California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



Contra Costa county, beautifully shaded with 

 trees in the heart of this lovely valley. 



The crops here are fine, and almost con- 

 tinue so until Martinez is reached. Leaving 

 Martinez, quietly nestled down on the Sacra- 

 mento river and almost surrounded by hills, 

 passing Benicia and her arsenal, your cor- 

 respondent arrived at Vallejo. Still onward, 

 from Vallejo and her navy yard to Napa City. 

 The crops in this section are what we might 

 term average. The new Insane Asylum is in 

 process of completion, and judging from the 

 immensity of the building, or rather series of 

 buildings, the uninitiated would imagine that 

 all the wrecks of intemperance in the entire 

 State could be conveniently accommodated 

 ■within its walls. 



Towards Sonoma the soil is far more fertile 

 than iu the vicinity of Napa. With its sur- 

 roundings, the town of Sonoma itself presents 

 an alarming contrast. In the heart of a rich, 

 prosperous, well populated country, it seems 

 given to decay and death. It presents very 

 little evidence of prosperity, but it is hoped 

 that ere long its lost prestige will return, and 

 that it will take its place among the prosper- 

 ous towns of the coast. 



Petaluma is one of the liveliest towns 

 through which your correspondent passed. It 

 is evidently on the high road to prosperity. 



The late frost caused serious damage in 

 nearly all the places I have visited. Mission 

 San Jose, Hayward and a few other places 

 might, indeed, be excepted. The farmers, 

 however, express themselves satisfied with the 

 general yield. 



Returning thanks for the many courtesies 

 extended to me during my trip by friends of 

 the Agkicultukist, I beg to subscribe myself. 

 Very respectfully, G. G. H. 

 — < « » 



A CONSEEVATIVE ORGAN. 



If the Rural Press of San Francisco is 

 not a conservative organ, then we admit 

 that our senses are so prejudiced against 

 it that we cannot see straight. Wei'e it 

 really run in the interests of those who 

 seek to monopolize all the benefits that 

 can accrue from imjjosiug upon the cre- 

 dulity of honest Grangers who rely upon 

 representations of this same class, we 

 can conceive of no more subtle policy for 

 its conduct than its present stoical con- 

 servatism. 



The Granger movement was started on 

 radical jirinciples, loud and earnest for 

 reform. Its design was to correct the 

 many evils that wore, and still are, bearing 

 ■heavily upon industry, and which make 

 the producer a subject to be fleeced by 

 greedy caintal and its manipulators, and 

 by smaller sijeculators upon the necessi- 

 ties of the people. The movement called 

 out nearly every patriotic farmer, and 

 many who felt the heavy load of oppres- 

 sive tribute they were paying went iu 

 with a no less hearty determination be- 

 cause impelled by a selfish motive. 



It is perfectly natural that such a move- 

 ment, which embraced the sons of the 

 soil, and which called for active measures 

 and ofl'ored remuneration to organizers 



and others, should have barnacled upon 

 it scores of designing, shrewd men who 

 were anxious to profit by the tidal wave, 

 and had the cheek to put themselves at 

 the very wheel, as cajjlains if necessary, 

 to make themselves popular and " repre- 

 sentative," and give them at once honor 

 and coin. 



The principles and true spirit of the 

 Grange, or farmers' movement, to-day, 

 are radical. How so conservative an or- 

 gan as the Rural Press is can suit the 

 Grangers all over the State is to us a little 

 wonderful. But a paper run strictly on 

 policii, as that paper is, of course is sup- 

 loosed to be shrewd enough to manage all 

 that. 



We are aware that there are many things 

 connected with this Grange movement 

 that need sifting rather fine, and we would 

 like to see the Grangers' volunteer organ 

 take up such matters as need over hauling 

 and thus prove to the honest and confid- 

 ing farmer that it is really, as well as 

 pi'etendingly the farmer's friend. We are 

 really anxious that all the good should 

 come out of this movement that is possi- 

 ble. And to be snecessful, in the broad 

 meaning of that term, the Grange must 

 not be afraid to deal open-handed with 

 those who are using it for personal ends. 



We don't believe iu covering up nor 

 letting alone corruption of any sort that 

 needs ventilating in the farmer's interest. 

 But then we are not an organ. The 

 Grangers' Bank and Grangers Business 

 Association and Grangers' Emigrant's 

 Bureau do not advertise with us. The 

 big men of the Grange do not patronize 

 the Califoknia Agricultiirist in any 

 way. We do not hob-nob with them nor 

 hang upon their colored skirts, nor ask 

 any favors of them, and of course we do 

 not feel as much under obligations to 

 these leaders as otir contemporary nnd 

 organ, the Rural Press. If we did, which 

 would be impossible, we might possibly 

 appreciate a conservative sentiment and 

 hold our horses with a curb-bit. 

 ■ < o P • 



Jute Culture. 



Mr. Le Franc, of New Orleans, raised 

 last yeai twenty bales of jute. He con- 

 cludes a report to the Department of Ag- 

 riculture as follows: 



For new observations, I can re-assert 

 that ordinary juto growth gives an aver- 

 age of at least one ton per acre of fiber, 

 and that the whole cost of i)roduction will 

 not exceed .'S'25. In good, moist laud juto 

 grows ten feet in average, and has one- 

 third of its body in fiber. The mower 

 and reaper applied on wheat cut jute jier- 

 fectly well. 



«-♦-* '■ 



Experiments were made in France last year 

 to tost how far the humidity of the atmos- 

 phere is alTocted by forests. One set of in- 

 strnmonts for recording humidity were placed 

 in the forest, ami the other in the open air, a 

 short distance off. The records show that 

 more rain fell each month in the forest than 

 in the open air, and the total rain-fall for six 

 months was 7;-^ inches in the forest, and in 

 ,he open field less than 7 inches. 



ffiont^poudcuce* 



Letter from Monterey County. 



■^^ ■ 



CJ-rrns. AoKiotTLTUBisT: Your valuable paper 



j|rj, comes regularly, but I have failed in 

 JhiK my duty to you until now. I believe 

 jjiy^ the best apology that I can make is to 

 send you two dollars, as I have kept you out 

 of your hard earnings up this time — but I am 

 very sure that my negligence has haunted me 

 enough on account of reading so valuable a 

 journal without paying for it iu advance. I 

 esteem the Aohicultubist as being of more 

 practical value to the farmer than any jiaper 

 I ever read. So far as I am capable of judg- 

 ing, it is sound on all points — with the ex- 

 ception of "moles." I am a farmer of many 

 years' practical experience, and I know the 

 "mole" to be very destructive to gardens. 



Perhaps some of your patrons would like to 

 know 



HOW TO GET Em OF FEKNS, OR BKAKES. 



I can tell you how I freed a part of my farm 

 of them, and they were so thick that I could 

 not produce a crop to any advantage. I just 

 cut them off at the ground every two weeks 

 all summer until the last of September. This 

 I did in 1864, and I have not been troubled 

 with ferns since. 



TOADS. 



I think toads are of great worth in a gar- 

 gen or on a farm. But you must keep your 

 bees up out of their reach, for they eat them 

 greedily. This they do at early night. When 

 the evening is so cool that the bees are not 

 watching about their doors, the toad will butt 

 the hive, and as the bees run out to see what 

 is the matter it catches them. This I have 

 seen them do, and it is "true as gospel." 



The late heavy frost did great damage to 

 fruit in this county, but my apple trees are 

 very full and promise to make a heavy yield. 



EFFECT OF USING BAD WATEB. 



I owe you more than money for'your able 

 journal. I think it saved me and my four 

 daughters from an attack of typhoid fever. 

 Last fall we were all complaining of headache 

 and felt dull, and had been so for perhaps ten 

 days, and were getting worse. We were not 

 given to headache prior to that time. About 

 that time I noticed a warning in the Cali- 

 fornia Agricultdkist and Live Stock Jopk- 

 NiL against using impure water which put 

 me to thinking, and to investigating. And 

 I found the curbing in my well badly decayed, 

 and the water impregnated with the substance 

 and I abandoned the use of it immediately. 

 J cleaned out a nice boiling spring near by, 

 the water of which we are still using. It was 

 some time before we got clear of that head- 

 ache. And I believe that had it not been for 

 the Agricoltdkist we all would have been 

 taken down, and perhaps you would not have 

 been troubled with this letter. 



I have been fighting .against 



A notorious land swindle 

 in this county for the last six years. But the 

 grantees procured a patent at a fearful cost — 

 not in money, but through perjury, fraud, 

 and offers of bribery. There is an army of 

 well drilled land juTJuria-s in this State who 

 follow land grabbing for a trade, and they 

 will swear to whatever is necessary to carry 

 out their schemes. I have been in this part 

 of the State for upwards of nineteen years. I 

 have taken great paius iu settling upcm pub- 

 lic lands— lands that the grantees themselves 

 affirmed to be public, and oulside of tlicir (jranls. 



