California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal 



^nxt^mnltmt* 



An Alarming Habit and Custom. 



^^Ds. AcEicuLTUBisT : A Loiidoii correspon- 

 j'*^ dent of the Sau Francisco Chronicle al- 

 J^ ludes to the curioiis custom of women 

 yef frequenting bar-rooms with the same 

 freedom as men. Respectable-looking wemen, 

 with their prayer-books, stojj on their way 

 from church, call for whatever drink they 

 like, and enjoy it with a cracker. In hiring 

 a servant, too, the custom prevails to 

 agree to furnish a certain amount of beer 

 daily, or to pay them a stipulated siim as 

 beer money. 



A mass-meeting was held on Ash Wednes- 

 day in one of the theatres to discuss the pro- 

 priety of opening museums and other places 

 of amusement on Sunday in order to win 

 peojjle from the drinking saloon or public 

 house. One speaker argued that it was im- 

 possible to induce the people to give up any 

 enjoyment without offering another in its 

 stead. 



Can it be possible that the opening of places 

 of popular I'esort for amusement will lessen 

 the sale of stimulating drinks? The one calls 

 for the other; and in a country where both 

 sexes patronize the bar, surely they would not 

 pass them by without their jjatronage in go- 

 ing or coming from the museum or other 

 place of amusement. 



We Americans should be charitably inclined 

 towards those whose taste for fermented or 

 spirituous liquors comes to them from both 

 father and mother for generations. Our duty 

 here in cosmopolitan California should be to 

 helji the dear children of such parents to over- 

 come their inheritance, which is often a 

 source of grief to the parents, but which they 

 find it impossible to cure in themselves. 

 Santa Cnnz, May, 1875. Nell Van. 



[We also ascertain on good authority that 

 ladies in San Francisco are learning to smoke 

 tobacco as a fine accomplishment, and say 

 that it is " the thing" in the di(e of society! 

 What next? Ladies drinking and smoking 

 like men! Well, if it is good for men it ought 

 to be good for women and children. Who is 

 setting the example? — Eds.] 



in the Summer mouths as to be nearly unfit 

 for cultivation, and we further remember that 

 in those times the very dryest soil, when pul- 

 verized in midsummer, soon became moist 

 enough to sprout most kinds of seed. Now 

 soil well prepared by flooding will dry out 

 before the little plants are large enough to 

 permit irrigation. This, of course, is not so 

 on those low portions of the valley where all 

 the upper waters must collect and press to 

 the surface, while those higher parts, even 

 with artesian wells, have certainly undergone 

 a most decided change in their productiveness. 

 Have the cereals escaped the effects of that 

 change? and what can be the cause? I do not 

 know; but I must be allowed to surmise, since 

 I am willing to give my reasons. They are 

 this: that no amount of rain would be siif- 

 ficient for vigorous plant-life without mois- 

 ture through capillary attraction from those 

 streams and veins coming and running under- 

 ground from the highest mountains towards 

 the sea, where they have no outlet, and must 

 stand and press upwards, or find vent by form- 

 ing springs, by which means they perform 

 their natural duty and become of universal 

 benefit. But where they must exhaust them- 

 selves through so many openings as our ar- 

 tesian wells give them, their pressure must 

 cease, and capillary action becomes impossi- 

 ble, and dryness and barrenness, to a greater 

 or less extent, must be the result. 



Now, if my theory is accepted, then arte- 

 sian wells must be considered as a great gen- 

 eral evil, and we must be allowed to request 

 the Califoenia Agkicultukist to suggest a 

 remedy. 



San Jose, May, 1875. 



K. 



%\nm. 



^ 



ARTESIAN WELLS. 

 Do T>:ey Druiii Our Uiglier l.aikd.«i7 



Eds. Agkiculuueist and Live Stock Jour- 

 nal: That artesian wells are of great local 

 benefit cannot be doubted; but whether they 

 are not injurious to at least those parts of 

 laud in the vicinity which cannot be irrigated 

 by them, is, and must be, a question of suf- 

 ficient importance to be worthy the serious 

 consideration of the agiiculturist. 



To assist in this inquiry, it will be neces- 

 sary to compare the luxture and productions 

 of those parts of Santa Clara valley called 

 high and dry lands before artesian wells came 

 into existence with what they are now. It is 

 well remembered by many of us when those 

 lands produced all kinds of vegetables, par- 

 ticularly potatoes and onions of the largest 

 size; beans, corn and melons planted in June 

 or July produced excellent crops. Some say 

 that the change came through exhaustion of 

 the soil, but the farmer knows that new and 

 rich spots are equally unproductive of any- 

 thing but grain. We also remember when the 

 and along the Alameda was so swampy even 



The Hen and the Honey-Bee. 



BX JOHN G. BATE. 



I LAZY Hen— the story goes— 

 iy LoquaciouB, pert and self-conceited, 

 V Espied a Bee upon a rose, 

 ^Sf And thus the busy insect greeted : 

 ^&' 

 " Hay, what's the use of such as you, 



(Excuse the freedom of a neighbor I) 

 Who gad about and never do 

 A single act of useful labor? 



"I've marked you well fur many a day. 

 In garden blooms and meadow-clover — 



Now here, now there, in wanton play — 

 From morn to night an idle rover. 



" While I discreetly bitle at home, 

 A faithful wife, the best of mothers, 



About the fields you idly roam, 

 Without the least regard for others. 



" While I lay egtrs and hatch them out. 

 You seek the flowers most sweet and fragrant. 



And sipping honey, stroll about. 

 At best a good-for-nothing vagrant !" 



" Nay," said the Bee, '* yon do me wrong ; 



I'm useful, too ; perhaps you doubt it. 

 Because— though toiling all day long — 



I scorn to make a fuss about it. 



" While you, with every egg that cheer:. 



Ytiur daily task, must stop and hammer 

 The news in other people's ears. 



Till they uro deafened with the clamor. 



" Come now with me and see my hive. 

 And note how folks may work in quiet ; 



To useful arts much more alive 

 Thau you with all your cackling riot." 



l'envoi. 

 The Poet, one may plainly sec 



Who reads tliis fable at his Icislxre, 

 Is represented by the Bee, 



Wlui joins utility to pleasure ; 

 Willie 111 this self-conceited Hen 



Wr note the Poet's silly neighbor. 

 Who thinks the noisy '* working-meu " 



Are doing all Ihe useful labor. 



practical business men, not only in our own 

 country but in foreign countries, who devote 

 themse'lves entirely to the work, and are mak- 

 ing it not only a practical but a scientific oc- 

 cupation. And not only men but women are 

 taking much interest in these scientific and 

 practical researches. There are many women 

 who, \rithin the last few years, have not only 

 added to their store of pin-money, but have 

 gained much useful knowledge, beside enjoy- 

 ing a pleasant out-door exercise, by raising 

 and tending bees. But in order to become a 

 successful apiarian it is of the greatest impor- 

 tance to be a lover of bees, for no business 

 pays that a person has not interest enough in 

 and a love for, to attend to it properly. No 

 doubt many fail in their attempts to raise 

 bees from the fact that they are not properly 

 located ; for bees, in order to do well and 

 store large supplies of honey, must have a- 

 good supplv of honey-producing trees and 

 plants within short range. I used to be a 

 little skeptical when I read Mr. Hosmer s ac- 

 counts of his enormous yields of honey, but 

 when I \'isited his apiary last season I no 

 longer had a doubt as to the correctness of 

 his reports, for he really has a very desirable 

 location for his apiary. It is often said that 

 the reason that women do not succeed better 

 in what they undertake, is because they lack 

 energy and perseverance. Perhaps it may be 

 so in some instances, but there are women 

 endowed with noble gifts and possessing the 

 requisite amount of business tact to succeed 

 in any legitimate business when once they 

 have taken hold of it. And bee-keeping 

 seems especially adapted to women, because 

 it requires patience and constant attention 

 rather than strength ; then again, bees are 

 great lovers of cleanliness .and punty, and 

 there seems to be a hidden quality in some 

 men which renders them disagreeable to bees, 

 and tobacco users and whisky drinkers are 

 said to be very offensive to them, and they are 

 very apt to punish them if they come near. 

 The superioritv of the Italian over the 

 common bee of this country is now pretty 

 generally admitted by all who have tried 

 them. This is especially said to be true of 

 California, where it is said that they yield 

 three or four times more honey than the com- 

 mon bee. . 



There are women gardeners and florists, 

 who have risen to prosperity by commendable 

 industry and good business qualities, so we 

 hope to see mauv more giving their attention 

 to bee-keeping. Many with Umited means 

 can get a few stands of bees and in 

 years m.ike quite a profit with a very 

 outlav. besides always having a supply of pure 

 white honey for the table. We should say to 

 every woman who enjoys out-door exercise, 

 go to bee-keeping.— Aa(e in Bee-Keeper s Mmj- 



few 

 small 



Bee-Keeping for Women. 



The rearing of the lioney-beo, the making 

 of honey luid IxH'Swax, is now becoming one 

 of the established occupations of many 



Bees in the United States.— There are 



two million beo-hives in the United States. 



Every hive yields, on an average, a little over 



twenty-two pounds of honey. The average 



price at which honey is sold is twenty-five 



cents a pound ; so that, after paying their 



own board the bees present us with a revenue 



of $8,800,000. To reckon in another way, 



they make a clear gift of over a pound of 



pure honcY to every man, woman and child 



in the vast domain of the United States. 



Over twenty-threo and one-third million 



pounds of wax are made and given to us by 



these industrious workers. The keeping of 



bees is one of the most profitable investments 



that our people can m:vke of their money. 



The profits arising on the s;ile of surplus 



honey average fr(un fifty to two hundred per 



cent, on the capital invested. 



A little more than six months ago John 

 Killop, of Butte county, says the OroviUo 

 Mercurt/ bought one thousand head of shee] . 

 A few days ago he sold, as the Spring clip, of 

 wool $1,"'280 worth. He has a few more than 

 one thousand lambs, that will give him a 

 fleece from e.ich this Fiill. His one thousand 

 sheep have nearly p:iid for themselves already. 



