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California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



some time to come. The contents of the s" 

 they hear about with them serves as food for 

 the first six weelss of the salmon's life. The 

 poor little fish has no mother to nui'se it, so 

 nature has provided it with a commissariat of 

 its own. This vesicle or sac contains an al- 

 buminous secretion similar to white of egg, 

 and a small globule of oil, the whole of which 

 is gradually absorbed into the system. After 

 six weeks of this self-sustaining process have 

 elapsed, the outer skin of the bag appears to 

 diminish in size, as the body of the fish in- 

 creases. — C'hamher's Journal. 



The subject of pisciculture continues to at- 

 tract public attention, numerous reports hav- 

 ing been made by the state bodies since onr 

 last in reference to the subject. Among these 

 we may mention the report of the Canadian 

 government for 1874, and those of New 

 Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, and 

 Connecticut. Operations looking toward the 

 multiplication of the fishes of the United 

 Btates have already, been commenced, the 

 United States Commissioner having been en- 

 gaged for a month past in the rivers of North 

 Carolina, Virginia Maryland and the District 

 of Columbia in hatching shad and in turning 

 the fry into the waters, as also in shijipiug a 

 portion to localities destitute of them. The 

 States of Maryland, Delaware and New York 

 are also engaged at the present time in a sim- 

 ilar undertaking. 



Mr. Livingston Stone expects to resume his 

 labors in procuring the eggs of California 

 salmon on the Upper Sacramento for trans- 

 mission to Eastern waters, and proposes a 

 scale of operations looking towards the ac- 

 quisition of ten millions of these eggs. It is 

 probable that some of these eggs will be ship- 

 ped to Chili for the purpose of determining 

 whether the salmon can be successfully reared 

 in the streams of that country, many of 

 which, heading in tha Andes, discharge their 

 waters into the ocean, apparently possessing 

 all the necessary conditions to constitute ad- 

 mir.ible places of abode for salmon. The 

 United States Commission has already offered 

 to deliver a suflicient number of eggs, pro- 

 perly packed in San Francisco, provided that 

 their further transmission and subsequent 

 hatching out are performed at the exjiense of 

 the government of Chili. The ofi'er will pro- 

 bably be accepted. 



Mr. Stone has also paid a visit to the Co- 

 lumbia river for the purpose of studying the 

 salmon fisheries of that stream, and to select 

 a hatching station, should any provision be 

 subsequently made for multiplying these fish 

 artificially, to meet any anticipated decrease 

 in consequence of the extensive scale of cap- 

 ture adopted on the Columbia to supply the 

 various canning establishments. 



An international exhibition of objects con- 

 nected with the fisheries and pisciculture was 

 held in Paris in July of the present year. 

 Reference has already been made to the ex- 

 pectation of a similar exhibition of American 

 fisheries at the I'hiladelphia Centennial, for 

 which the general government and several of 

 the States are making spc-cial provision. 



Measures have been taken by the United 

 States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries 

 for introducing the carp into the United 

 States, by sending Mr. Rudolph Hessel, an 

 experienced cultivator of this fish, to Hungary 

 for the purpose of securing the best varieties. 

 Opinions diti'er very much as to the excellence 

 of the carp as an article of food, although it 

 is claimed by its advocates that it is only in 

 Eastern Europe, and in localities not often 

 visited by Americans, that the best races are 

 to be found. In any event, however, the fish 

 is a desirable addition to our resources, as it 

 ranks with poultry in point of domestication, 

 and can be cultivated with very little trouble 

 in almost any kind of water, thriving best in 

 those which are warm, and thus eminently 

 adapted to the Southern United States, where 

 trout can bo reared. As living largely on veg- 

 etable food, too, it becomes unnecessary to 

 feed it with moat, or, indeed, to make any 



special provision for its nurture. 



The American grayling still continues to be 

 a subject of attention among pisciculturists, 

 Mr. Fred Mather having recently made a sec- 

 ond visit to the An Sable river, in Michigan, 

 and obtained a large number of spawn and of 

 young fish. The eggs are now being hatched 

 out at Northville, Michigan, and at Mr. Ma- 

 ther's establishment at Honeoye Falls, New 

 York. The fish itself is not of any special 

 economical imi^ortance; but as being one of 

 great beauty, and readily taking the fly, it 

 can be appropriately introduced into waters 

 that are cold enough to receive it, and thus 

 add, at least, to the resources of the angler. 

 — Jho'pir's Mwjazuie for Aityust. 



Transporting Live Fish. — TheLondon 

 Field of a late date contains diagrams of 

 an aijparatus iu use V)y the German Fish- 

 eries Association for transporting fish on 

 long journeys, which consists of a long 

 cask mounted on wheels, the motion of 

 which works an ajrating bellows, so that 

 manual labor is dispensed with. There 

 are iron or wooden tappets attached to the 

 Bjiokes by an open fork, and secured by a 

 cotter, and when the wheels revolve the 

 tappets strike upon and set iu motion a 

 swinging lever, and connecting wire at- 

 tached to the lever works the bellows. 

 Should it be desired to work the asrating 

 bellows at a quicker rate, without in- 

 creasing the speed of the vehicle, this 

 can be done by adding to the number of 

 tappets. The bellows can be worked by 

 hand in case the ajiparatus remains sta- 

 tionary for any length of time, and the 

 barrel can be easily removed from the 

 frame at any time. It ia a useful contriv- 

 ance. 



Irrigation for Lawns. 



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|j[i|HE Boston Journal of Chemistry, in an ar- 

 ticle on " Making and Protecting 

 Lawns," speaking of the dry and hot 

 weather in New England the present 

 season, says: " Grass plats, newly laid out, at 

 much expense, in May, are now nearly ruined, 

 and lawns look brown and sombre," and de- 

 clares "that in such a climate no one can give 

 advice that will serve to guide in the perfect 

 preservation of lawns." Now, Cnhfornia is 

 a drier climate on an average than New Eng- 

 land, and right here in San Jose we can show 

 the finest lawns in the world. The way they 

 are kept fresh and green is by daily shower- 

 ing with water through sprinklers attached to 

 hose under strong pressure. Water is first 

 raised into high tanks by wind-mills, or is 

 taken from the city water jiipes. Many of 

 the sprinklers are very ornamental and resem- 

 ble fountains, but are movable, and will throw 

 the water in any direction desired. Another 

 way is to lay troughs under ground, a few 

 inches deep, at a tlistanco of several feet 

 apart, and keep filled with water under a 

 pressure, which will saturate the soil from 

 below the turf. 



By irrigation lawns can bo kcjit fresh in 

 spito of drouth, and in no other way can it bo 

 done. The timo will come w'heu the agricul- 

 turists cast of the Rocky Mountains will re- 

 sort to irrigation as a general system. Then 

 they will have less failures, and will vastly 

 increase the capacity of their soils, and thiis 

 add largely to the stajilo productions ot tho 

 country. 



The Love and Culture op Flowers. 

 Nothing is so pleasant and encoViraging 

 as success, and no success qiiite so satis- 

 fying as success in the culture of flowers. 

 It is a pleasure with no compensating 

 pain — one which purities while it pleases. 

 We gaze on tlie beautiful plants and bril- 

 liant flowers with a delicious commingling 

 'of admiration and love. They are the 

 offspring of our forethought, taste and 

 care — a new, mysterious and glorious 

 creation. They grew — truly; but very 

 like the stars and the rainbow. A few 

 short weeks ago the brown, earthy beds 

 were bare and lifeless; now they are peo- 

 pled with the fairest and frailest of earth's 

 Children. We have created all this grace; 

 moulded the earth, the sunshine and the 

 ruin into forms of matchless beauty, and 

 crystalized the dew drops into gems of 

 loveliness. There is no greater pleasure 

 than this in all the earth, .save that sweet- 

 est and noblest of pleasures, the fruit of 

 good deeds. 



There may be hard-hearted, selfish peo- 

 ple who love flowers, we suppose, for 

 there were bad angels in heaven, and very 

 unreliable people in the first and best of 

 all gardens; but it has never been our ill 

 fortune to meet with one such — and if by 

 accident we should discover a monstrosity 

 of this kind, we would be more frighten- 

 ed than we were a long time ago at what 

 we thought a ghost sitting on a cemetery 

 gate. 



To love flowers, however, becatise of 

 their sweetness and beauty and compan- 

 ionship, and as the wonderful work of a 

 Father's loving hand, is what we mean 

 when we speak of the love of flowers. 

 Many cultivate flowers from a desire to 

 excel their neighbors, or as an evidence 

 of their refinement and culture, who 

 know nothing of the absorbing love that 

 causes a man almost involuntarity to raise 

 the hat and bow the head in presence of 

 so much heaven-lent loveliness. This 

 love of flowers ia confined to no age or 

 station; we see it in the prince and peas- 

 ant; it is shown by the aged father, tot- 

 tering near the grave, who seems almost 

 to adore the fragrant flower in his buttoa- 

 hole, and by the little ones, who, with 

 childish glee, search the meadows for tho 

 dandelions of early spring. The love of 

 flowers, we fancy, is most pure and ab- 

 sorbing with the young. The innocent 

 and jjure can love the pure flowers, we 

 think, with an ear-nestness and devotion 

 unknown to some of us that are older. — 

 Vick's Floral Guide. 



Kemove the Flowers. — The Garden 

 says: All lovers of flowers miist remember 

 that one blossom allowed to mature, or 

 "go to seed," injures the plant more than 

 a dozen buds. Cut your flowers, then, 

 all of them, before they begin to fade. 

 Adorn your room with them, put them on 

 your t ible, send bouquets to your friends 

 who have no flowers, or exchange favors 

 with those who have. On bushes, not a 

 seed should lie allowed to mature. 



Recent scientific investigations appear to 

 establish the fact that guano is not, as has 

 been hitherto believed, the deposits of myri- 

 ads of sea birds, aceumulaling through ages; 

 but is the result of an accumulation of fossil 

 plants and animals, whose organic matter has 

 been transformed into a nitrogeneous sub- 

 stance. This view is substantiated by the fact 

 that tho anchors of ships iu tho mighborliood 

 of the guano islands often bring up guano 

 from tho bottom of tho ocean. 



It is better to be flush iu tho pocket than in 

 the face. 



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