Calag Archive

The leaner cuts of beef were preferred by the 1,125 buyers of the family meat supply who were interviewed in a study conducted in 15 large food stores in Berkeley. The preference for the leaner meat was indicated by what the buyers said they looked for in determining quality of beef, in the selections they made between steaks and roasts graded U. S. Choice and U. S. Good and in their reasons for their selections.

Deer damage to agricultural crops has been reported in 53 of California's 58 counties, where the deer often compete with livestock for forage and, in some cases, carry parasites and diseases that can affect domestic livestock.

Improved, fertilized pastures at the Hopland Field Station produced approximately seven times as much lamb per acre in 1955 as did the unimproved range. The increased lamb production was due in part to the much earlier and more abundant range forage produced in the fertilized pastures.

A new variety of blackeye beans— Vigna sinensis—known as Grant has shown resistance to Fusarium wilt in field tests in the Chino Valley of San Bernardino County in 1955 and in greenhouse tests. A high level of resistance in the Grant to the race—or races—was noted on two properties in that area where the wilt fungus was present.

Certain varieties of peach, plum, apricot, cherry, pear, grape, olive and lemon—as well as many woody ornamental species—have been propagated by cuttings under mist in percentages high enough to make this method commercially feasible. However, there is considerable variation—among varieties within a species—in the ease with which cuttings can be rooted even under mist.

The solution of a particularly difficult drainage problem in the Sacramento Valley—resulting from river seepage—involved the use of several investigation techniques.

Efficient labor management on the 437,000 acres of California grapes has . been difficult to attain because—according to the State of California Department of Employment—there has been a statewide seasonal labor fluctuation of 6:1 in agricultural crops. The peak harvest labor demand of 360,000 man weeks was not easily obtained.

Many insecticides will kill the spotted alfalfa aphid—Therioaphis maculata (Buckton)—but even the most effective chemicals provide only a temporary relief from aphid attack. In most infested areas chemical control of the aphid is essential for successful alfalfa production. Furthermore, chemical control will continue to be essential until highly promising research on resistant alfalfa varieties— adapted to California growing conditions—can be completed or until fungus diseases or imported beneficial insects provide a more permanent control. Unchecked, this aphid can hamper alfalfa production, reduce the yield, and impair the quality of alfalfa hay, but it can be controlled economically by the careful use of chemical treatments that are properly applied.

The walnut husk fly—Rhagoletis completa Cresson—was not known to exist in northern California until its discovery in a small walnut orchard near Sonoma in 1954. Because the find was made late in the fall, there was no opportunity to study the distribution of the pest in northern California that season.

Azalea plants are forced to bloom in large quantities for the retail market from Christmas through Easter. To achieve an abundance of flowers, even flowering, and rapid forcing, the grower must remove branch terminals—pinch— frequently to cause profuse branching which is a foreunner to abundant flowering. To make the plants flower rapidly they must be given a low temperature treatment after the buds are developed and before forcing begins. For an even flowering all buds must be initiated and developed simultaneously.