California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



tHE following, by a coiTespondciit of tbe 

 Rural Xew Yorker, contains some practi- 

 cal suggestions that are worthy the con- 

 sideration of Calif ornia wool-growers : 

 Occasionally there comes into the Custom 

 House Appraiser's office, from Australia, some 

 combing wool of a much finer grade than the 

 ordinary combing wool from the English 

 blood sheep. I judge that it must be froui a 

 cross between the English long wool breeds, 

 either Cotswold or Leicester, and the Mermo 

 of that section. The wool is very much 

 sought after by those engaged in the worsted 

 branches of manufacture, like delaines, shawls 

 and various stuff goods; and as that branch is 

 constantly extending there is not likely to be 

 diininution of the demand for wools suited to 

 that industry. Would it not gieatly aid the 

 sheep husbandry of the country if we were to 

 diversify our breeds of sheep, and adapt them 

 more to' the demands of a rapid change in 

 manufacturing industries. The improvements 

 in machinery, and in taste and fashion, have 

 ■wrought a wonderful change in the public 

 mind relative to worsted goods. A careful 

 examination of people's clothing satisfies me 

 that at least nim-tenths of the textile fabrics 

 worn by either sex are the product of the 

 worsted manufacturers. When we know how 

 w<n-sted manufacture facilitates the mixture of 

 other and cheaper material with wool, con- 

 stantly cheapening the production, we need 

 not be surprised at the rapid extension of the 

 industry. 



As at present conducted American sheep 

 husbandry is of little aid to the home manu- 

 facturer in the great leading industries of the 

 world. England is the great producer, as she 

 is the great consumer, of worsted wools, and 

 hence she monopohzes the markets of the 

 world in the various worsted fabrics through 

 the facilities for obtaining cheap raw material. 

 "The rapid increase of the worsted manufac- 

 ture as compared ^^^th the woolen is no doubt 

 to be ascribed to the greater simplicity of the 

 processes and to the recent introduction of 

 combing machines, but most of all, to the 

 introduction of cotton warps in 18.3.5, which 

 not only cheapened the goods but vastly in- 

 creased the variety." 



We can produce cheap cotton. Ought we 

 not to so vary our production of wool as to 

 place withiu the reach of the manufacturer 

 cheap wool, and thereby successfully compete 

 for the markets of the world in texible fab- 

 rics? If we will adapt our sheep husbandry 

 more to the English system of making meat, 

 and not wool, the great object, and choose 

 those breeds which are so valuable for mutton 

 Bs well .as far combing wools, we can, on our 

 cheap lands, and with our universal good 

 market for meat, grow wool much cheaper 

 than it can be produced in England and 

 largely extend our manufacturing and cognate 

 industries. 



Going more into detail, it seems to me a 

 capital crop may be made upon our grade Me- 

 rinos by judiciously selected South Down 

 males, and in certain sections, like the Vine 

 Grass regions of the South, with the long 

 wool varieties, enhancing the business profits 

 by the increased income both in his wool and 

 meat. For it is not to be disguised that good 

 combing wool, whether from South Downs or 

 Cotswolds, is worth much more in the mark- 

 ets than the fine clothing wool of the Merino, 

 while the increased weight adds largely to the 

 profits in the carcass. 



ready money. Besides these reasons there 

 are many others. Sheep are the best scaven- 

 gers that can be kept on a place, and m two 

 y eras' pasturing on a foul piece of ground will 

 destroy the weeds that will defy any other 

 method to exterminate. Weeds are the great- 

 est absorbents of moisture we have, and where 

 they grow among other crops soon deprive the 

 plants of all moisture, when they wither and 

 die. When sheep husbandry shaU become in 

 this State a part of the farm operations, we 

 will have a much higher standard in the qual- 

 ity of wool produced than under the present 

 system. When breeding on a small scale, the 

 farmer will have time to cull out worthless 

 stock and breed only those that are known to 

 be good. All thoroughbreds, of whatever 

 stock, do not produce good animals, and in 

 breeding this fact must be remembered. Where 

 there is a herd of a thousand or so it is im- 

 possible to pair the males and female so as to 

 produce good ottspring. Every year we are 

 gaining ground in the matter of raising fine 

 stock; but until every farmer is a stock raiser 

 we shall not have reached the point of perfec- 

 tion. Every fanner should be a wool-produc- 

 er a dairyman, a hog-raiser, and a stock- 

 drover on a small scale. It is much easier to 

 drive hay to market when it has legs under it 

 than to bale it and ship on the cars. We do 

 not advocate the feeding of wheat to beef 

 cattle or hogs, but we do hold that the wheat 

 should be sent to miU by the producer, and 

 the bran and shorts retained and fed to stock 

 and converted into pork, beef, butter and 

 cheese. And there are other products more 

 profitable than wheat which it wiU pay to feed 

 stock. 



The foregoing, from the Sacrammto Valley 

 Agricultunst, contains much hard sense pertin- 

 ent to the question. We differ only in one 

 thing: we do believe in, and advocate feeding 

 wheat to stock, in localities long distances 

 from market. There is no better feed for 

 hogs and chickens, and it is economy to con- 

 vert wheat into pork, beef, mutton, etc., 

 where it grows luxuriantly and the price it 

 commaneis is below m cents per pound. 



EvEKY Farmer Should be a Sheep- 

 Grower. —There are many reasons why every 

 farmer should keep a small number of fine- 

 wool sheep on the farm. By raising his own 

 mutton a large saving is made in the butcher 

 bill; the sale of the wool will always bring 



Why Johnson's Cotswold Bam Didn't 

 Take the Fkize. — Max Adeler writes to the 

 Danliury Neics thus : 



Our county fair is just over, but Johnson's 

 Cotswold ram did not take the prize that was 

 offered for the best animal of that kind. Judge 

 Pittman was Chairman of the Committee on 

 Eams, and he manifested the deepest interest 

 in Johnson's ram, indicating clearly that if 

 any sheep ought to take a prize that one cer- 

 tainly ought to. Johnson's ram was by itself 

 in a pen with a high board fence, and before 

 adjudicating the prizes the Judge thought he 

 had better go in and make a close examina- 

 tion of the animal for the purpose of ascer- 

 taining the fineness of its wool, etc. 



As soon as the Judge reached the interior 

 he walked towards the ram, whereupon the 

 ram lowered his head and began to shake it 

 ominously. Just as the Judge was about to 

 feel the tleece the ram leaped forward and 

 planted his head in the Judge's stomach, roll- 

 ing him over on the ground. Before the 

 Judge had time to realize what had happened 

 the ram came at him again and began a series 

 of promiscuous butts, each given with the 

 precision and force of a xule-driver. It but- 

 ted the Judge on the back, on the ribs, on his 

 arm, and on his shoulder-blades, on the bald 

 place on his head, on his breast, on his shins; 

 it butted his nose, it butted his watch into a 

 mass of loose cog wheels, it butted his spec- 

 tacles oft", it butted his hat into black silk 

 chaos; it butted him over into the corner and 

 up against the fence, butted down another of 

 the committee, butted three small boys into 

 fits, butted the money taker at the gate, and 

 then fled out into the country, butting harm- 

 lessly at the fresh air. 



The Judge did not distribute the prizes that 



day. When they collected him from various 

 parts of the pen, they wiped the mud from 

 his trousers and the blood from his nose, and 

 sent him home in-ith a perennial stomach-ache 

 and a determination to start after that wan- 

 dering mutton, the first thing in the morning, 

 with a shotgun, 



^ ^-•-^- 



We were amused, says the Colorado Chief- 

 tain, at the novel and ingenious manner of 

 corralling a flock of thirteen hundred sheep. 

 It consisted of bunching them together and 

 running a canvass fence around them. The 

 canvass was fastened between two small 

 stakes, each pair set about ten feet apart. The 

 canvass is about two feet in width, and the 

 lower edge is calculated to be about eight or 

 ten inches from the ground. The stakes ex- 

 tend so far below the canvass as to allow of 

 their being set far enough in the ground to 

 keep it in upright position. Like a fish-net 

 it can be taken down, rolled up and put away 

 in the wagon. It is certainly a very conve- 

 nient way of corralling sheep of nights while 

 dri\-ing long journeys. They may be made to 

 hold two or three thousand in a bunch. This 

 novel fence was invented by A. S. McWil- 

 liams, of Colusa county, California. 



When to Sell Wheat. 



If farmers could always know with accuracy 

 just the amount of old grain and flour left 

 over, and the true condition of the crops all 

 over the world, so that they might be able to 

 judge of the ratio of supply to demand, they 

 would be prepared to decide whether the early 

 market is what it ought to be or not; but so 

 long as there are gn-ain speculators all over 

 the world trying to bear the market by exag- 

 gerated statements of the amount of the old 

 crop left over in the great grain centres of the 

 world, and with over-estimates of the new 

 cro]i, they are left without a reliable guide. 



There was a time when speculators were 

 able to subsidize almost the entire press, and 

 procure such crop statements as should suit 

 their own interests and mislead the farmers, 

 but the time for that, we trust, is rapidly pass- 

 ing by. and the time rapidly approaching 

 when the intelligent farmer shall be quite as 

 well informed upon the prospective condition 

 of crops and markets any other class. "ttTien 

 the farmer shall have become thoroughly in- 

 formed upon all questions liable to affect the 

 prices, he will be a great deal better jjrepared 

 to decide when to sell his crops than he has 

 been or is now. 



Perhaps we may lay it down as a general 

 rule, that when tlie last year's crop has been, 

 generally, a short one, and the present one is 

 abundant, the early market will be the best; 

 but when the last one was abundant, and the 

 current one is short, the latter markets wiU 

 higher. 



The possession of vast tracts of land by 

 one man, or the ownership of sufficient area 

 to make a county, if not a good-sized state, 

 when vested in two or three men, precludes 

 the possibiUtv of small farms ever being 

 reached. Yet" this is the situation in Califor- 

 nia to-day, and instead of being remedied, is 

 constantly increasing, and the degrajlation 

 consequent upon this condition of things is 

 sure to follow. It has been generally admit- 

 ted that the crying sin of other countries has 

 been the system of tenant farming, which 

 causes the utter helplessness of the real cul- 

 tivator of the soil against the nominal owner 

 thereof; and yet we are fastening this same 

 system here. 



The irrieation statutes of the Territory of 

 Colorado were borrowed from the adjoining 

 Territory of New Mexico. New Mexico re- 

 ceived them from the old empire of Mexico. 

 Mexico, as a Spanish province, got them from 

 the mother country, Spain, where they had 

 long been digested and matured by the Moor- 

 ish law-givers, and the Moors by the southern 

 borders of the Mediterranean, had long cen- 

 turies before brought them from Eg>pt. 



