California Horticulturist and Live Stock Journal. 



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HOW TO GET A GOOD FLOW OF 



MILK. 



How to keep up a good flow of milk seems 

 to be a qUBstiou thiit puzzles many of our 

 fai-mers. As soou as the feed begins to get a 

 little short and dry, the lluw of milk gets 

 short, which shows couclusively that to keep 

 up a good supply of milk the eows must have 

 a good supply of green feed. If a farmer 

 will take pains to have a patch of wheat, rye; 

 or barley sown that he can cut a quanty of 

 each day to soil his cows with, the flow of 

 milk will not decrease. A patch of corn or 

 sorghum can follow the green grain, or a 

 patch of alfalfa will answer the same purpose. 

 It needs no new testimony to prove that it 

 pays to soil dairy cows. It has been conclu- 

 sively proven time and again. A good wind- 

 mill will supply water to irrigate enough green 

 feed for half a dozen cows through the entire 

 Summer, where they have the run of a pasture 

 and stubble fields in addition. 



In order to have cows in- good order when 

 the green grass starts in Winter, every farmer 

 shoidd have stored a quantity of good hay to 

 feed them twice a day. Even after the grass 

 gets to be abundant enough to fill the stom- 

 ach, it is found best to continue the feeding 

 of hay. Cows that get plenty of good, nu- 

 tritious hay, in addition to grass, never get 

 sick and bloated on gi'ass, but keep healthy 

 and give a maximum quantity of milk. Straw 

 is not so good, as it is hard to digest and does 

 not supply the nutriment needed. No cow 

 can give a good quantity of rich milk unless 

 her stomach is in good order, her digestion 

 perfect, and the supply of food is of good 

 quality and plenty of it. If the pasture is so 

 short that it takes up her entire time during 

 the day to collect enough, then she will not 

 give a full quantity, for she needs a good deal 

 of rest as well as food. A good feed of hay 

 in the yard or stable when green feed is short, 

 or a soiling of green grain or corn fodder when 

 the feed gets dry in pasture, will make it all, 

 right. A crop of vegetables, such as beets, 

 squashes, etc., to feed when pastures fail in 

 the Fall and early Winter, shpuld be consid- 

 ered indisi^ensable. Bran is good at any time 

 of the year, but good, sweet hay is just about 

 as good as bran. It should be remembered 

 that hay for cows should be cut when quite 

 green; for horses, it is better cut later than 

 for cows. For instance, if it is wheat hay, 

 it should be cut when the grain is in blossom 

 for cows, and when it is in milk for horses. 

 A horse seems to require more solid feed; he 

 chews his feed finer than a cow does. A 

 cow can digest green hay, or hay cut when 

 quite green, better than she can hard hay, or 

 hay cut after the seed is formed. 



See that the cows have a plentiful supply of 

 deitn water, as pure as possible, at all times. 

 And bear in mind that it is economy to feed 

 liberally, and that without a full supply of nu- 

 tritious food there will be a failure in the 

 quantity and quality of the milk. And an- 

 other thing is important: It will not do to 

 let cows got poor at any season. They must 

 be kejit in good condition, or else they cauuot 

 be expected to give a large yield of milk oven 

 when feed is good and they have regained 

 their lost flesh. 



VILLAINOUS LAND TRANSACTIONS. 



There is a good deal of villainy exposed 

 nowadays. Investigating Committees are 

 occasloually playing havoc with the designs 

 of mean men, and either showing up their 

 transactions, or preventing them from spring- 

 ing the traps that they have set to defraud 

 honest people. There is need enough for in- 

 vestigation, it seems, in almost eveiy public 

 department ; for wherever investigation is 

 honestly conducted, there is almost sure to 

 be found some rottenness. Perhaps in no 

 instance was there ever found more blackness 

 than has been and may be brought to light 

 through the fraudulent land monopolies and 

 grabs in California. 



We have just been looking through the 

 Reports of the Joint Committees on Swamp 

 and Overflowed Lands and Land Monopoly, 

 presented at the Twentieth Session of the 

 Legislature of California, 1874. A mass of 

 testimony, taken before the Committees, is 

 here given, together with short reports of the 

 Committees themselves. We wish that this 

 book of 354 pages could be placed in the 

 hands of every person who takes interest 

 enough in such matters to carefully peruse it. 

 We obtained ours by addressing the Secretary 

 of State, Sacramento, and paying the express- 

 age on it to San Jose. We think that the 

 parties who appear by the testimony rendered 

 to be absolutely guilty of dishonesty and 

 fraudulent transactions, should be held up to 

 the peo))le in their true light, and be publicly 

 jjublished for their villainy, that they may 

 be known as dangerous and untrustworthy. 

 There seems to be one ver}' prominent charac- 

 teristic about these men who rob the people 

 •and government : They do not often%ick the 

 face to put themselves forward whenever they 

 think there is a hope of gaining prestige, and 

 making something out of the confidence po- 

 sition can in any way give. For instance, 

 wo notice that one of the most conspicuous 

 amongst the villains who are pointed out by 

 the Committee is one Josiah Earle, the same, 

 we believe, that holds or has an office close to 

 the Grange headquarters in San Francisco, 

 and the same that has issued, for extensive 

 circulation, a Grangers' Emigrants' Guide to 

 California, with the expressed countenance of 

 the Executive Committee of the State Grange 

 of California. And this, too, for the appar- 

 ent purpose of getting the confidence of the 

 thousands who are looking towards California 

 for homes, that they may seek the same 

 through him. Now, we take the privilege of 

 publishing a portion of the Report of the 

 Swamp and Ovei-flowed Lands Committees, 

 as showing their opinion of this fellow, 

 founded upon the testimony given before 

 them by several witnesses, that Grangers and 

 other readers may form their own opinion of 

 Josiah Earle, who would sail, under the 

 Grange flag, as the Emigrants' Guide ? 



Your Committee is satisfied, from evidence, 

 that the grossest frauds have been committed 

 in swamp land matters in this State, but are 

 unable to suggest proper remedies for lack of 

 full information. 



A great amount of interest has attaclu'd to 

 what is known as the •' Inyo Grab," attempted 

 to be perpetrated by one Josiah Earle ; and 

 as this is a ri;presentative outrage of a general 

 class of operations, your committee has felt 



constrained to give the subject matter a thor- 

 ough investigation. Suuimariziug the evi- 

 dence, we find : That the speculator in this 

 case is the Register of the United States Land 

 Ofiiee, at Independence, Inyo County — a po- 

 sition doubtless secured for the purpose of 

 furthering his grand scheme of obtaimng land 

 not sul:>ject to location under the swamj) land 

 laws of the State, iMiless deception and fraud 

 could be invoked to his assistance. This en- 

 terprising gentleman made application for one 

 hundred and thirty-three thousand acres in 

 Inyo County, about twelve thousand acres of 

 which we find, by abundant evidence, are 

 covered by bona fide pre-emption and home- 

 stead settlers, who have lived upon those 

 lauds for j-ears, and many of whom are the 

 oldest residents in the county. 



The lands were surveyed by the General 

 Govei-nmeut some years since, and returned 

 as high, which they unquestionably are, as 

 tltere cap be no crops produced thereon iriWi- 

 oiil e:rh-iisiL-( ami ojiixkinl hfriyution. 'J'his Mr. 

 Earle (the applicant and Register in question) 

 then made a peremptory demand upon Mr. 

 Hardenbergh, the United States Surveyor 

 General, for this State, for the privilege of 

 naming a local Deputy United States Sur- 

 veyor to do this particular work, and of course 

 in the interest of his friend Earle. This, for- 

 tunately for the unsuspecting settlers who 

 knew nothing of it, was refused ; as, had it 

 been done, there would have been but little 

 hope of rediess for the settlers— had Earle 

 been successful in procuring the selection of 

 a tool ready to do his bidding in the segrega- 

 tion as "swamp" of these high, dry lands; 

 and as Earle had himself appointed Register 

 of the United States Laud Othce, probably in 

 order to exercise his ofScial position to fur- 

 ther his personal interest in connection with 

 this black and infamous transaction. 



In furtherance of the same line of policy, 

 one Joseph Seeley, acting as Deputy County 

 Surveyor, received and forwarded the applica- 

 tions of Earle, and, to the mind of your com- 

 mittee, must have been aware of the perjury 

 committed by Earle, stating that the land was 

 "swamp," and that, "to his actual knowl- 

 edge no residents or claimants " were in pos- 

 sesssion of the land. 



With a less honest or vigilant Surveyor 

 General — one who, for instance, would have 

 listened, with willing ear, to Earle's statement 

 that " we can get all the land over there" — 

 this outrageous attembt at fraud and robbery 

 might have been practicable ; but the appUca- 

 tions were refused, and the papers held for 

 some hoped-for authorized examination. 



Necessarily your committee started in un- 

 informed, and not until after tedious investi- 

 gation could we be able to recommend such 

 legislation as would effectually reah and eiu-e 

 the gigantic evils which have grown out of 

 the reckless land policy of the Government, 

 and to provide a correction of the laws which 

 have been so manifestly in the interest of the 

 speculator. 



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LOSS OF MOISTURE FROM THE SOIL. 



How to best utilize what moisture there is 

 stored in the soil by winter rains, is a matter 

 of much importance to farmers in this coun- 

 try, where we cannot depend upon Summer 

 rains, and especially in places where irrigation 

 cannot be resorted to. 



t)ur grain fields should be so left that as 

 little moisture as possible will escape through 

 the surface soil into the air. We are satisfied 

 that two or three inches of loose soil, left 

 light and fine by harrowing, is bettor than to 

 roll the last thing and leave the soil pressed 

 down hard on tho surface. The loose soil 

 will act as a mulching to the moist soil under- 

 noatn, while tho soil that is pressed down 

 will absorb the moisture from below and ex- 

 IJOse it to the air to be licked up and carried 



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