of reflected heat from a clean surface, and is otherwise desirable wherever moisture is available for it.  You could also grow cow peas for the good of the land if not for other profit.  You can, of course, grow small fruits and vegetables for home use if you will cultivate well.  Common field crops, with scant cultivation, will generally cause you to lose more from the bad condition in which they leave the soil than you can gain from the use or sale of the crop.

Navels and Valencias.

Navel trees are being budded to Valencias in southern California, because of the higher price received for the late-ripening Valencias.  Are the orchards in central and northern California being planted in Navels, and is there any difference in soil or climate requirements of Navels and Valencias?

There is no particular difference in the soil requirements of Valencia and Navel oranges.  They are both budded on the same root.  The desirability of Navel oranges in the upper citrus districts arises from the fact that the policy of those districts at the present time is to produce an early orange.  This they could not accomplish by growing the Valencia.  The great advantage of the Valencia in southern California, on the other hand, lies in the very fact that it is late and that it can be marketed in midsummer and early autumn when there are no Navels available from anywhere.

Orange Seedlings.

What about planting the seed from St. Michael’s oranges or of grapefruit for a seed-bed to be budded to Valencias?

Good plump St. Michael’s seeds would be all right if you desire to use sweet seedling stock.  Grapefruit seedlings are good and quite widely used, though the general preference is for sour-stock seedlings.

Acres of Oranges to a Man.

In your opinion, is it possible for one man, of average strength, to take perfect care of a twenty-acre citrus orchard?  Are the services of a man who takes the entire responsibility of an orchard (citrus) worth more than those of a common ranch hand?

It depends upon the man, upon the age of the trees, upon the kind of soil he has to handle, upon the irrigation arrangements and upon what you mean by “perfect care.”  If you contract the picking and hauling of fruit, the fumigation and allow extra help when conditions require that something must be done quickly, whatever it may be, a man with good legs and arms, and a good head full of special knowledge to make them go, can handle twenty acres and if he does it right you ought to pay him twice as much as an ordinary ranch hand.

Roots for Orange Trees.

What are the conditions most favorable to orange trees budded upon sour stock; also upon sweet stock and trifoliata?