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California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OJJK 

 IMMIGRANTS? 



The questiou " Wlint Hhall we do -n-ith 

 our immigrauts?" is forciug itself iipon us as 

 the thousands are coming overland this sea- 

 son. A dry year and short crops will not 

 make the matter any easier of solution. If 

 this country was open to settlement — in other 

 words, if our lands now held as grants and 

 that have been gobbled up in large tracts by 

 speculating land pirates, were open to preemp- 

 tion—there would be a chance for poor people 

 to help themselves. But as it now is they are 

 virtually "fenced out," and left to starve on 

 the highways and byways of our State. The 

 country is broad and beautiful, the climate is 

 genial, the soil prolific, and only needs the 

 hand of industry to make it yield abundantly 

 for aU. There is plenty of room for many 

 thousands of homes. But the selfish greed of 

 dishonest men, under a system that allows 

 robbery to run riot, and that protects villainy 

 against individu.il right in our free country, 

 has brought about such a condition of afl'airs 

 as gives no encouragement to individual en- 

 terprise unless backed up by money enough 

 to buy out somebody that holds titles to the 

 lands. Then again, the State is flooded by 

 Chinese menials who can live upon very little, 

 and who labor for less wages and board them- 

 selves than any other mortals upon the earth. 

 There is little demand for intelligent men and 

 women at remunerative wages, to woi-k for 

 those who employ labor. The immigrant is 

 doubly barred out. The broad lands are not 

 accessible Nvithout a toll that a poor man can 

 nof pay, and his labor cannot be readily sold 

 at a remunerative price in competition with 

 the Chinese. Capital has no soul, and only 

 seeks to aggregate to itself, at the expense of 

 human effort, evorythiug possible. There 

 seems to be but one principle in business, i.e., 

 to make as much money at once as possible. 

 Human wellfare is not taken into considera- 

 tion. Money is not the servant — does not 

 conserve the interests of man, but is the 

 grand h.ard master that rules and ruins with 

 inexorable pressure. So terrible is this mo- 

 nopoly that but few persons are willing to de- 

 vote money to advancing human welfare, even 

 when the probabilities are that it will be re- 

 turned. Our civilization is predicated upon 

 money; mankind worships it, is a slave to it, 

 and suiters martyrdom for it, to be crushed 

 by it. And for the reason that we are so 

 cursed, our civilization is very nearly a 

 failure. While anything we can say wiU not 

 remedy the matter, we cauuot help deprecat- 

 ing the condition, and feeling solicitous for 

 the many new comers who desire to make 

 homes amongst us. The class of people who 

 come here to live are just such as we need to 

 settle up the State, advance the industrial in- 

 terests, build up schools and further the gen- 

 oral prosperity of the whole people. It is a 

 narrow despicable principle that would throw 

 stumbling blocks in the way of encouraging 

 the settlement of this State by making; it dif- 

 ficult to get homes and to obtain labor. And 

 it is the evident d\ity of every one who has a 

 feeling of humanity and patriotism in his 

 bosom to do all he can to remove all impedi- 

 ments and to give all the aid and comfort pos- 

 sible to eviry family that enti.TS the State to 

 make tlieir homes amongst us. 



WHAT ARE GRANGERS GOING TO 

 DO AEOUT IT ? 



Probably more than one half the immi- 

 grants that have been induced to come to Cal- 

 ifornia this year have been induced to do so 

 through the lepresehtations made by the Im- 

 migrant Aid Committee of the State Grange. 

 If there is destitution, want of work, no 

 chance to get homes, and suffering amongst 

 those who are willing and anxious to work 

 and cannot, the Grange will be largely respon- 

 sible for it. The placing of such a man as 

 Josiah Earl at the head of aiTairs to take ad- 

 vantage of the necessities of immigrants who, 

 having confidence in the Grange, allow them- 

 selves to be directed by him, is a mistake that 

 should be at once remedied. 



No member of the State Grange has taken 

 any notice of the investigation of the Com- 

 mittee on swamp and overflowed lands, a por- 

 tion which we published last month. Why 

 not? If they recognize Mr. Earl as their 

 agent, are they not to be held responsible? 

 AVe demand of the State Grange to know why 

 they jdace such men at the head of so im- 

 portant and responsible a position. 



We are not at enmity with the Grange. 

 We can never consent to see the influence 

 of the Grange subverted to the uses of the 

 most villainous laud pirates in this piratical 

 State to prey upon immigi-ants without put- 

 ting in a protest. 



The Ageicttltukist is in everj' sense a 

 friend to the poor and deserving, and in no 

 sense a supporter of intrigue in any respect. 

 The leaders in the Grange have steered very 

 shy of us. They have never communicated 

 with us, or rather through the AGHicuLTtiEisT 

 to the people, as they have done through sev- 

 eral other journals. Honest men are not in 

 the habit of discarding honest means, and 

 we challenge the State Grange Execuiive 

 Committee to give one honest reason for 

 treating the Agkicultueist as unfriendly to 

 Grange principles or as being unworthy of 

 the confidence of honest men. 



Every Grapger in this State has a right to 

 know what material the immigrant aid com- 

 mittee, or agency, is composed of, and what 

 it is doing. And it is clearly the duty of 

 every Granger to lend all the aid possible to 

 immigrants, to assist them in obtaining 

 homes, employment and honest treatment. 

 Let your humanity become materialized in 

 good works. 



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RECLAIMING ALKALINE SOILS. 



Experiments and practice in Utah, Colora- 

 do, Nevada and California have proven that 

 the way to reclaim alkaline soils is to first ob- 

 tain a good drainage, then flood -with water 

 and leach the salts from the soil. On light 

 soils that water will readily penetrate and 

 drain ofi' through the subsoil, no difficulty has 

 been encountered iu producing fine crops 

 where irrigation is applied, from the very first 

 season of cultivation. The alkali, when 

 washed out of the surface soil, is prevented 

 from rising again by irrigation. But let the 

 surface get dry, and as the moisture raises 

 from below the alkali held in solution rises 

 with it of course, and as the water evajiorates 



is left upon the surface. 



It is found best to underdrain where the 

 soil is fine and heavy, then irrigate copiously 

 the first year and drain the alkali out as much 

 as possible. As the alkaU deposited in lower 

 depths cunnot arise unless brought up by 

 moisture, the policy is to keep the moisture 

 from raising either by irrigation or such fine 

 surface cultivation as to prevent the loss of 

 moisture through the surface into the air. 



The correct principle once understood, the 

 reclaimation of alkaline soil proves to be very 

 simple. There is no richer soil on the coast 

 when it is once reclaimed and well managed, 

 and it is inexhaustible. Indeed the very al- 

 kali is only an overplus of rich earthy salts 

 which would be a fortune to some farms in 

 the East, where there is more acid than alkali 

 in the soil. It seems to us that if some per- 

 sons we know of, who own alkaline soils, 

 only knew how valuable they would l>e if once 

 reclaimed, and how easily they might be ren- 

 dered fertile, they would not let them lie idle 

 in poor pasture year after year, as they do. It 

 would be a good investment for some enter- 

 prising man to buy such places and develop 

 them into splendid farms. 



SUMMER-FALLOW-REASONS WHY 



The want of rain sets many persons think- 

 ing about summer-fallowing and how to so 

 cultivate the soil as to best economize the 

 moisture it contains for plant grow'th. Ex- 

 perience has abundantly proved that crops of 

 grain can be produced on land that has laid 

 fallow a year when adjoining lands that raised 

 a crojj wiU fail from drouth. In seasons of 

 abundant rains it is, jjerhai^s, economy to 

 crop all the ground, or would be if one was 

 oure the following season would also be wet 

 enoiigh. But in this uncertain climate it 

 certainly is policy for every farmer who lives 

 upon such soil as depends upon the rains for 

 moisture, to every year fallow a portion of 

 his farm. He will not be much injured by so 

 doing in good seasons, and will be greatly 

 benefitted in dry ones, as aU must admit. We 

 notice that on all lands that laid fallow last 

 year there is promise of fair crops this sea- 

 son. We notice that the prevailing opinion 

 or notion as to why summer-fallowing land 

 helps the next crop, seems to be the idea that 

 restbuj the soil is what helps it and makes it 

 produce. Men whose knowledge of chemi&try 

 is very limited will insist that it recuperates 

 the soil to lie so long idle; that gasses in the 

 air penetrate the soil and supply material for 

 new growth, etc. A little of such philosophy 

 is enough. The real reason is simple and 

 satisfactoiy without such conjectures. Soil 

 which lies fallow retains its moistiu-e through 

 the season, if it is left in proper shape, and, 

 of course, another season's rain added to it 

 fills the soil with moisture sufficient to with- 

 stand drouth and make a crop without late 

 rains in the Sjiriug. So far as the rest to the 

 soil is concerned, it needs no rest, and may 

 be cropped perpetually if sujipliedwith water 

 and manure. 



On farms that are not very badly affected 

 by drouth, it is found better to rotate crops 

 than it is to summer-fallow. For instance, 

 where grain was grown last year, lot it volun- 

 teer for hay this, cut early and jiasturo the 

 balance of this season and next year, then 



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