California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



fields and fill otir granaries. The wheat plant 

 has been educated from the plant growing 

 wild in France, known as Acgylops, and much 

 inferior to the plant now cultivated as a food 

 plant and known to botanists as 7Vi(!eij»i 

 vulgare. The crab-apple has been educated 

 into a thousand varieties of delicious fruits 

 greatly superior in size and flavor to their 

 crabbed ancestors ; and within the memory 

 of the youngest of us, the strawberry has in- 

 creased greatly in size, putting on the pro- 

 portions of the Russel, the Wilson's Albany, 

 and the Triumph de Gande. 



The horse is educated, when his power, 

 symmetry, and speed and whatever other 

 qualities ne may possess, are brought out. 

 The many varieties of this noble animal, from 

 the Shetland pony not larger than a New- 

 foundland dog, to the English dray horse, al- 

 most elephantine in proportions, demonstrate 

 the capabilities of the animal organism for 

 impovemeut. 



The great varieties of the human race itself, 

 allowing the received opinion to be true, that 

 all mankind have had common ancestors, 

 seem to show that man too is subject to the 

 general law, and is capable of progress as a 

 race. It is not altogether because the men 

 and women of this age have grown up under 

 the civilizing — the educating influences of the 

 nineteenth century, that they are intellectual- 

 ly and morally superior to their savage an- 

 cestors who feasted on the blood and fat of 

 their slain enemies. But it is because they 

 are constitutionally superior intellectually 

 and morally, an effect due to the civilizing 

 and humanizing influences of the ages. Man 

 is not only progressive as a unit, but the race 

 is capable of development, and for this rea- 

 son he stands to-day, both in his moial and 

 intellectual nature, and in his general civili- 

 zation, superior to his condition in any form- 

 er period. 



San Jose, Sept., ICth. 



Economy of Live Stock. 



The man who allows nothing to go off his 

 farm in a bulky condition, will surely lay up 

 an inheritance for his children if he does not 

 hamlle as many dollars in his own lifetime. 

 The best policy for a farmer who has a good 

 hay ranch is to own cattle or sheep or hogs 

 enough to eat on his place all he produces, 

 and though he may not for a few years per- 

 ceive any increase in production, but a little 

 time can elapse before this plan can vindi- 

 cate itself. If he has not at present the 

 means to stock his place, the next best thing 

 is to get stock on shares or to pasture by the 

 month, or in default of being able to do 

 either of these things on satisfactorj' terms, 

 then, instead, he should try and sell his hay 

 to be fed out on the place. We know of 

 some farmers not far from the city who are 

 following this plan very successfully. They 

 have large portions" of their farms seeded in 

 alfalfa, and cut annually from four to six tons 

 of hay to the acre. They put this hay into 

 barns or well built stacks, aud sell it to men 

 who follow the lumber business in the moun- 

 tains, to be fed on the ground. Men engaged 

 in the lumber business in the mountains work 

 cattle during the spring, summer and autumn, 

 and turn them out to recruit during the win- 

 ter. They come down into the valleys and 

 buy hay and drive their cattle down and feed 

 them with it. A large number of tous of 

 alfalfa have already been sold this season on 

 the Sacramento river in this way at $7 a ton 

 in the stack. Aside from tho gain to the 

 farmer this is much better than to bale and 

 haul it to town and sell it at the usual rates, 

 say from ten to thirteen dollars a ton. —Hecirrd 

 Union. 



An exchange thinks the pews of some of 

 the churches ought to rest on pivots, so that 

 the occupants could see who comes in with- 

 out straining their necks. 



The Charm of New or Foreign Breeds. 



^■«? ■ 



rwtHE tendency of American stock-breeders 

 if] and dealers, says tho New England Far- 

 jiier, seems to be to obtain something 

 that is new, or that is supposed to be 

 new — something different from what is 

 already generally known by the farmers at 

 large. It does not satisfy their ambition to 

 take a breed of animals and by careful 

 breeding keep them up to a high standard, or 

 even to improve them by judicious crosses, 

 and by intelligent systems of breeding. There 

 is too much work about this. They want to 

 reach the desired end by some short cut. Of 

 coiuse we mean those breeders and dealers 

 who class themselves as "fancy" farmers, 

 and who expect to make their fortunes by sell- 

 ing stock at fancy prices. It is a little amus- 

 ing to watch the progress of events in this 

 business of breeding and selling fancy ani- 

 mals. At one time a chicken with a peculiar 

 arrangement of the comb will shake the coun- 

 try from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and after 

 after a few years no chicken of this peculiar 

 breed will be allowed in a show coop unless 

 it comes up to the standard as regards this 

 little matter of a comb. The knowing ones, 

 seeing no chance to make money much longer 

 in this direction, start a new feather of a cer- 

 tain shape or color on some one of the trio, 

 and immediately a great sensation follows 

 and lots of money is made by those who, 

 having been warned in season, are prepared 

 for the rush. One of the latest sensations 

 in the poultry line is a pea-comb on a trio of 

 Partridge Cochins, and doubtless there are 

 already hiyidreds of anxious breeders ready 

 to pay a big price for the few eggs that the 

 owner can be prevailed upon to spare of this 

 very desirable acquisition, next Sjjring. If 

 the new breed can boast of 'foreign origin, all 

 the better. The word "imported " has a pe- 

 culiar charm for the ear of the average Amer- 

 ican, whether it refers to a breed of cattle, 

 sheep or poultry, or to the cloth of a coat or 

 the shape of a hat. 



The following letter from Mr. F. D. Curtis, 

 of Charlton, N. Y., to the liural Sew Yurker, 

 contains views which accord with our o*n 

 sentiments quite fully ou this point. He 

 says: 



I notice in the American Agriculturist, Mr. 

 Joseph Harris, in his "Walks and Talks," 

 has at last come around to my way of think- 

 ing in regard to breeding English sheep in 

 this country. He says, " It is not an easy 

 matter to keep our sheep up to the English 

 standard." I say it is impossible, aud have 

 argued that not only the cjimate was against 

 us, to which Mr. Harris alludes, but that the 

 English system of feeding produces an exces- 

 sive growth, consequently a weakened consti- 

 tution, ill adapted to our rigorous and chauge- 

 able climate; aud being thus pampered, I in- 

 sist that there is a constitutional propensity 

 inherent, requiring more stimulating food 

 than American farmers usually feed; and 

 moreover, if we follow the English formula 

 to the letter the sheep will deteriorate. Mr. 

 Harris brought out an important fact in this 

 connection which substantiates my position 

 and sheds light on the English system of 

 breeding, and at the same time shows the ab- 

 surdity of the glamour of "imported" when 

 he remarks: 



"We often hear of ' improved ' Cotswolds 

 or ' improved ' Leicesters, or ' improved ' 

 Berkshires, which I suppose simply means 

 that they have been crossed with some other 

 breed. Bring this ' improved ' stock here 

 and keep it here, and it will inevitablj' degen- 

 erate. It is easier to make an improvement 

 than to keep it." The measure of honor 

 among American breeders will not admit of 

 these crosses to keep up the standard with 

 the various thoroughbred breeds, as custom 

 has established a law requiring a direct de- 

 scent from imported stock. After we cross 



the water no questions are asked and no guar- 

 antees are reqmred from sheep or pig breed- 

 ers. It is evident from these facts that the 

 English breeder has a great advantage, owing 

 to the guUiViility of Americans and their fash- 

 ionable weakness for imported stock. The 

 English breeder can doctor, pamper and cross 

 his pigs and sheep without limit, and call 

 them whatever names he choose, and his eii- 

 terprise is accepted by the Americans as stan- 

 dard authority. How long shall this non- 

 sense continue? Is it not time that we began 

 to establish American breeds? 



Breeding. 



There is too much truth in the charge that 

 many farmers aud breeders of stock are con- 

 tent with merely knowing that a stallion is a 

 horse, a boar is a hog and a ram is a sheep. 

 They know nothing and care as httle about 

 the " points " and "blood" in stock, and 

 not unfrequently will charge that all the talk 

 about those principles is mere moonshine, and 

 they can do just as well without paying any 

 attention thereto; that they know a good ani- 

 mal when they see it as well as your best 

 judges, and they would not thank any one to 

 judge an animal for them. Too many of this 

 class of men, when they wish to increase their 

 herd, resort to a scrub male in preference to 

 a thoroughbred because of the difference in 

 the price of service. Especially is this true 

 as to the stalUon from which they breed; and 

 as for buying or breeding to an animal of un- 

 questioned purity of blood, that never en- 

 tered into their heads. We are glad to be- 

 Ueve, however, that this class is gradually 

 growing less each year, under the influence 

 of social reformatory processes and more 

 light pouring in among the great mass of far- 

 mers and breeders; and no effort should be 

 spared to reduce the number to almost none. 

 Let a few stand as mile posts aud warnings 

 to others, to show tho errors of such a course. 



Upon this important point the Prairie Far- 

 mer has some good suggestions appended, 

 saying : " Breeding continues, as it ever must, 

 to occupy the attention of those interested in 

 stock. Skill, science and sound judgment 

 invariably, when combined in the breeding of 

 animals, meet their due reward. Money can 

 not purchase success, as the price willingly 

 paid for successful breeding is sufficient to 

 stimulate all to their utmost to attain pros- 

 perity. 



That any one can lay down "laws" for 

 breeding that must result in success in all 

 cases, is ridiculous. That any man can, from 

 the breed of any animal, positively assert 

 thvt he is to be superior to all othe:s of same 

 age and class is equally preposterous. There 

 is no doubt about one thing — that known 

 purely high-bred, tried families, with fine 

 make, shape .and action, train on and cut up 

 much bettei than any man's judgment could 

 detect, without a knowledge of the breed of 

 such families^ • 



Some men of great practical experience will 

 tell you all horses that are thoroughbred have 

 an equal chance. This is a great fallacy. 

 Stout hearts, good dispositions and constitu- 

 tions are absolutely necessary training to test 

 their stamina. 



The very finest and best bred horses in the 

 world, without true formation, action, sound- 

 ness and stamina, cannot compete success- 

 fully with those possessing these quaUfica- 

 tions. 



Tnen it seems rational that breeders of 

 horses should not blunder on in the dark. 

 They should study to breed from highly 

 proved staDions with true formation and sym- 

 metry, without which the action cannot be 

 true and lasting; and inasmuch as the stallion, 

 in nine cases out of ten, moulds the locomo- 

 tive power of the produce, both as to size and 

 true formation, how requisite it is that the 

 original should be perfect in this respect, as 

 well as stout, good and highly-descended, 

 with all other good qualifications. Many of 



