Excerpt from Home Fruit Growing in California

This circular is designed for those who wish to grow fruit and nuts on a small scale for their own use and not for those who may grow fruit as a business. Although nearly all the fruits that the amateur can hope to produce are already available in our home markets, many of us desire to raise something of our own. As a matter of economics, home fruit grow ing is a poor investment; but happily, no matter how much we may try to convince ourselves to the contrary, we grow home fruits not for mone tary gain but as a labor of love. There is a pride of possession in produc ing some nice fruit, for it can be done; but the work is primarily a sport or recreation.

It is the creative instinct that makes us want to dig in the soil and plant something. The fructifying soil holds great mystery for us all. As most people know, growing things out of the earth is a gamble, where skill and chance combine to make a most fascinating game. If we persist until we acquire skill and wisdom; study our plants, treat them properly, protect them from their enemies, we may be rewarded with all the fruit we can use and (best of all) with some to present to our friends, which is the sweetest of all rewards for the amateur.

As already mentioned, this publication is intended to help the begin ner. Whereas practically all of our books and experiment-station publi cations on the subject were written for commercial fruit growers, this circular is frankly for the amateur, and all the discussions will be from his standpoint. The professional orchardist is always cautioned, for ex ample, to select a site having the climate, soil, water, and marketing facilities that will promote his financial success. The homeowner, on the other hand, must use the site he has, whether all conditions are fav crable or not. His back yard may be only a second or a third-rate location for fruit, but he wants to use it. Fortunately, practices unjustifiable on a large scale may be followed in a small way: Poor soil can be greatly modified and ameliorated if one will go to the necessary trouble and ex pense. To provide for a few trees only, a swampy spot may be reclaimed, an unfavorable soil or subsoil completely made over. Individual fruits or even whole clusters may be protected against diseases and insects by enclosing them in bags made of paper, gauze, or cellophane. Even the mean temperature for a few trees may be raised considerably in a cold.

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