California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



The average condition of the grain crop is 

 very pertinently expressed by a subscriber at 

 Sunol Glen. What is true in his locality will 

 very generally apply all over the State. He 

 says: " In regard to the grain crop here this 

 most peculiar year, it is spotted. Early-sown 

 grain is good; medium early, about half a 

 crop; while late-sown is almost an entire 

 failure. The Jvne rain-storm did some dam- 

 age to hay, and crinkled the standing grain. 

 Take it all in all, it has been quite an event- 

 ful season. The weather all through has sur- 

 prised the oldest inhabitant." This is even 

 so. The winter opened early with warm 

 rains that made grass and grain grow promis- 

 ingly; later came a season of unparalelled se- 

 vere frosts, with dry winds, that were dis- 

 couraging; then a very promising supply of 

 rains, followed by a dry spring and absence of 

 May showers. Finally, in June, springs up 

 a regular south witid rain-siorm of two days' 

 duration — something never before known by 

 the oldest inhabitant of California in sum- 

 mer. Showers would not surprise anybody, 

 but such a storm is a puzzler to the weather- 

 wise. What will follow next we are curious 

 to see. One prophet, who believes that civi- 

 lization affects the weather, attributes the 

 changes to the rush of Eastern peoi^le to Cal- 

 ifornia — "they are bringing their weather 

 with them" — smuggling it overland without 

 paying freight, we suppose. The matter 

 should bo investigated. 



Another Cure for Hoove or Bloat 

 Cattle. 



Mr. John B. Warren, of Petaluma, says 

 the Stockton Leader, has given information 

 which will be of much importance to stock- 

 raisers. He states that bloat in cattle, caused 

 by eating green clover or from similar causes, 

 may be cured in the following manner : Take 

 hold of the animal by the horns and raise its 

 head as high as possible, then open its mouth, 

 take hold of its tongue with one or both 

 hands and pull it out as far as it will come. 

 As soon as this is done the gas will begin to 

 escape through the valves that will thus be 

 opened at the root of the tongue, and if the 

 mouth is kei^t open and the tongue jjulled 

 forward for a few minutes, the cure will be 

 complete. 



Mr. Warren has seen this course pursued 

 in several cases with cattle, also with horses 

 Kurt'ering from wind colic, and in every case 

 it proved a complete remedy. When the gas 

 begins to escape it will ooze through the 

 opening like the air from a punctured bladder. 

 This remedy is easily applied, is safer and 

 less painful to the animal than the ojjenitions 

 that are sometimes resorted to. 



The advantages of San Diego are chiefly for 

 stock raising and bee culture, so large a part 

 of its area is mountainous. In bee culture, 

 few countries in the world, if any, rival San 

 Diego county. Along the base of the moun- 

 tains in their narrow, winding valleys,you see 

 many bee ranches, some with a hundred or 

 more stands of bees. The honey is made en- 

 tirely from wild flowers, and mostly from the 

 mountain sage. That made in the early 

 spring is as bemitifuUy white and clear, and 

 as richly flavored as any honey can be. 1 was 

 reliably informed that in 1874 the county 

 shipped about 100 tons of honey, and would 

 probably ship at least 600 tons this year. It 

 is becoming the chief agricultural interest of 

 the county, although besides mixed stock, 

 some wheat and barley are also successfully 

 raised. — W. A. J. Wrhjid. 



How much does a fool generally weigh? A 

 simple ton. 



The Croat Question of Our Times. 



tHE following, written by a lady — a far 

 mer's wife, unused to the pen — as a 

 composition to be read before the San 

 Jose Grange, contains much mature 

 thought upon an abstruse subject that reflects 

 great credit upon the mind of woman.] 



The increased restlessness of the working 

 classes throughout the civilized world indi ■ 

 Gates that in the not distant future some steps 

 will be taken to bridge over the vast chasm 

 which separates the interests and conditions 

 of the producing from the non-producing, 

 wealthy classes. The power of wealth to ap- 

 propriate to itself a large share of the earn- 

 ings of the industrious poor, and that this 

 power increases in mathematical proportion 

 to its volume, are admitted facts. 



It behooves the friends of humanity to in- 

 quire whether the great mass of non-capital- 

 ists, by a law of nature like gravitation, must 

 always remain the hewers of wood and draw- 

 ers of water for the few capitalists. God for- 

 bid that I should believe it. Rather would I 

 compare it to a fungus growth on the body of 

 civilization that is corrupting but cannot al- 

 ways exist. 



If, then, we are to conclude, as I think we 

 must, that the present oppressed condition of 

 non-capitalists is not God's fault, but ours, 

 it follows that reform is possible; but to ac- 

 complish this reform is a herculean task. It 

 will meet with the hostility of the favored 

 class, who control two of the essential sinews 

 of war — money and generalship. It will be 

 clogged by the ignorance and impracticability 

 of the lower strata, and hindered by the 

 Bourbonism of the middling and well-to-do, 

 who are ever ready to take up and reiterate 

 the cry of "communism" to every measure 

 that looks toward social reform. 



The recognized theoretic duty of govern- 

 ments, to 



STRENGTHEN THE WEAK AND BESTRAIN THE 

 STRONG, 



is being reversed in practice; and, instead, 

 every department of the government is made 

 to do duty in the interest of capital, at the 

 expense of the commonwealth, and in viola- 

 tion of the rights and interests of non-capital- 

 ists. The government shirks its equal share 

 of the public burden, corrupts public officials 

 and demoralizes society by setting up money, 

 instead of moral worth, as a standard of re- 

 spectability. But, to enumerate half of the 

 sins of the vast accumulations of capital would 

 be too tedious. I will only say that under 

 our government and laws such a condition of 

 affairs is incompatible with the general good 

 which should be paramount in all govern- 

 ments. 



The question above all others which do- 

 mauds our most serious and careful consider- 

 ation is, how we may jilaee wealth (which we 

 must recollect is made by its possessors only 

 a little less than omnipotent,) under the con- 

 trol of law so that it will be a 



SERVITOR OF THE PUBLIC GOOD, 



instead of reaping whore it hath not sown. 

 Many good thinkers -have reluctantly come 



to the conclusion that human nature is too 

 weak, and human integrity too frail to resist 

 the temptations which large capitalists are 

 able to offer, and they propose to get rid of 

 the serpent by destroying the egg. To that 

 end they would diminish the facilities for ac- 

 quiring great fortunes which would cause a 

 more general diffusion of wealth, and more 

 nearly equalize the material comforts and con- 

 ditions of the people. 



The means by which this object may be ac- 

 complished are various, but the one which 

 deserves the first consideration is, to so clog 

 with disabilities their ownership of the earth 

 (without the use of which human existence 

 would be impossible) as to make it an unpro- 

 fitable speculative investment for capital. 



GRADUATED TAXATION 



upon all quantities of real estate above a 

 reasonable limit, off'ers the means of intro- 

 ducing this reform with little or no violence 

 to private rights; but details will not be ex- 

 pected in this paper. Thus it will be seen that 

 the capital now used in the monopoly and 

 speculation in real estate would seek invest- 

 ment in interest-paying bonds, thus reducing 

 the rate of interest and the facilities of ac- 

 quiring great fortunes, stimulating manufac- 

 tories and contributing in various ways to the 

 public good. 



But, as before intimated, any proposition to 

 switch oft' the old narrow track will meet the 

 opposition of money-bags, Bourbon and ig- 

 norance, and as reforms are of slow growth, 

 we must, in the meantime, use such tools as 

 are within our reach, so that we maj', in a 

 measure, at least, bridge over the gulf that 

 divides productive labor and capital. And in 

 the selection of tools we must not overlook 



CO-OPERATION. 



The judicious combination of small capi- 

 tals, under wise and careful management, 

 would accomplish many enterprises of which, 

 otherwise, capitalists would have a monopoly. 

 For this purpose our Grange organization is 

 admirably adapted. We have a bond of sym- 

 pathy — a common interest. We form social 

 attachments, make acquaintance, and encour- 

 age the growth of confidence, which is indis- 

 pensible in all co-operative enterprises. We 

 can, and will co-operate in the selection of 

 rulers of the state and nation who will under- 

 stand that there are rights and interests other 

 than those of cajiital which they are bound to 

 respect, and we will inform ourselves of these 

 rights by the free iuterchange of opinions m 

 the Grange. In short, the Grange has al- 

 ready borne much good fruit, and is full of 

 promise for an increasing crop in the future, 

 and I should regard as treason to humanity 

 any attempt to check its growth and perpe- 

 tuity. 



San Jose, June, 1875. 



Concrete Walls — Two Methods of 

 Building. 



Eds. CALiroBSiA AGBicuLTtmisT and Live 

 Stock Journal: In your last issue a corres- 

 pondent calls for information about concrete 

 walls. In the State of Delaware, fine build- 

 ings are made with mortar-brick, which is 

 another name for concrete. They take one 

 bushel of stone lime, and after Blacking, add 

 ten bushels of coarse, clean sand, with some 

 gravel, then mold it like brick in sizes to suit. 

 If a twelve-inch wall is to be made, 12x18 

 inches and 8 inches thick is a convenient size. 

 Spread the brick upon a graded yard covered 

 with sand to dry. When dry, they lay the 

 brick in common lime mortar, and plaster it 

 both inside and out, then stripe and pencil 

 to suit their taste. This makes the finest 

 kind of concrete walls, and, if well done, a 

 substantial and durable building. 



In Colorado, they have another method. 



