Carobs in California.

Will the carob tree (St. John’s Bread) do well in the Sacramento valley, and is it a desirable tree for lining a driveway?

Carobs have been grown in California for thirty years or more and they will make a handsome driveway and give a lot of pods for the kids and the pigs — for they are “the husks which the swine did eat,” and both like them.  They ought to be much more widely planted in California because they grow well and are good to look upon.

Spineless Cactus Fruit.

I have about two acres of high land in Fresno county that can’t be irrigated.  It is red adobe soil and there is hardpan in it.  Which kind of fruit trees will grow and pay best?  How near may the hardpan be to the surface before I have to blast it?

It is a hard fruit proposition.  Try spineless cactus, the fruits of which are delicious.  Blasting would help if there is a moist substratum below the hardpan and might enable you to grow many fruits.  If your land is hard and dry all the way down, blasting would not help you unless you can get irrigation.  Presumably your rainfall is too small for fruit unless you strike underflow below the hardpan.

Cleaning Fruit Trays.

What do you advise for killing and removing the whitish mold that forms on trays used for drying prunes?  Would sunning the trays be effective, or washing in hot water, or is there some suitable fungicide?

Good hot sun and dry wind will kill the mold.  The spores of such a common mold are waiting everywhere, so that your fruit would mold anyway if conditions were right.  Still, scalding the trays for cleanliness and a short trip through the sulphur box for fungus-killing is commended.

Killing Moss on Old Trees.

I have some Bartlett pear trees that are covered with moss and mold, and the bark is rough and checked.  I have used potash (98%), 1 pound to 6 gallons spray.  It kills the long moss, but the green mold it does not seem to affect.  The trees have been sprayed about one week.  Some trees have been sprayed with a 1 pound to 10 gallons solution by mistake.  Shall I spray these again with full strength, and when?

You have done enough for the moss at present.  Even the weaker solution ought to be strong enough to clean the bark.  Wait and see how the bark looks when the potash gets through biting; it will keep at it for some time, taking a fresh hold probably with each new moisture supply from shower or damp air.  The spray should have been shot onto the bark with considerable force — not simply sprinkled on.

Shy-Bearing Apples.

I have some apple trees 10 and 12 years old that do not bear satisfactorily, but persist in making 5 to 6 feet of new wood each year.  If not cut back this winter, will they be more likely to make fruit buds?