Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/89

 Can California have a vast carob industry? Probably, but it will take years of experiment to prove it.

(a) Most of the roadside carob trees of California have been watered a little. Therefore, we cannot predict too much from them. The carob industry must depend on rain and rain only. Twenty-five years of test in twenty-five localities may tell how good the carob is for an industry in California. This book is being written to urge testing and improving. It does not urge large-scale commercial plantings of things that do well in single trees.

In favor of the carob is the fact that Californians know little of the tree-crop possibilities of their unirrigated land because they have not yet tried the complete conservation and use of all rainfall (see Chapter XXIII on farm practice, especially water-pocket irrigation).

(b) The roadside tree or any isolated tree is a liar (almost) anyhow. The tree itself is of course innocent, but it is a great aid to a liar. One of the greatest lie recipes on earth is as follows: Take

(1) A single tree (2) A number of trees per acre