California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



Grasshoppers Will Eat Peas. 



Greeley, Colorado, August 18th, 1875. 



Eds. Califohnia Aokicultukist and Live 

 Stock Joubnal : I notice a paragraph in your 

 Journal for August that graashoppors will 

 not eat peas, and suggesting to your readers 

 "that the fact that peas can be raised in a 

 grasshopper region, is an important one." 

 My experience is different from that of the 

 Minnesota farmer refered to in your paper. 

 Early this spring I had forty-five acres of 

 wheat and fifteen acres of other crops eaten 

 and entirely destroyed by the young hoppers, 

 among which were an acre and a half of peas. 

 To be sure the peas were left for the last. 

 Finely a friend informed me, that while he 

 was travelling in Utah several years ago, 

 during one of those grasshopper plagues, that 

 he saw nothing left but that was eaten, save 

 broom corn. Encour.iged by this informa- 

 tion, I at once sent to St. Louis and procured 

 broom corn seed for twelve acres of ground 

 which I planted ; but last week the grass- 

 hoppers came and lit and showed a particular 

 fondness for my broom corn, in fact they eat 

 it in preference to my white mexican field corn 

 which was along side and appeared to like it 

 as well as my buckwheat ; they also lit and 

 eat liberally of my remaining field peas which 

 were not yet ripe. AVe have also seen them 

 strip the cotton wood and other trees of their 

 foliage, I am therefore of the opinion that 

 there is nothing iu the lino of vegetation but 

 . what the locust will eat. Respectfully Yours, 



M. J. HOOAKII. 



UNIVERSITY NOTES. 



The New Course of Instruction in the 

 College of Agriculture. 



From the bulletin of the University of Cal- 

 ifornia we give publicity to the following : 



The Junior Year, First Term — Descriptive 

 Botany, with exorcises in the analysis and 

 determination of plants. Excursions will be 

 made occasionally during the session, as the 

 seasons may render them profitable. Economic 

 Botany — Uescrijjtion of jilunts useful and in- 

 jurious to agriculture, and their varieties. 



Second Term — Agricultural operations and 

 implements, and their application in the cul- 

 tivation of the several crops. Illustrative ex- 

 ercises in the agricultural grounds whenever 

 opportunity is att'orded. 



Senior Y'oar, First Term — Agricultural 

 chemistry. Nutrition of plants from atmos- 

 pheric sources. Inorganic ingredients of 

 plants, their importance and derivation. Ash 

 analysis. Physics of plants. Mechanism of 

 nutrition and movement of juices. Germin- 

 ation and development of plants and ac- 

 companying chemical changes. Second 

 term — Chemistry and physics of soil ; their 

 origin, formation, classification. Physical 

 properties; Iheir determination and inlluence. 

 Mechanical analysis. Chemical composition ; 

 relation to vegetabJe nutrition. Chemical 

 analysis; its methods, utility and interpreta- 

 tion. Exhaustion of soils by irrational cul- 

 ture. Rotation of crops, green-manuring, 

 fallowing, sub-soiling, through di'ainage, ir- 

 rigation. Manures, their kinds, pi'eparatiou, 

 use and value. The rational system of cul- 

 ture. 



Other subjects, and matters of detail, prop- 

 erly belonging to a course of jigriculture, and 

 special cultures, such as stock-raising, apicul- 

 ture, floriculture, arboriculture, fruit-raising, 

 etc., will, as far as practicable, be taught by 

 special lecturers invited for the purpose. Oc- 

 casional lectures on chemistry and physics of 

 housekeeping will be delivered by Professor 

 Hilgard. 



In addition to the main library of the Uni- 

 versity, which contains some 12,000 volumes, 

 and which is open during fixed hours to tho 

 students of all the colleges, the Agricultural 



College has a special and select library of eov- 

 eral hundred volumes, which relate directly to 

 farm life and labor. In the Museum, speci- 

 mens of tho botany of the State and many 

 indigenious woods can be examined by tho 

 students, and tho cases in the lecture room of 

 the Professor of Agriculture also contain ma- 

 terial of interest and value. The private col- 

 lection of Professor Hilgard, containing some 

 12,000 specimens of American and foreign 

 plants; which are arranged and classified ex- 

 pressly for tho purposes of instruction and 

 investigation, is deposited iu the lecture room 

 of this College for tho use of the students. 

 The University also possesses the large col- 

 lection of plants, rocks, etc., of the State 

 Geological Survey, making with the foregoing 

 an unusually extensive series of specimens 

 for study. 



Curing Alfalfa and Corn-Fodder. 



Wo have frequently advised mixing dry 

 sti'aw with alfalfa when it is stowed away in 

 the mow. The straw becomes softened, and 

 the alfalfa cures without heating. Tho Ohio 

 Fanner tells how corn-fodder is best cured in 

 the same manner: 



A farmer in Ontario county, New Y''ork, 

 sowed oats broadcast, iu the usual amount, 

 and then drilled in corn, using three bushels 

 of corn to one of oats. When the oats were 

 ripe the whole crop was cut like grass, and 

 the dry oat straw, absorbing the moisture of 

 the stalks, rendered the whole easily cured. 

 One of our correspondents last year, stated 

 that ho cured his fodder by placing it in the 

 mow between alternate layers of dry straw, 

 and that his cattle and horses devoured the 

 straw with as much relish as the fodder. As 

 corn-fodder is a diifictilt thing to cure when 

 cut green, these suggestions should be acted 

 upon when fodder is put in the barn. 



A Fourth of July Mule. 



A bad little boy in Portland lit a pack of 

 shooting crackers and threw them into the 

 street to see them "go off." One of Ike 

 Bateman's mules camo along and swallowed 

 them before they "went off." The mule 

 walked about fiteeu feet and stopped. He 

 laid his left ear around against his ribs and 

 heard something. It was them crackers hav- 

 ing fun. The mule picked out about three 

 and a half miles of road and started. A ne- 

 gro met him about a mile the other side of 

 the almshouse, going south, white with per- 

 spiration, with streams of smoke shooting 

 out of his nostrils, mouth and ears, while his 

 tail stuck straight up, and a stream of blue 

 and green smoke about ten feet long followed 

 in tho rear. Ike found his mule yesterday 

 morning sticking half-way through a farm- 

 house near Paddy's Kun, still smoking. The 

 man had got his family out and put 'em up 

 into a lot of trees. Ike hauled his mule 

 home, when he got cool enough, on a dray. — 

 Louisville Courier-Jownuil. 



We are Under Obligations to Robert 

 Beck, Secretary of the State Agricultural So- 

 ciety, for office use, a set of bound volumes 

 of the " Transactions California State Agri- 

 cultural Society " since 1861, and our return 

 of thanks iu due form is but a slight expres- 

 sion of what wo feel. Also, by the same, a 

 dozen unbound volumes transactions 1874 for 

 distribution. These books contain a deal of 

 interesting matter and are as reliable statis- 

 tically and otherwise as any such work can 

 well be. 



A Montana justice of tho peace, when he 

 marries a*coui>le, says: "Arise, gi-ab hands — 

 hitched — six dollars!" 



In Press. 



Wo are in receipt of a few proof sheets of a 

 work now iu press with Baukcroft <fe Co., 

 San Francisco, entitled ' ' The Patrons of Hus- 

 bandry on the Pacific Coast, by Ezra S. Can, 

 M. D., L. L. S." 



From tho sample loaves sent us, we observe 

 that the book will contain several hundred 

 pages of matter, also that the title is but a 

 text to tho comprehension of such subjects aa 

 Social and Political Economy, Agricultural 

 Development iu the ancient world iu Europe 

 and America. Capital and Labor, Tho 

 Farmers Awaking, Industrial Education, 

 Monopoly and Railroads, Paper Money and 

 Protective Tariffs, etc., etc., as well as to an 

 account of Grange Organization, all progress 

 on this coast up to tho present time. Wo 

 think it will be such a work as will bo in de- 

 mand, and will call out much adverse criti- 

 cism, as well as do much toward educating 

 the people. 



The Santa Clam Valley Agricultural So- 

 ciety's Annual Fair will be held during the 

 first week in October, commencing the fourth. 



California Borax. 



About two years ago some ontcry was 

 made in America about the discovery of 

 vast deposits of borax said to have been 

 discovered in California. The glowing 

 accounts which apjjeared in some of the 

 American papers were read on this side 

 with a certain amount of incredulity, not 

 altogether jierhaps unpardonable. How- 

 ever, subsequent results have proved that 

 nnlike those other "discoveries" in that 

 locality which will be fresh in our read- 

 ers' minds, the borax deposits exist other- 

 wise than on ' paper, and are, in fact, 

 remarkable in extent. Towards the latter 

 end of 1873 some borax from the new 

 sourse of supply came into the London 

 market, and was regarded curiously, if 

 not di^iiously. The importation had 

 little eflfect on the course of prices, and it 

 is jirobable that tho chemical trade en- 

 tertained a lurking suspicion that the 

 thing would turn outahoax. All through 

 last year, however, supplies came forward 

 from the same source, and for some 

 months past they have been on a large 

 scale. The bona fide character of the dis- 

 covery is thus set at rest, and the only 

 question is as to its extent. Tho Alia 

 says: "The great borax lake will afford a 

 very large business. Very extensive 

 works are now nearly completed for the 

 refining and purifying of this borax for 

 shipment. Millions of tons of crude 

 borax are in sight in this immense deposit. 

 Stimulated by the action of the railroad 

 company the Borax Comi^any have put up 

 largo works, and will soon be prepared to 

 turn out from twenty to fifty tons of pure 

 borax ))er day. This will add largely to 

 the freights of the railroad. The deposit 

 of borax is simply unlimited. It covers 

 an area of eighteen miles in length by six 

 to eight miles in width, covered with 

 crude borax from "2 to 5 feet thick. The 

 crude material will average from 20 to -10 

 per cent. Ten thousand men would not 

 take out the deposit in fifty years, and it 

 is constantly increasing." In accepting 

 the above account it is necessary to make 

 due allowance for national enthusiasm, 

 but it is beyond question that California 

 is able to boast a new and important ad- 

 dition to the iiroducts of her soil. The 

 California borax has come into active com 



