California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 





^iie Mfack Jfo unfit IJ 



S. HAERIS HEEEINa & CO., 



Editors aud Publisliers. 



V 



OFFICE: Over the San .lose Savings Bank, 

 B;«U>arlL''s Itniltlin^, Santa Clara Street, 

 near First, San Joge. 



SPECIAL TESMS TO AGEITTS. 



RATES OF ADVERTISING. 



Per one Column ?15 00 Per Month 



*' half Oolnnin 8 00 " 



*' fourth Column 4 00 " ** 



" eishth Column 2 00 " ** 



" sixteenth Column 100 •* *' 



n^ We aro dtitermined to adhere to to our reeolution 

 to admit none but worthy biiyinesB advertising in our 

 columns, and to keep clnar of patent medicine, liquor, 

 and otber advertisements of doubtful influence. 



I'he lart^c circulation, the desiriible cliiss of readers, 

 nndthe neat and convenient form, rend' rw thin Journal 

 a choice medium for reaching the attention of the 

 masses. 



EDITORIAL NOTES, 



PestlfferOUS.— Tho dry season appears to 

 be favorable to tlie life of insect pests. The 

 grasshoppers in some places are bad; worse in 

 Colorado and adjoining Territories than in 

 California. They are literally devastating a 

 large extent of inhabited country, destroying 

 millions of property in growing crops. In 

 our Santa Clara valley the caterpillars are de- 

 stroying the fruit crop in some orchards; 

 others they have not troubled. We saw hun- 

 dreds of aijple trees in Mr. Gould's and Mr. 

 Watkins' orchards with the foliage stripped 

 from them. They are not the tent caterpillar, 

 but when not eating the leaves cluster to- 

 gether on the large limbs and trunks of the 

 trees. When in this position it would not be 

 a difficult matter to- destroy great numbers of 

 them, but we saw no disposition to attempt 

 their destruction, and were told that there is 

 so little profit in fruit culture that it would 

 not pay to spend the time necessary to kill 

 them. Also the live-oak trees are infested 

 with caterpillars — a difl'orent variety from 

 those on the fruit trees. These consume the 

 hard foliage as a fire, leaving the trees as 

 desolate as a deciduous tree iu Winter. The 

 caterpillars on the oak have large heads, 

 nearly smooth bodies, and do not live iu tents 

 or cluster together much. They are about an 

 inch and a half long. The one on apple trees 

 is at least two inches long, and is quite hairy, 

 with apparently pointed ends. There is an- 

 other much smaller caterpillar troubling the 

 pear trees iu some localities. Squash bugs 

 aro plenty, and the grapo vine fly is getting 

 worse every day, so we aro told. Observing 

 persons say that many insects presage a dry 

 season to come, or a series of dry seasons. 



In order to support the "great and grow- 

 ing agricultural and industrial interests of the 

 Pacific coast," another liquor paper has been 

 started in San Francisco. It comes out like a 

 bloody pirate that it is, under a flag not its 

 own. It calls itself "temperance" because it 

 wants to appear respectaV:)le, while its own 

 black flag is hidden. But it mil deceive no 

 one by this pretense — it only shows its own 

 cupidity. It is i^ublished by Carmany & Co. 



The fruit crop will bo much lighter this 

 season than our orchardists at first thought. 

 The young fruit has commenced falling before 

 being half grown — some varieties are nearly a 

 failure. It is thought that the heavy April 

 frosts so weakened the embryo fruit that it 

 could never jicrfectly develop. On the whole 

 it is estimated there will not be over one-half 

 a crop this season. There will jirobably be 

 enough to supply the demand for green fruit 

 at pajang prices, but the drying and canning 

 factories will be likely to run short of material. 

 The grapo crop, so far as we can learn, prom- 

 ises to be abundant. 



Chaos Eclipsed. — We have been lately 

 forced into having some experience in law 

 and the courts, with a lawyer (so called) 

 against us. We have come to the conclusion 

 that any person who expects to find justice in 

 that way is very verdant. That law is made 

 quite as much to elude as to secure justice, 

 and those who administer and judge the law 

 are far from perfect iu conscience and in 

 judgment. The dishonest man, the trickster, 

 and the perjurer, has all the advantage; and 

 that phase of our civilization found in a 

 "court of justice" offers a premium on ras- 

 cality as against honesty, and is a virtual fail- 

 ure so far as right is concerned; and if the 

 such laws were repudiated, law books 

 burned, and lawyers, justices and judges were 

 contraband, and the whole thing resolved 

 down to first piuciples, "an eye for an eye," 

 etc., and double-barreled shot-guns, it would 

 suit us better, for a decent man then would 

 stand at least an equal show of getting his 

 own, and securing justice when due. 



New Game Law Needed.— There is 



need of a revised game law in California to 

 favor farmers, founded upon the principles 

 given below, which we clip from the Mural 

 New Yorker; only we would ipialify by allow- 

 ing a farmer to destroy, during any season, 

 such game as may be destructive to his crops. 

 We have known quail to destroy grain and 

 small fruits when a few doses of shot, which 

 the law forbade, would have saved the crops 

 and much trouble and annoyance. 



The question of the right of property in 

 game that find shelter or may breeil on the 

 premises of a farmer, or may bo found on his 

 farm, and his right to make use of it at will, 

 is an issue that is being and to be made in the 

 Legislature of some of the States. The sportij.- 

 racn insist that the game is the property of 

 the State, and the time and manner of killing 

 it should be regulated by the States. Farmers 

 — some of them at least — claim that they have 

 the right to any game that may Vie found on 

 their premises to use as they may choose and 

 when they choose. Tho claim is to bo urged 

 before legislative bodies that it may bo recog- 

 nized. It seems to us equitable that the far- 

 mer should have tho right to kill any kind of 



game found on his premises at any time, for 

 his own and family's consumption as food; 

 other than that we would restrict his privilege 

 to destroy it in any manner at certain seasons 

 of the year — at those seasons usually named 

 in the game laws. Added, we would make it 

 a criminal act for a sportsman to invade and 

 shoot or fish upon any person's premises 

 without the latter's consent. This is the 

 only mode by which a man can be protected 

 from the lawless depredations of a large class 

 of professional sportsmen, who are as impu- 

 dent and insulting as they generally are irre- 

 sponsible. 



Irrigation vs. Cultivation. — We fre- 

 quently see something like the following ex- 

 tract going the rounds of the press, without 

 qualification, calculated to deceive those who 

 have not by practical experience in this dry 

 climate learned better. We know that unless 

 the land spoken of is supplied with water 

 from some other source than what rain falls 

 upon it, it would be impossible to grow such 

 crops. Probably the farm spoken of is on 

 low, alluvial soil, the subsoil of which is kept 

 filled with moisture by the seepage of water 

 from some stream situated above or near it 

 (there is much such land iu this State) ; or, 

 it may be in a natural basin which nearly fills 

 during overflow and holds the water in suf- 

 ficient quantities to supply vegetation by ca- 

 pillary attraction from below during the dry 

 Summers, (we have seen such land in New 

 Mexico). We know that no system of farm- 

 ing will bring such crops every year on soil 

 that depends solely on the rain which falls 

 upon it during the rainy reason. Here is the 

 article referred to: 



The Los Angeles Prexs has found a man by 

 the name of Burke who will nor irrigate his 

 farm, though he has a chance to do so. It 

 says; "He is one of the most prosperous 

 farmers in the county, and for five or six 

 years he has declined to irrigate his lands at 

 all. He has ample facilities for that purpose, 

 but by deep plowing, and the ordinary atten- 

 tion which an Eastern man bestows upon his 

 crops, ho does not need to use them. His 

 whole hundred and fifty acres will average him 

 every year from seventy to seventy-five bush- 

 els to the acre. He has, besides, one of the 

 best orchards in the county, of apples, pears, 

 peaches, etc., and none of these trees ever see 

 a drop of water except the natural rainfall. 

 To-day, within reach of irrigation, Mr. Burke 

 has absolutely a prejudice against it." 



San Jose Daily Advertiser.— This the 



name of a new paper lately started in our 

 city. It is a small sheet, neatly printed, 

 and deserving of success. We are disgusted 

 with our "old dailies," and hail the AihxrtUier 

 as a harbinger of better things to come. 



Concrete Buildings. 



Editors Agkicui.turist : — Can you give 

 any information in regard to concrete build- 

 ings — materiiU to use, mode of building, etc. ? 

 About eighteen years ago I saw an account in 

 the liuml 2few Yorker of a man's making 

 walls in his fields of concrete. Why would 

 it not do here where there is no freezing to 

 injure it? Some of your readers may have 

 had experience with it for fencing and can 

 answer as to its utility. W. A. T. 



[Will some of our readers who have the 

 requisite knowledge or experience please an- 

 swer this query? — Eds.] 



