investigations in the United States show that as a rule a single crop is less profitable in the long run and has rarely endured. It is a popular saying "that it is a wise man who does not put all his eggs into one basket." There seems to be an interdependence among agricultural crops that is essential to permanent agriculture. The great wheat areas of New York state, of the Red River Valley, and of the great central California valleys have each in turn

given, or are giving way to a diversified agriculture. A prominent apple grower in an eastern state who has devoted a lifetime to the business and counts his primary business that of an orchardist, said that early in his experience he found it necessary to add a dairy herd for the purpose of fertility and also to insure the employment throughout the year of a group of men who became the leaders and pacemakers for the extra labor required during the seasons of peak load. An eminent grower of deciduous fruits in the Sacramento Valley finds that in order to market the crops that he finds it profitable to raise between his trees, he must have a dairy herd, and pure bred at that. Also since his market for dairy products calls for cream, he raises pure bred hogs to use up the skim milk. Professor A. D. Shamel in the Citrograph tells us that every orange grower in Brazil is also a dairyman.

And now comes the distinguished Director of the Citrus Experiment Station and tells us that the permanency of the citrus industry in California is going to depend upon its adoption of some form of animal husbandry as a contributing side line.

The citrus grower must secure a dairyman for a partner or a neighbor, for of course, he will not himself milk cows. Unfortunately, just when he has come to appreciate the value of stable manure from the city, the horseless wagon and carriage curtail the supply of manure, and a growing appreciation by the orchardist of the value of this material has brought about such competition for the decreasing amount that it has forced the price skyward. Yet we are told that the future of the citrus industry depends upon the development of a supply of animal manures to provide the nitrogen and organic matter for our orchard soils.

It would indeed be sad if a too long, self-sufficient California should find itself forced to follow the example of older states and appoint another commission sometime in the future to study the problem of California's "abandoned farms" (i.e., abandoned orange ranches), and provide shelter and maintenance for superannuated, jobless, real estate merchants in this wonderful southland-all because of the failure to heed the admonition, "grow livestock and make manure to save the orange orchards.''

Dr. Webber, in asking me as a dairyman to present some facts for your thoughtful consideration at the moment when the dedication of these buildings gives a new impetus to the development of the citrus industry, remarked in substance: "The more I study this problem the more I am impressed with the interlocking dependence that the many branches of agriculture have upon each other." As truly as "no man liveth to himself," no branch of agriculture prospers alone indefinitely.