All Issues

Fire as a tool in the multiple-use management of second-growth ponderosa pine is under study in California.

Seventy per cent of all economic activity in Humboldt County now originates, directly or indirectly, in forest industries. These industries provide jobs for 8,726 people-almost twice as many jobs as the wholesale and retail trades; two and a half times as many jobs as business, personal, and professional services; and over four times as many jobs as agriculture.

Few California rice growers—if any, according to available data—could increase their net 1955 farm incomes over those anticipated from lower world prices, by accepting marketing quotas and acreage allotments.

A new soil test that tells how much phosphorus in the soil is available to crops—recently developed at the U.S.D.A. Western Regional Phosphate Laboratory—uses a sodium bicarbonate—baking soda—solution to extract the soil phosphate.

An outbreak of the leaf curl plum aphid—Anuraphis helichrysi Ka1t.—occurred in 1953 in Placer County, where a considerable acreage of plums was severely attacked. The aphid—in California for many years but not as a pest of major importance—curls the leaves of the tree in early spring, and new leaf growth is tightly curled during the early summer. As a result of the leaf damage, fruit does not properly develop, and shoot growth is severely stunted.

Nematodes—parasitic in and on the roots of grapevines—probably represent one of the most important factors in the premature decline of vineyards in California.

Delayed harvest of Valencia oranges—if consistently delayed several weeks beyond the point of the legal fruit maturity of eight parts soluble solids to one part citric acid in the juice—seems to result in reduced fruit yield and reduced fruit grade.

Distance between livestock-producing areas and the dependent demand centers is of major importance because the cost of transportation influences the price received by the producer and the price paid by the consumer—and is one of the strategic factors that bear on the competition between producing areas.

External parasites most commonly infesting poultry in California include the northern fowl mite, the common poultry mite, several kinds of lice—and the chicken tick, which is often called the blue-bug in spite of the fact that it is a true tick.