California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



SAN JOSS INSTITUTE AND BUSINESS 

 COLLEGE. 



San Jose may well be proad of its educa- 

 tional privileges, and of no one school more 

 than this Institute and Business College. Mr. 

 Kinley, who has lately become proprietor of 

 this school, is an experienced educator, »nd 

 Tinder his superintendence it will not be likely 

 to lose any part of its well-earned reputation 

 as a first-class institution of learning. AVe 

 have often referred to this school, and feel it 

 is worthy of the attention of all who design 

 giving their children a practical education. It 

 is to such institutions as this that we miist 

 look, in a great measure, for a remedy for the 

 imperfections in our public system of educa- 

 tion. To be educated to advantige, it is not 

 enough that we understand the theory, we 

 must have the ability to apply what we have 

 learned. This is the object of the business 

 college. The course of instruction in our San 

 Jose Institute seems to be complete in the va- 

 rious branches. The school offers many ad- 

 vantages, and although it is graded, students 

 may, at any time, pass into higher grades in 

 any branch, if on examination, they are 

 found qualified to do so. Person's wl- ,e 

 early education has been neglected may lo. 

 ceive special instruction without the annoy- 

 ances of public schools. Throughout the 

 whole course of study two fundamental pur- 

 poses are kept constantly in view: the mental 

 and moral growth of the student, and his 

 qualification for the labors and duties of life. 

 Mr. Kinley hopes to be able to add an agricul- 

 tural department to the school in a short time, 

 aud to make the institution worthy the inter- 

 est and patronage of the public. Mr. Vinson- 

 haler is still principal of the business depart- 

 ment to which ho devotes his entire attention. 

 There is no vacation to his department. This 

 gives the pupils a chance at any time to con- 

 tinue their studies. 



Conifera of the Pacific Coast. 



J. Begg, of Gilroy, has been making a col- 

 lection of the difi'ereut conifera of this coast, 

 for the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. 

 He has already been at the work for several 

 mouths, aud collected over 2,500 specimens. 

 He intends making a structure thirty-five feet 

 high aud twenty-five feet in diameter. The 

 base will be octagon in shape, with arches 

 twelve to fourteen feet high, and decorated 

 with the cones and foliage of the different 

 species of evergreen trees, forming an entirely 

 unique exhibit — difterent from anything ever 

 presented to the world before. The base of 

 the structure will be a repository for the ex- 

 hibition of California. He has correspon- 

 dents collecting in different parts of the coast. 

 The captain of the Alaska Fur Company's 

 vessel cruising in the Northern Ocean and the 

 Aleutian Islands has promised to make a col- 

 lection, and gentlemen interested in the mat- 

 ter in Alaska and British Columbia are also 

 assisting. Mr. B. would be glad if any one 

 having fine specimens of cones, or being in a 

 vicinity where such could be obtained, would 

 send them in to him, care of W. J. TurnbuU, 

 Sansome street, San Francisco, as he is desir- 

 ous of haviug all the varieties foimd on the 

 Pacific Coast included in his collection. Ho 

 intends to exhibit a model of his cone pyra- 

 mid at the coming Mchanics Fair, which will, 

 we predict, be one of the most original and 

 attractive objects in the exhibition. We hope 

 his efi'orts will be generously seconded. — Bul- 

 din. 



We visited the San Jose Institute lately, 

 and in passing through the parlors noticed 

 some very fiue paintings, the work of Mrs. 

 Kinley, wife of the Superintendent. Many of 

 the pictures were original and spoke of talent 

 that would do credit to some of our more 

 pretentious artists. One of these, a sunset 

 scene in Indiana, was especially well execut- 

 ed. Among the copies were two scenes from 

 Cole's Voyage of Life that were very beauti- 

 ful indeed. 



A Chance for Men of Small Means. 



It is generally conceded that to make a suc- 

 cess of orange-growing a man must have cap- 

 ital. Land that is suitable for their culture 

 and that is well supplied with water cannot bo 

 bought for less than one hundred dollars per 

 acre, and often costs more. The trees cost 

 from one to three dollars each, according to 

 size, aud to prepare the ground and plant out 

 is an expensive job. When all this is done, 

 the trees must have constant attention and 

 careful cultivation for eight or ten years, be- 

 fore they will return much of an income. It 

 is therefore plain that a man who desires an 

 orange orchard, especially if he is anxious to 

 get it as soon as possible, must be prepared 

 to lay out a good deal of money, at once, and 

 to continue laying it out for a number of 

 years. This being the case, the poor man 

 may well at once dismiss from his mind the 

 illusion that he can come to Southern Califor- 

 nia, and in a few years possess an* orange 

 orchard of fabulous value, unless there is 

 some way in which he can make his living 

 and make his orchard as he goes along. We 

 believe there is a way for the industrious man 

 of smaU means. 



There are men within five miles of this city 

 at the present time, struggling under a load of 

 debt, and trying to hold on to their orange 

 orchards till they come into bearing, who yet 

 do not seem to know that in the cultivation of 

 small fruits and vegetables is their chance for 

 salvation. They borrow a^oney at high rates 

 of interest, and potter arouml waiting for 

 their trees to produce, and at the jame time 

 buy their vegetables, or do without. 



It seems to us that a man with a few hiind- 

 red dollars, and a little industry, can certainly 

 make money in a small way, but a sure one, 

 by undertaking the culture of small fruits and 

 vegetables. If he is ambitious of possessing 

 an orange orchard, he can grow one in the 

 meantime. With a few acres of land suitable 

 for vegetables, he can, with hardly any ad- 

 ditional expense, raise his own trees, plant 

 them out aud care for them, and w-hen thoy 

 have come to maturity, bringing in a good 

 round income, he will have the satisfaction of 

 knowing tliat they are the reward of his own 

 industry, with no mortgage on them for cap- 

 ital invested that was not his own. 



In this way, men of energy, with a few 

 hundred dollars for a beginning, can make a 

 good living aud secure a home surrounded by 

 all the associations that cling to a home made 

 by one's own hands. — Sani-Tropical Farmer. 



.-•-> 



The statistics furnished by Mr. Dodge to 

 the Bepartment of Agriculture reveal, in start- 

 ling figures, the vast natural wealth of our 

 country. Less than one-fifth of the entire 

 area of the United States is occupied by 

 farms, of which only one-fourth is under till- 

 ago. Notwithstanding our enormous wheat 

 crop, the land which produces it is not equal 

 in extent to the surface of South Carolina. 

 Our national crop, maize, covers a territorj- 

 not larger than Virginia, and the potato crop 

 could grow in less than the area of Delaware. 

 In view of these figures, who can question the 

 boundless resources of America, or look with 

 misgiving upon our steady tide of immigra- 

 tion ? 



Home. 



Best of all things to us is home. In hours 

 of ambition and pleasure we may sometimes 

 forget its exquisite sweetness, but let sickness 

 or sadness come, and we return to it at once. 

 Let the hollow hearts that feign a friendship 

 which they do not feel, stand revealed before 

 us — let us know, as we all must at moments, 

 that however important wo may be in our own 

 estimation, our places would be filled at an 

 hour's notice should we die to-morrow; then 

 we whisper the magic word Home, and are 

 comforted. 



" Home, Sweet Home!" It does not mat- 

 ter how humble it is, nor is it less a home for 

 being a palace. It is where those we love 

 dwell — wherever that may be — where we are 

 valued for ourselves and are held in esteem 

 because of what we are in ourselves aud not 

 because of power, or wealth, or what we can 

 do for other people. 



Who would be without a home? Who 

 would take the world's applause, and honor, 

 in place of the tenderness of a few true hearts 

 aud the cosy fireside meetings where the truth 

 may be spoken without disguise, and envious 

 carpiug are unknown? In life's battle even 

 the hero finds many enemies and 7nuch abuse 

 and slander and detraction; but into a home, 

 if it is what it ought to be, these things never 

 find their way. 'There, to his wife, the plain- 

 est man becomes a wonderful thing — a sage, a 

 man who ought to be President of the United 

 States, and would be were his worth known. 



• m > ' m *— • 



Aeekic.\n Fakmees. — We hazard the 

 assertion that no class of equal average 

 means live so well as American farmers. 

 One of them possessing a farm and build- 

 ings worth ten thousand dollars will 

 gather about him and enjoy more real 

 comfort than could be obtained from the 

 income of one hundred thousand dollars 

 in New York. Ho may live in a more 

 commodious building than a metropolitan 

 citizen having ten tUousaua auiuirs in- 

 come. He may have his carriage and 

 horses. His table may be supplied with 

 everything fresh in its season. His labor 

 is less wearing than the toil of counting- 

 rooms and offices, and he has more leia- 



Don't marry a man if he drinks. 



Kev. Daniel Waldo once said: I am now 

 an old man. I have seen near a centurj-. Do 

 vou want to know how to grow old slowly and 

 happily? Let me tell you. Always eat slow- 

 ly — masticate well. Go to your occuiiation 

 smiling. Keep a good nature and soft temper 

 everywhere. Cultivate a good memory, aud 

 to do this you must be communicative; repeat 

 what you have read; talk about it. Dr. .Tohn- 

 son's great memory was owing to his commu- 

 nicativeness. 



It is said that grasshoppers will not eat 

 peas. A farmer in Minnesota who observed 

 last year that peas were not harmed, planted 

 200 bushels of peas this year and they have 

 not been touched. Peas make an excellent 

 substitute for corn to feed to stock, and the 

 fact that they can be raised in the grasshop- 

 per region is an important one. 



■We are a believer in pedigrees for all of 

 the animal kingdom that has been sub- 

 jected to the uses of mankind, but believe 

 that it is by a selection of the best animals 

 of a kind or family, that the race is im- 

 proved, not by using everything that has 

 the blood of a particular family in it to 

 perpetuate the species. 



■ ii — 



The man who is only honest when honesty 

 is the best policy is not really an honest man. 

 Honesty is not swerving policy but stable 

 principle. An honest man is honest from his 

 inmost soul, nor designs to stoop to anght 

 that is mean, . though great results hang on 

 the petty fraud. 



