California Agriculturist and Live Stock Jourkal. 



I have bought and improved two homes in 

 California, but I cannot call them my own to- 

 night. Thousands have shared the same fate, 

 and the work of destruction goes "bravely 

 on." Our sheriff told me the other day that 

 he had just served seventy settlers on the 

 Milpitas grant iu an ejectment suit which is 

 another swindle. 



As I am not used to writing for papers, ex- 

 cuse "style, "etc. With many regards, 



i'oura, J. C. Gaillabd. 



July 11th, 1875. 



Cultivation of Medicinal Plants In 

 California. 



A gentleman who has paid a good deal of 

 attention to the subject of medicinal plants 

 and the study of medicine as well as of agri- 

 cultue, and thinks it possible to produce such 

 roots, barks, herbs, etc., in California, and 

 who thinks that many of our immigrants 

 might find profitable employment by starting 

 into the business for themselves here, sends 

 us the following hints upon the subject. He 

 begiug by advising the cultivation of the olive 

 tree, flax seed and castor beans for oil. Our 

 readers are already pretty well informed upon 

 the foregoing, and for several years quantities 

 have been produced in California with suc- 

 cess. The cinchona tree, which produces the 

 Peruvian bark is next treated on. He says: 

 As to the feasibility of raising in Cfalifornia 

 the cinchona tree, which produces the Peru- 

 vian bark, from which quinine is manufac- 

 tured, there can be no question. Our climate 

 is the exact counterpart of that iu which it 

 grows in South America. Being under the 

 equator, notwithstanding the elevation of sev- 

 eral thousand feet above the level of the sea, 

 the climate is exactly like our's — a perpetual 

 spring. The English have tried the experi- 

 ment of its transplantation on the lower 

 benches of the Himalaya mountains in India 

 with success, and the Dutch have introduced 

 it into Sumatra with similar results. For 

 many years past the collection of the bark has 

 been entrusted to Indians, who climb the 

 trees, denude them of bark, and leave them 

 as the white, unsightly ghosts of the departed 

 forests. So extensively has this destructive 

 process been going on, that it has been ap- 

 prehended that the world's supply of bark 

 would in no very remote future be entirely 

 cut off. Hence the wise forethought of the 

 enlightened nations above mentioned. Shall 

 our's be behind hand? The exhaustion of 

 the Cinchona forests would perhaps be the 

 greatest calamity that could befall mankind. 

 A celebrated physician, being asked what sin- 

 gle medicine he would save in case all medi- 

 cines should be destroyed except one, an- 

 swered, "quinine." And in regard to its 

 anti-pyretic powers, he was right. It has 

 been found to exert a more direct and 

 lasting effect upon fever, the universal mani- 

 festation of disease, than any other article in 

 the materia medka. Its priceless worth in the 

 malarial regions of our richest and most ex- 

 tensive valleys and river bottoms is famlUar to 

 every physician from Maine to California. 

 That it has been the main cause of the lessen- 

 ing of the death rate throughout the civilized 

 world of late years, there can be but little 

 doubt. 

 Of the profitableness of its culture on the 



part of individuals, or of the State, there can 

 be no question. With the bark at 25 cents a 

 pound, wholesale, and quinine from $3 to $5 

 per ounce, an acre of these trees would con- 

 stitute no inconsiderable bonanza. Besides, 

 the many thousands of dollars sent out of the 

 country for its purchase would be saved to the 

 State, and its cultivation and preparation for 

 market, and tho groat number of articles 

 manufactured from it, would give profitable 

 employment to large numbers of people. 



" Several years since, a proposition was 

 made before the American Medical Associa- 

 tion to introduce the culture, as an experi- 

 ment, of the Cinchona tree in the different 

 States of the Union. The reason therefor 

 was the scarcity and high cost of that invalu- 

 able drug, quinine." 



The subject has also attracted the serious 

 attention of the State Medical Society of Cal- 

 ifornia, which recommends the cultivation, on 

 the part of the State, not only the Cinchona 

 tree, but also of all other medical plants; in 

 other words, the establishment of four bot- 

 anic gardens, similar to those in Europe, iu 

 four appropriate points in the State where 

 suitable temperature^ elevation and soil can 

 be obtained. These, the Society very properly 

 advise, might be located near some of the nu- 

 merous medical springs to afford cheap resorts 

 to our invalid poor. The subject is still un- 

 der discussion, and we hope the Legislature 

 may render efficient aid to an undertaking of 

 not only State but National importance. 



The Agricultural Department of the State 

 University at Berkeley, if it is not too busily 

 engaged in getting up party "slates" and cul- 

 tivating poUtical "rings, " might do much to 

 forward this and other useful enterprises by 

 raising the cuttings and plants and distributing 

 them free to all who would cultivate them, 

 and by disseminating useful information in 

 regard to the cultivation of this and other val- 

 uable members of the vegetable kingdom. 



The Dej^artmeut of Agriculture at Wash- 

 ington, if not too busy in President-making, 

 might also lend a helping hand in the good 

 cause. But it seems almost too much to ex- 

 pect anything of governmental departments 

 and oflice holders. The public good is ignored 

 and self-aggrandizement seems to be the order 

 of the day. 



The cultivation of Rhubarb might be en- 

 gaged in with other articles, we should think. 

 There can be no doubt about its growth here, 

 as any one can convince himself in a moment 

 by visiting our markets and examining the 

 tine, large, long specimens in the shape of 

 "pie rhubarb" there exposed for sale. 



The Aloes could be ciiltivated on our dryest 

 soils. 



All the aromatic herbs are already cultivated 

 on a small scale by our market gardeners. 

 There can be no doubt, therefore, about their 

 growing here. 



We understand that Mr. Boots, one of our 

 most enterprising farmers, is raising several 

 acres of Peppermint. The sale of oil alone 

 at from $6 to f 6 50, wholesale, would amount 

 to many thousands of dollars. 



Safron has been raised here by Mr. Frank 

 Lewis, of San Jose, in perfection, and would 

 prove a valuable article of production. 



All the various herbs, such as Catnip.Bone- 

 set. Lobelia, Geranium, Dandelion, Golden- 

 seal, Hoarhound, Mandrake, Rosemary, Sweet 

 Margoram, Pennyroyal, Rue, Tansy, Winter- 

 green, Wormseed, Yellow Dock, and many 

 others, might be raised here with profit for 

 the very plain and simple reason that our dry 

 climate facilitates not only the drying and 

 preservation of plants and roots, but also the 

 concentration of all their medicinal qualities 

 in the dried herbs and roots. It would be 

 but a little while, in our opinion, before Cali- 

 fornia dried herbs and roots, like her dried 



fruits, would command the market of the 

 world. 



The oil of Bergamot, used so extensively 

 in perfumery would not yield a bad revenue 

 at $8, wholesale, per pound. 



If we have not enterprise enough among 

 ourselves to establish this great branch of 

 productive industry, we might invite the 

 Shakers, who have several societies in differ- 

 ent States in the East, to establish a similar 

 institution here. They would find the climate 

 of California far superior to all others at the 

 East in properly and speedily curing all kinds 

 of herbs and roots. 



In connection with this subject, we might 

 incidentally call the attention of our orange 

 orchardists to the manufacture of citric acid 

 and lime juice. Both these articles are in 

 good demand and command remunerative 

 prices. 



[Right here we will add that the cultiva- 

 tion of garden and field seeds might bo made 

 a profitable business in our State for many 

 persona. We have often wondered that more 

 attention has not been paid to such culture. 

 Of course, irrigation would be necessary for 

 many things. As to herbs, our dry, hot clim- 

 ate would give much strength of oil and flavor 

 to them. The ideas of our correspondent are 

 worthy of consideration.] 



They Have Come to Stay. 



Eds. Agbiculturist : What all good Califor- 

 nians have been praying for the last ten or 

 fifteen years — the great tidal wave of immi- 

 gration — has come at last. It is pouring in 

 upon us through the Dutch Flat Pass like a 

 veritable human wind-fall. It is spreading 

 through our mines and timbered mountains, 

 traversing our rich valleys and extended 

 plains, and crowding our towns and cities. 

 Some come with money to purchase homes; 

 others with muscles to earn them. The for- 

 mer can take care of themselves, but the lat- 

 ter need, and must have, assistance, but all 

 they ask is work. 



The wail of business men, capitalists and 

 large land-owners for a number of years past 

 has been for population. "We want settlers 

 to develop our resources, workers to trans- 

 form our raw materiid into merchantable 

 values, and consumers to establish at our 

 doors the best of all markets^a home mar- 

 ket." This has been the burden of the song 

 sung from the huskings, preached from the 

 pulpit, and printed and scattered broad-cast 

 throughout the civilized world by all the 

 newspaper presses of California. And, as if 

 this was not enough to attract immigration, 

 various towns and cities, through their boards 

 of trade, have published thousands of books 

 in pamphlet form, embellished with engrav- 

 ings of their choicest improvements, and full 

 of "school privileges," "rich soil," "healthy 

 climate," "fine business opportunities, " and 

 everything that promised to be attractions. 

 We do not say that there has been any mis- 

 representation or exaggeration in these state- 

 ments. Some of them may have come short 

 of the reality; but they have served the pur- 

 pose intended. They have drawn people 

 here from the frozen regions of the north, the 

 rocky shores of the East, and the miasmatic 

 graveyards of the sunny South. The influ- 

 ences have been extended even beyond the 

 sea, and brought bluff John Bull from "the 

 sea-girt isle," the merry Frenchman from the 

 vine-clad hills of France, the Switzer from his 

 Alpine home, the German from Father-land, 



