California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



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S. HAERIS HEEEING & CO., 



Editors and Publishers. 



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OPFIC'K: Over fUe San Jose Savinfjs BanK, 

 Ball>acU''s Building-, Sa,iita, Clara Street, 

 near First, Sait aJose. 



SPECUL TEEMS TO AGENTS. 



BATES OF ADVERTISING. 



Perono Column SIS 00 Per Month 



" half Oolniim 8 00 " 



" fourth Column 4 00 " " 



" eighth Column 2 00 " 



" Bixtet'nth Column 100 " " 



V£^ We are determined to adhere to to our resolution 

 to iidmif uoue hwi worthy business advertising in our 

 columns, and to keep clear of [):itt-iit uietlicine, liquor, 

 and other advertisements itf donlttlul intliience. 



J'he large circulation, the (li-hir;il'l'' chiss nf readers, 

 and the neat and ronvenieiitforin. n nd- rs this Juiirnal 

 a choice medium for reaching the attention of the 

 maBses. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



The annual meeting of the California Tho- 

 roughbred Cattlo Breeders' Association will 

 be held at the Grand Hotel, at San Eraucisco, 

 on Tuesday, April 6th, at 2 p. m. The an- 

 nual election of ofiScers will take place, and 

 other important business will be transacted. 



The idea prevalent amongst many farmers 

 that the gopher will not eat the roots of the 

 eucalyptus, pepper tree and castor oil plant 

 is erroneous. We have seen these plants de- 

 stroyed by gophers, who seem to grow as fat 

 on such food as on the most succulent vege- 

 table. Strychnine and phosphorus are the 

 proper condiments "to stay the stomach" of 

 these rodents. 



ftuantity of Vegetables to Feed an 



Animal Daily. — Several persons have 

 thought that we placed the estimate too high 

 — 24,000 pounds of vegetables to a steer in 

 four mouths' feeding, or 200 pounds per day. 

 But Mr. Story says they will eat that much. 

 AVhen we remember that there is only about 

 8 per cent, of nutriment in a beet, or about 

 16 pounds in 200, it will not seem very pre- 

 posterous. And thoy will eat just about as 

 much hay with the beets as thoy woidd with- 

 out thorn. It is natural for animals of the 

 bovine species to keep the stomach distended 

 when feed is plenty. They can digest their 

 food best when the ponch is fiill, and they 

 cannot keep healthy without full stomachs. 

 An animal that oats all the vegetables, roots 

 or squashes, that ho wants will not care to 

 drink much water. But to take on fat (juickly 

 they must oat nil thoy want of rich food with- 

 out exertion, !Uid bo kept quiet and rciiting as 

 niuch as possible. 



A subscriber in Missouri asks whether a, 

 person can enter a piece of land under the 

 homestead law in California. Yes, if the 

 person can find a ijieco of Government land. 

 There is some Government laud worth having 

 in out-of-the-way places, but nearly all of the 

 desirable land is monopolized by grants and 

 grabbers. Probably no State in the Union 

 has been so cursed with land pirates ns Cali- 

 fornia has. In some parts of the State n man 

 who attempts to pre-empt land does so at the 

 peril of his life. Stock men overrun much 

 desirable laud open to pre-emption, and it 

 seems that the rights of indiviuals are as 

 little respected as when there was no law but 

 revolvers and bowie knives. 



The grape is the only plant we now think 

 of that will be benefitted by allowing the mois- 

 ture in the surface soil to escape or be taken 

 up by other plants. And especially when 

 growing in rich, moist soil is this the case. 

 We have known good crops of grapes to grow 

 and be sweet and fine on soil that had been 

 allowed to overrun with weeds, while just 

 over a fence, where the soil was carefully cul- 

 tivated, the grapes were mildewed, sour and 

 almost worthless from excess of richness and 

 moisture in the soil. We have watched this 

 thing for the last five years, and feel assured 

 that it is policy on moist soils to absorb the 

 moisture by cultivating some succulent crop, 

 or allowing grass to grow between the rows of 

 grape vines. 



Good Butter Cows. — The best proof that 



it pays to get good cows and then feed them 

 plentifully of good grass ixnd hay is given by 

 the experience of Mr. F. T. Holland, who re- 

 sides in the Evergreen district, east of San 

 Jose. He has four fine cows, three of them 

 high grade Aldernies and one a first-rate 

 American cow. In the Fall and Winter he 

 feeds roots and squashes with hay, and al- 

 ways gives hay night and morning when grass 

 is ever so good, and he always has a lot of 

 green grain and corn growing to furnish green 

 feed when the grass in his pasture 'gets dry. 

 Good stock and good feeding is his motto. 

 From the four cows he has been making fifty 

 pounds of butter a week during the flush of 

 grass feed. This is jjrobably not excelled by 

 any four cows in this State. Mr. HoUand has 

 a forty acre farm which he takes pride in till- 

 ing according to correct practice, and he at- 

 tributes his success with his cows as much to 

 good feed as to tine stock. 



The Present Dark Age of Inquisition. 



We sometimes hear persons speak of the Dark 

 Ages and the age of the Inquisition as some- 

 thing that is jjast. But some events of the 

 present day don't look much as though we 

 had advanced very far ahead of "yeold times. " 

 F<u' instance, the incarcerating of PhilosojAer 

 Pickett in the jail .at San Fr.ancisco, and keep- 

 ing him there in defiance of the just sense of 

 the community without trial, and for no 

 greater offense than disputing the right of a 

 judge to hold his seat longer than the time he 

 was elected and honorably entitled to hold it, 

 under the ruling of the same court that a 

 contoitjd had been committed. For months 

 poor Pickett has been .suffering the abuse of 

 unjust cciufinouient in this boasted free gov- 

 ernment. The 'judges who keep him there 



should be arraigned for contempt of law and 



justice and ever sense of honor and humanity. 

 At any rate, if all who have a supreme con- 

 tempt for a Supreme Court that will assert its 

 supremacy over a poor old man, who never 

 meant harm to any good man or motive, by 

 imprisoning him in this abusive manner could 

 be imprisoned, there would be but few decent 

 people left to tell the tale. Such justice 

 ought to be mobbed if there is no other law to 

 reach the case; and if there is, then the whole 

 community who witness the outrage are 

 equally guilty with the contemptible judges 

 who inflict and permit such an outrage upon 

 humanity. 



Orange Culture. — From the time we 

 started this journal, wo have insisted that it 

 is not necessary to go to Lower California to 

 start an orange orchard, for the fruit can be 

 produced in all the foot-hills about the great 

 interior valleys, and in the valleys themselves, 

 below the snow line. Every year is convinc- 

 ing more people of the truth of our assertion. 

 For several years fine oranges have been 

 grown in Stockton, Sacramento, Marysville, 

 OroviUe, Bidwell's Bar, Grass Valley, and 

 many other places in the upper country — or- 

 anges that, in size, beauty and flavor, are not 

 surpassed by any grown in the south. One 

 of the most remarkable trees is at Bidwell's 

 Bar, Butte county, near the snow line. It is 

 now about twenty yeais old, is about a foot 

 in diameter of trunk, spreads twenty feet, and 

 is some 30 feet high. There is said to be upon 

 it now seven hundred oranges. We saw this 

 tree fifteen years ago; also trees at Marysville 

 that are now doing finely. This season there 

 has been a better demand for orange trees in 

 this part of the State than ever before, and 

 the demand will increase from year to year 

 until every home orchard will contain orange 

 as well as apple trees. 



SENDING PAPERS EAST. 



Quite a number of our subscribers, after 

 reading the Agricultuklst, send it East to 

 their friends. We often hear from them. 

 Following is a word such a subscriber sends 

 us in way of encouragement: 



Eds. Ageicttltubist: A word of encourage- 

 ment may not harm you from away down in 

 the Old Bay State: 



' ' The papers you send us are read and re- 

 read, then loaned, and then sent to distant 

 friends. T — thinks he can't see to read our 

 home paper, but he can see to read yours 

 through and through, partieularlj' 'that AoRi- 

 cuLUUiiisT, ' which he often speaks of as giving 

 him the greatest interest." (T — is an old 

 California pioneer.) 



" I am sure you nor any one else ought to 

 be sick in California. Oh, we have had siicU 

 a IVinkr, and now the walking is horrible. 

 The snow is till very deep (March 15th), but 

 no sleighing, for it is slop, slop. Some streets 

 seem like rivers. But when we do have a 

 pleasant day, it seems so bright that we can 

 look forward to a 'coming Spring.' " 



Yours, "CrsH." 



We will assort, right hero that there is no 

 pupor in the State that uses clearer new type, 

 or is more carefully printed than the Agri- 

 cCTLTtiRisT. We take a pride in sending out a 

 neat paper, stitched and trnumed, and ready 

 to read like a book, without tearing or cutting 

 of leaves. Wo spare no pains to make it ac- 

 ceptable to everybody, and of such a charac- 

 ter that it will always bo w'olcomed into every 

 aniily. 



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