California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



ABOUT THE SEASON. 



Tho failure of our usual Spring raius lias 

 brought a veritable drouth ujion the country, 

 notwithstuniling the early promise of an 

 abundant harvest. Early sown gi-ain that had 

 the advantage of a good root growth while the 

 Winter rains prevailed, are the only fields 

 that have succeeded on dry lands and under 

 ordinary treatment. Only a few fields of late 

 sowed gi-ain have done well, and only such 

 fields as received extra tillage, or were put in 

 on laud that had been previously in pasture 

 or summer-fallow, did well sown late. 



Old Californians think another series of 

 di'y seasons has commenced. Every sign 

 points that way, and it is about the time iu a 

 decade of years for such an occurrence. It is 

 ■well, at any rate, for every farmer to make 

 calculations for such an event. 



To such as are fortunate to have farms upon 

 low lands but little need be said. They will 

 profit by the failure of those whose farms are 

 high and dry, by getting better jirices, etc. 

 But, to farmers who are cultivating di-y 

 ranches, we offer a few suggestions. Do not 

 calculate upon putting the whole farm in 

 grain, but only such portions as you may 

 have reason to believe will stand the best 

 show of producing some croii should the sea- 

 son be dry. That poi-tion which you propose 

 to leave for volunteer and pasture, it would 

 be well to harrow over thoroughly, and cross- 

 harrow again, as soon as convenient to do so. 

 A mulching upon the surface, such as the dry 

 earth would make by harrowing, would tend 

 to prevent the further evaporation of moisture 

 from the soil, and the moisture from a gi'eat 

 depth below the surface would diffuse itself 

 equally under the harrowed surface, so that 

 wheu the first rains would sprout tho seed it 

 would have a better chance to take root and 

 grow. Even such laud as you intend to plow 

 and seed next Fall, it would be a good plan to 

 harrow in this way, for reasons above given. 

 Of course, where the stubble is now of much 

 value for pasture, it would not be economy to 

 destroy it. But there is much land on almost 

 every farm that will not be pastured to any 

 paying extent. We strongly advise every up- 

 land farmer to make plans to summer-fallow 

 a portion of his land next season, 



HAKVEST CliOSBLY. 



As to harvesting gr.ain this season, we 

 would advise skimming as closely as possible, 

 where it is light. Make seed and feed for 

 yourselves if you can. We know of some 

 farms in our Santa Clara Valley that will 

 have hard work to yield that much this sea- 

 son. Save, also, all the hay and straw pos- 

 sible. Don't lose a straw if you c n help it. 



NOW A WOUD AEOnT STOCK. 



Make plana to fatten and sell or put into 

 the barrel this fall every second-class beef 

 animal you can spare from the farm. Leave 

 none but the best cows and other most valu- 

 able animals to keep — none but what yoii 

 know your farm can safely carry over a hard 

 year or two. You may think that taking a 

 scare before you are hurt i.s a poor principle ; 

 but even if it is a good season next year, such a 

 thinning out will not be bad, for you can 

 then purchase some better animals to take 

 their places, which will always pay iu tho 



long run anyway. A2/ropos to this subject, 

 we quote from the San Malm Gazette some in- 

 teresting facts and suggestions : 



The meteorological records of the State 

 prove that California has experienced seasons 

 of drouth which have bc^n terrible in their 

 results. They have occurred at long intervals 

 of time, before as well as since the American 

 occupation. They entailed no loss of hu- 

 man life, so far as we are aware ; but vast 

 herds of horses and cattle were lost. In some 

 years the grass crop entirely failed, and 

 thousands of cattle were killed for their hides 

 and tallow, the carcasses being left on the 

 plains for the vultures aad coyotes. 



Don Andreas Pico, an eminent native Cali- 

 forniau living near Los Angeles, during vari- 

 ous years of drouth prior to 1851, di-ove thou- 

 sands of wild horses over cliifs a hundred 

 feet high into the sea. In those years the 

 crops totally failed for the want of rain, and 

 the California raucheros were compelled to 

 destroy their horses in order to save as much 

 pasture as possible for their vast herds of cat- 

 tle. But even this expedient often failed to 

 save their stock of sheep and cattle. They 

 perished by thousands for want of the life- 

 giving water. Much suffering ensued among 

 the people. This country was then sparsely 

 settled. When its rising population approx- 

 imates to the millions, as it surely will at no 

 distant day, we can readily see that the occur- 

 rence of one of the long drouths peculiar to 

 California would be attended with disastrous 

 results. It has sometimes happened 

 that for one, and even two, years no rain has 

 fallen in California. Suppose that such a 

 thing should happen next year or in 1877 ; 

 our wheat exportation would cease and agri- 

 culture receive a blow from which it would 

 take a long time to recover. All our great iu- 

 terests would suffer a temporary paralysis, 

 and millions would be lost our young com- 

 monwealth. 



IKEIGATtON NEEDED. 



"Necessity is the mother of invention," 

 and this contingency of a drouth, which has 

 so often happened here, ought to stimulate 

 our inventive genius and induce us to devise 

 some method of general and permanent irriga- 

 tion — something that will make us independ- 

 ent of the capricious elements, and secure for 

 us aud for coming generations an unfailing 

 supply of pure water. The Legislature ought 

 to invite from our citizens plans and specifi- 

 cations for a general system of irrigation; 

 with the understanding that a prize of money 

 shall be paid by the State to the person whose 

 plan is ajiproved and adopted. This would 

 bring men of inventive talent into the field, 

 and would secure for the successful proprietor 

 a fame more indestructible than silver and 

 gold. 



Irrigation is a subject that is now claiming 

 a good deal of attention iu some portions of 

 the State, but much more is required to be 

 said on the subject. There are many places 

 so situated that a cojiious Summer irrigation 

 would be impossible, without an immense ex- 

 pense, where 



WINTER IKKIGATION 



would pay, and could in all ordinary seasons 

 be practiced. We know of many farms in 

 our ViUley that might have been soaked with 

 water last Winter, and would have had good 

 crops, where now but little either of hay or 

 grain will be cut. In riding through these- 

 districts wo notice that along the side of roads 

 and in little tags where tho water settled in 

 and soaked the soil, that the grain stands 

 high and looks first-rate,, while the rest of tho 

 fields are dried Tip, without heads, and not 

 over six inches high. This shows conclusive- 

 ly that a little more water, or at least a plenty 

 of water during the rainy season, would havo | 



insured the crops. It is very poor soil that 

 will not make a good crop if it is once tho- 

 roughly soaked with water. We feel more 

 than confident that if the farmers of our State 

 fully appreciated the advantages that must 

 follow Winter irrigation, they would not rest 

 until every little stream that runs across our 

 valleys was led upon the lands until they were 

 filled with water and good crops insured. 



The fertilizing materials that would be de- 

 posited upon farms in this way from the wash 

 and drainage of mountain lands would keep 

 farms thus watered perpetually fertile, and 

 alone well pay the trouble and expense of such 

 a system. Can any farmer dispute this point? 



THIN SOTTING. 



Our attention was called by a practical far- 

 mer to one little fact which is worth the con- 

 sideration of all grain raisers. We saw spots 

 in a dried-up field where the grain run up 

 and looked as though it would make good 

 heads, that could only be accounted for by 

 being seeded thinner than the rest. There 

 were not so many stalks to sap the moisture, 

 in other words, were less to divide the mois- 

 ture between, and consequently each one had 

 more to itself than where the grain was thickly 

 sown. This thing the same gentleman has 

 noticed for several years, and asserts that 

 thin sowing for dry seasons is the thing. It 

 takes less than one half the seed usually 

 sown, not so much expense on a risk, and 

 even if the season should be a wet one -nill 

 stool out if sown early so as to produce about 

 as much as if sown as thick as usual. When 

 dry, thin sown does not stool out much, but 

 makes full heads when thick sown grain 

 would dry out completely. 



One thing more, which we have often re- 

 peated already: remember that Ihm-ough sur- 

 face cultivation is needed to withstand the 

 effect of drouth iu our dry climate. 



Deadly insects. 



The buffalo gnat is credited with occasion- 

 ing a wide-spread mortality among the horses 

 aud mules of east Tennessee. Many farmers 

 h.ave lost all their stock at a season of the 

 year when they can least afl'ord to do without 

 them. The bite of this insect seems as deadly 

 .as that of the African tsetse, the pest of ail 

 travelers in Africa. Man and wild animals 

 appear to be invulnerable to the tsetse, but 

 camels, dogs, oxen and horses cannot long 

 survive its attacks. In one expedition Dr. 

 Livingstone lost forty-three oxen from this 

 cause. Ho was inclined to believe that the 

 ass was bite-proof, but the experience of his 

 last journey convinced him that he was iu 

 error. The donkey, though not so suscepti- 

 ble as some of the other animals above men- 

 tioned, still succumbs to the little brown fiy 

 with yellow stripes. Its proboscis jjierces tho 

 skin of its victims, and draws thence a plen- 

 tiful supply of blood. No special harm at 

 first seems to have been done, but in a few 

 days the eyes and nose of a bitten animal be- 

 gin to run; a swelliug makes its ajipearance 

 undirthe jaw; the muscles gi-ow weak, and 

 finally the iligcstivo organs are disordered and 

 death soon follows. When dissected, the 

 cellular tissue under the skin is found to be 

 injected with air, as if soap-bubblos were scat- 

 tered over it. We have not received full de- 

 tails of tho operation of the Tennessee insect, 

 but whatever it is, its ravages are (juite like 

 those of the tsetse. — Cincinnati Gazette. 



He that composes himself is wiser than he 

 that composes books. 



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