California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



it really fit for the Gods ! The alcohol it now 

 contains, which is the one thing that makes 

 it desirable, will be deprived of its druuken- 

 ing qualities or power, and be harmlessly 

 exhilerating and charmingly extatic in its 

 manifold goodness. Partakers thereof can 

 then get glorious without getting drunk, and 

 then growing appetites for something stronger 

 will lead only to a harmless indulgence in a 

 little more granger wine and brandy. 



WARNING TO IMMIGRANT LAND 

 PURCHASERS. 



Strangers should understand that so-called 

 immigrant-aid agencies, claiming to be con- 

 nected with the Grangers, or officially created 

 by the State, are frauds, the object of which 

 is to sell the land of private individuals at ex- 

 travagant prices, the agents of the so-called 

 societies participating largely in the profits. 



The above we clip from the San Francisco 

 Jieal Estate Circular, and endorse it too, al- 

 though some of the " leading " head grangers 

 have, along with the leading grain monopo- 

 list of the Pacific Coast, endorsed Josiah 

 Earle's Grange Agency, notwithstanding the 

 exposure of the Earl " Inyo Grab " and other 

 swindling land complications. We have 

 heard the term, " stealing the livery of the 

 Lord to serve the devil in," applied to many 

 things, and think it might with pertiuauce be 

 used to fit the many cheeky and self-assum- 

 ing people who use the word "granger," to 

 carry out schemes of imposition to feather 

 their own nests. We think it high time to 

 cry out against such abases, and so far as we 

 are concerned, we have seen enough to make 

 us look with suspicion on any branch of 

 business that bases itself upon the word 

 " granger." 



We are not by any means fighting against 

 grange principles, we believe in them in their 

 highest interpretation ; but that class of mid- 

 dle men who are natural suckers, and who 

 wedge themselves in to parasitically (feed up- 

 on the confidence and credulity of honest 

 people, whom they deceive by false preten- 

 tions and by misrepresentations, we have 

 neither love nor respect for. We advise such 

 as would avoid middle men, to deal directly 

 with first parties in land and other matters. 

 And further, that if they seek to transact 

 business through agents— as is often the most 

 convenient and best way — to look for such 

 men as are able to honestly stand upon their 

 own merits, and who have too much honor 

 and human modesty to sail under any pat- 

 ronizing flag. 



We would louldly warn emigrants, and 

 others, to keep a sharp eye on all pretenders. 

 The most villianous land sharks in existance 

 can be found iu California. 



OF WHAT ADVANTAGE IS IT? 



We are asked of what benefit to farmers is 

 the so-called "Grangers' Bank?" Can a farm- 

 er iu need obtain money on any more favora- 

 ble terms from this bank than from others ? 

 Will they require any less mortgage or se- 

 curity, and will the giving of such security 

 cost less than at other banks ? Will the 

 Grangers' Bank iu a measure lower the rates of 

 interest so as to encourage industry, and more 

 nearly equalize the powers of capitol and la- 



bor instead of bolstering up speculation and 

 usury 1 Now these questions are certainly to 

 the point, but with the best iuforaiation we 

 can get on the subject, we cannot give u favor- 

 able reply. The money in the Grangers' Bank 

 is furnished by stock-holders, who expect to 

 get as good, or better returns than through 

 any other source. The bankers are bound to 

 favor themselves and their stockholders and 

 depositors in preference to anybody else. 

 The saying that "corporations have no 

 souls," looses none of its significance when 

 applied to the Grangers' Bank. The name, 

 and the means of acquiring capital, have 

 given to the bank and bankers power which 

 they could not well have acquired without it. 

 The poor " grangers " have to carry a big 

 load when they shoulder banks owned by am- 

 bitious individuals and controlled so as to 

 make money out of the people ; and real es- 

 tate offices conducted on the same selfish 

 principle, and business concerns that are 

 looking more to their own profits than to any- 

 bodys else good. 



An unselfish co-operative concern, con- 

 ducted upon a code of principles that are 

 truly equitable and in the fullest sense co- 

 operative, would undoubtedly be of much 

 benefit to the people who might patronize it. 

 Anything less than that is not, as we can see, 

 much improvement over the old ways of 

 doing business. 



If we are mistaken in our estimate, we 

 would like to be set right in the matter. 



STARVING STOCK AND BURNING 

 STRAW. 



We see by our exchanges that feed is get- 

 ting so short on the sheep ranges in Tulare 

 county that many thousands of sheep are in 

 danger of starvation. It has been the prac- 

 tice of grain-growers in that vicinitj' to burn 

 straw — thousands of tons of it every season, 

 instead of stacking it for the use of stock. 

 To be sure the grain-growers and sheep- 

 breeders are different persons; but is it not 

 equally as disastrous to burn the straw as 

 though straw and sheep all belonged to the 

 same person? If care was taken to save the 

 straw in the valleys, it would feed, in dry 

 seasons and in winter, all the stock that the 

 mountains could pasture during Spring and 

 Summer. Straw in stack a dozen years old 

 is better for stock than new straw, and we 

 believe it would pay any grain-grower to 

 stack his straw for stock, and when it is need- 

 ed sell in stack to sheep and cattle herders. 

 Is it not a crime to destroy feed by fire, and 

 starve stock for the want of it? 



A School Girl's Idea. — Grace Hunter 

 writes to the iS(. yicliolas for August: 



" I want to tell the girls something. It is 

 aboTit a good use for the frames of old um- 

 brellas, sTinshades or parasols. You just open 

 them, strip ofi' the silk, sharpen the handle 

 to a point, and thrusting them open in the 

 ground let them serve as trellises for %-ints. 

 Last Summer we girls had a lovely sweet-pea 

 vine growing over mother's old parasol frame 

 and a balloon vine training over father's old 

 castaway umbrella. They were lovely." 



" I have lost flesh, " said a topper to his 

 companion. "No great loss was the reply, 

 since you made it up in spirits." 



FAR]]j[ LABOR IN CALIFORNIA. 



We have several times expressed our opin- 

 ion on the subject of farm labor and laborers 

 in California. The following from the Sun- 

 day Clironick gives a very correct idea of the 

 general condition of things as at present ex- 

 isting. What is said contrasting our labor- 

 system with old-time slavery is not ovir idea, 

 but the balance we think not overdrawn: 



The system of farm labor in California is 

 undoubtedly the worst iu the United States. 

 It is bad for the farmers themselves, and 

 worse, if possible, for those whom they em- 

 ploy. In many respects it is even worse than 

 old-time slavery, 'fhat, at least, enabled the 

 planter to know what labor he could depend 

 upon in any emergency, and made the labor- 

 ers certain, at all times, of shelter, clothing, 

 food and fire. Our system does neither. The 

 farmer must take such help as he can get — 

 hunting it up when most hurried, and paying 

 whatever is demanded. The laborers them- 

 selves, knowing they cannot be permanently 

 employed, demand high prices, ^lo their work 

 carelessly, and start out on a tramp for an- 

 other job. Under our system, largo numbers 

 of men are wanted for a short time — more 

 than any ordiuary farmhouse can accommo- 

 date, even if the employer dare trust so many 

 strangers within his walls, or admit them 

 into his famUy circle. The result is that la- 

 borers are compelled to sleep in barns, out- 

 houses, or in the open fields. In this climate 

 that is no hardship, it is true, but the prac- 

 tice leads to uncleanliness, carelessness of ap- 

 pearance and recklessness of conduct. Men 

 seem thus to have been thrown outside of so- 

 cial influences, and even if at the outset pos- 

 sessing good impulses and habits, they be- 

 come in a short time desperate, degraded and 

 criminal and perhaps uU three. They are 

 no worse than almost any others would be- 

 come under similar influences. They are shut 

 out from all the purifying inflnences of soci- 

 ety and home as efl'ectually as so many sailors 

 or soldiers. What wonder is it, then, that 

 five out of six in the class of farm laborers, 

 unemployed for half the year, .become worth- 

 less, drunken and dissolute tramps and out- 

 casts? There is no condition in life more un- 

 favorable to the morals of men than that 

 which great numbers of our farm laborers oc- 

 cupy. They annually squander in dissipa- 

 pation, and generally do it in a few weeks, all 

 they have earned, and hang around the towns 

 and cities the rest of the year, hunting odd 

 jobs and living, pecuniarily, from hand to 

 mouth — not seldom by charity. There are 

 exceptions we know. Here and there a man 

 having sterner stuff or more intelligence in 

 him than the rest, will rtse above the wretch- 

 ed position that he holds and become a use- 

 ful citizen. But that system is certainly a 

 bad one that subjects laboring men to such 

 degrading and damaging influences. And yet, 

 bad as it is, and as intelligent farmers admit 

 it to be, we see no jjresent remedy. When 

 our farms become something else than wheat 

 fields and are made to produce a greater vari- 

 etv of crops, requiring labor at all seasons, 

 the owners can furnish steady employment to 

 thousands who are now compelled to be mere 

 tramps under the pressure of dire necessity. 

 Until that time comes we see no prospect of 

 of any improvement in the condition of farm 

 laborers. 



■»'■*■ 



The other day I was planing a boartl, and 

 by accident planed one shaving the wrong 

 way of the grain. Of course the surface was 

 left rough. Turning the board. I noticed that 

 it took more than rne driving of the plane to 

 ■■et the surface smooth again. It was neces- 

 sary to go over and over again. "There," 

 thought I, "is life illustrated. One wrong 

 stroke cuts deeply and roughly. An evil deed 

 eats like a cancer. Long, weary years hardly 

 efl'ace the errors of a day." 



