California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



know the Indians, especially Northern, 

 subsist largely on fish. Fish culture. 

 North and East, is attracting State aid 

 and large expenditures are made. A 

 great many localities in hilly sections can 

 have ponds at the mere cost of embank- 

 ing carefully between short hills. Even 

 gentle slopes, by digging out and embank- 

 ing a pond large enough to hold stock 

 water, and grassing all around to keep 

 earth and sediment from injuring water, 

 will afford fish for any family. — Southern 

 Faj'er. 



The XTniversity of Virginia has had a 

 hatching house erected on its grounds by 

 the Commissioner of Fisheries of that 

 state, and tish culture is to be included 

 in its course of instruction. Mr. Fred 

 Mather, of the U. S. Fish Commission, 

 has been engaged to superintend the 

 work of hatching the salmon and trout 

 this season. Mr. Mather's long experi- 

 ence in fish culture, especially at his 

 Trout Farm in Honeoye Falls, N. Y., 

 renders him amply qualified for the po- 

 sition. — Ex. 



Ninety-five per cent, of the California 

 salmon lately received at the Westport, 

 Conn., trout ponds have been success- 

 fully hatched. 



herdsman; and when they can be profit- 

 ably employed in clearihg lands, board- 

 ing themselves at the same time off the 

 refuse, as it were, and doing better than 

 on grass alone, it is an object worth some 

 consideration, surely. 



S^ 



\\nf Mil OJoat$, 



CLEARING LANDS WITH 



ANGORAS. 



^?, 



T the risk of weai'ying our readers 

 upon this subject, we still have 

 something more to say about Au- 

 \bcr[' gora goats. We have lately had a 

 <^p)3 long talk with Mr. L. J. iiurrell, 

 who owns a flock of these animals, and 

 is pasturing his chapparel lands upon 

 the toj) of the Santa Cruz Mountains. 

 Mr. Burrell says the Angora goat is just 

 the best thing in the world to help clear 

 such lands of undergrowth brush of 

 every kind. Where the brush is once 

 cut down and burned they will eat every 

 sprout that shows itself, and there is no 

 better pasturage for them than chapparel 

 and chimesel clearings. They fatten 

 upon the young shoats of oak, maple, 

 wild cherry, mansanita, buckeye, ma- 

 droue, willow, wild rose,and all other sorts 

 of brush that make the thickets on these 

 rugged hills. The soil there is the best 

 in the county for heavy vegetable growth, 

 and invaluable for orchard and viuevard 

 when once reclaimed from the rank 

 growth of shrubbery. Mr. Burrell seems 

 much elated at his success with his goats 

 and his progress in clearing his lauds. 

 With the exception of having lost some 

 li)ie animals by California lions, which 

 find a congenial home amidst the moun- 

 tain thickets and ravines, his success 

 has been all he could ask and even more 

 than he expected, although he was san- 

 guine when he started into the business 

 over a year ago. It was thought by some 

 that the Angoras would not do so well in 

 such a locality as upon open, gi'assy 

 lulls. When the value of these animals 

 for clearing lands, that now have to be 

 grubbed and worked over so laboriously, 

 is better known, doubtless they will be 

 in gnat demand for this purpose in con- 

 nection with the firolits that can be de- 

 rived from them, which is of first impor- 

 tance. Wo learn that tho farmers in 

 Oregon, where much of the best land has 

 to be cleared, have found out the vaUie 

 of goats for this purpose, and that already 

 several orders for these animals from 

 Oregon have been filled by Caltfornia 

 breeders. On its own merits alone, 

 where pasturage has to be supjilied, the 

 Angora is a profitable animal to the 



Foot Rot. — Be so good as to inform 

 me through your valuable paper the best 

 cure for foot rot in sheep. Amongst 

 a stock of cross bred lambs a great many 

 are affected. I have applied butter of 

 antimony, Cuff's powder, tar, etc., but 

 with litle efl'ectt. Shepherd. When foot 

 rot has been neglected for some weeks 

 and the sheep continue on soft ground, 

 which favors the superabundant growth 

 of degenerate hiu'u, it beeomrs confirmed 

 and dfiicult to cure. The secreting tex- 

 tures persist in pouring out lymph and 

 weak faulty horn, instead of tough, firm 

 protecting covering of the healthy foot. 

 One of the chief dfficulties in the way of 

 cure is to restore the secreting parts to a 

 sound state. The first step must be with 

 a strong knife, whilst the hoofs are soft, 

 to carefully cut away all loose unsound 

 horn. Where the hoof is extensively 

 affected, this cannot be done all at once; 

 two or three operations will be necessary. 

 Fungus, bad-smelling growths which ap- 

 pear in most troublesome cases, are got 

 rid of by any strong astringent. Butter 

 of antimony is often used for such pur- 

 poses, and cautiously handled, answers 

 fairly. Some shepherds use it mixed 

 with about equal parts of impure carbol- 

 ic acid and diluted with two or three liarts 

 of oil. In some districts copper sul- 

 phate ointment, made in the proportion 

 of one to four of fatty matter, is in good 

 repute, and is improved by the addition 

 of one part of the antiseptic deodorizing 

 carbolic acid. Such treatment may be 

 varied by dressing of zinc chloride solu 

 tion of mercury pernitrate solution. It 

 will be found that the successful treat- 

 ment of foot rot depends not so much on 

 the particular dressing employed, as upon 

 careful paring away of faulty horn, ex- 

 amine and doctoring the foot at intervals 

 of two or three days, avoiding strong 

 caustics, and placing the flock on di'y, 

 firm ground. Amongst sheep on arable 

 land, foot rot is usually cured quicker 

 than in those on grass. — yurlh Biltidi 

 AijricuUuiid. 



Danbuky Bailey. — You have seen pic- 

 tures of shepherds with the proverbial 

 crook in their hands. I didn't think a 

 party could be a shepherd without a 

 crook, any more than a man could be a 

 leader of an orchestra without a pair of 

 pants. I was glad that the first man I 

 saw tending sheep carried one of these 

 crooks. I didn't know what a crook 

 was for, but always believed it was a 

 badge of tlie occupation, whose origin I 

 could not fathom, handed down from 

 century to century since the time when 

 sheep were invented. Imagine my dis- 

 gust when I saw this shepherd use the 

 sacred crook to capture the straying 

 animals by catching hold of one of their 

 hind legs and tripping them up! The 

 awful truth came upon me like a flasli, 

 and I sat kown heavily, a broken-hearted 

 man. I had thought it a beautiful em- 

 blem, and it provi'S a hind-leg snatcher! 

 Thus floated the wind from another sweet 

 vision of youth. I must have more sal- 

 ary, or I'll di<', I fear. — Ex. 



SiiKKi' on a farm yield both woo! and 

 mutton. T'hey multiply with great ra- 

 pidity. They are the best of farm scav- 

 gers, "clean a field" as no other class of 

 animals will. They give back to the farm 

 more in proportion to what they take 

 friuu it than any other animal, and dis- 

 tribute it better with a view to the future 

 fertility of the .soil. 



Organic Adaptation. 



r.NDER this heading Professor Kin- 

 ley, of the San Jose Institute, has 

 written to the American Slock Jour- 

 _j ncd. The subject is an important 

 %'if one for all stock men to consider, 

 and we take pleasure in transferring 

 what he says to our columns : 



Traveling over this great stock raising 

 State, I have been frequently impressed 

 with a truth which I think equally appli- 

 cable to all parts of th« Union, viz: In 

 our efl'ort to raise or inqirove live stock, 

 reference should constantly be had as to 

 the conditions under which it is to be 

 grown. Within the boundaries of the 

 United States is almost every conceiva- 

 ble variety of climate soil and topographic 

 character. Florida and Southern Texas 

 are troiiical; the mountain regions of the 

 northeast and northwest are perfectly 

 Arctic; while between these extremes the 

 climate takes endless modifications, shad- 

 ing oft' into the one or the other, accord- 

 ing to position, latitude or i^revailing 

 wind currents. We have mountains and 

 valleys, plateaus and lowland plains; we 

 have sterile lands and fertile lauds, wet 

 lands and dry lands. The average rain- 

 fall on the coast of Alaska is I know not 

 how many score inches, while iu some 

 parts of New Mexico and Arizona it sel- 

 dom rains at all. In other parts of the 

 Union the annual amount of rainfall will 

 be found varying between these extremes. 

 In some parts of the United States the 

 clinuite is subject to great extremes of 

 heat and cold, while along the Pacific 

 coast there are places where the temper- 

 ature varies but little the year round. It 

 would be absurd to suppose that all these 

 various conditions are equally adajjted 

 to every kind of live stock, or that any 

 one kind would flourish equally well in 

 all. In the wild state the goat chooses 

 the mountain and the buffalo the plain. 

 And any one who has studied the geo- 

 graphical distribution of animals and 

 plants will find that the principle has a 

 very general application. It is not an 

 accident that the lion and the leopard 

 tenant the Torrid Zone and the polar 

 bear the Frigid. Neither is it altogether 

 the art and skill of man that have made 

 the Arabian horse the highest type of 

 the equine race. 



What is true of species is also true of 

 varieties. Some varieties of the same 

 sjjecies will flourish in hahilals in which 

 others will perish. But there is an elas- 

 ticity in the constitution of both animal 

 and plant that will carry it out of its 

 original residence and cause it to flour- 

 ish under very different conditions. In 

 fitting itself to this change of place there 

 is an organic change of character. If 

 we could gather together tho primordial 

 ancestors of the domestic animals and 

 plants, we should find some of them so 

 changed in their progeny that we could 

 hardly recognize them as of the same spe- 

 cies. It is doubtless true of domestic 

 animals and pl.ants, that while they have 

 lost something of the rugged strength of 

 tho wild type, they have also gained 

 something in that elasticity of constitu- 

 tion which enables them to live and 

 flourish under various clinuitie and other 

 influences. But while I thus state the 

 principle of adaptation, it must be ad- 

 mitted also, on the other hand, that it is 

 true only within certain limits, beyond 

 which neither animal nor plant can 

 prosper. In the early settlement of Min- 

 nesota, the Winters about Minneapolis 

 were too severe for the ordinary apple. 

 But there have been found, and iu some 



cases perhaps grown on the soil, hardy 

 varieties that endure their coldest Win- 

 ters. One of these, I believe, was im- 

 ported from Siberia. Doubtless the do- 

 mestic animals, when removed to colder 

 climates, suff'er often from the severity 

 of the Winters; but long years of accli- 

 mation develop a hardier race, constitu- 

 tionally adapted to the new habitat. So, 

 animals taken from the mountain to the 

 plain, or from the plain to the moun- 

 tain, undergo in time corresponding 

 changes. The mountain demands mus- 

 cle and litheness of limb to enable them 

 to obtain their food from places not ea- 

 sily accessible, and muscle comes. The 

 ox of the plain, developing through gen- 

 erations, becomes agile. Both body and 

 limb lose in weight, bones become 

 smaller and more compact and fat gives 

 place to muscle. But all this imjflies a 

 corresponding change of organic struc- 

 ture. The animal is still an ox, it is 

 true, but it is no longer an ox of the 

 plain. He has grown in his organiza- 

 tion and become modified to his condi- 

 tion. Our domestic sheep came from 

 the mountain, and despite its long years 

 of domestication, it still remembers, 

 through its organs, its original instincts. 

 But the Komney Marsh sheep seems to 

 have forgotten entirely its instinct for 

 the mountain, and takes to the lowland 

 from preference. It is still a sheep, 

 however, but it is not the Argall or the 

 Bighorn. Let it be admitted, as I pre- 

 sume it will be without further argu- 

 ment, that changed conditions demand 

 and eft'ect organic changes. 



Improving the Dairy Herd. 



Dr. E. L. Sturdevant, of Massachusetts, 

 concerning the need of increasing the 

 milk yield of our dairy cows, notes the low 

 price which has ruled for dairy jjroducts, 

 and rightly says that decrease in price 

 must be met by enlarged productive- 

 ness in the milk-making machinery, 

 and better use of the food material em- 

 ployed. He says further: How can the 

 dairy farmer increase his production '? 

 Clearly by increasing the milk capacity 

 of his animals. Suppose two cows 

 weighing 1,000 pounds, one giving 1,300 

 ipiarts of milk, the other 1,800 quarts. 

 Both require, say 30 pounds of ha_y per 

 day, or its equivalent, of which say eight 

 liounds go to support the vital processes. 

 Under this supposition, foiu" tons of hay 

 will produce, when consumed by one 

 cow, 1,300 quarts, and by the other 1,- 

 800 quarts yearl}'. These figures, 1,300 

 and 1,800 represent the actual average of 

 common and superior dairies in New 

 York State, and three per cent, of live 

 weight, or thirty pounds of hay or its 

 equivalent, is, according to Pabst, the 

 amount reipiired for a cow in milk, while 

 about eight pounds is required for suste- 

 nance only. This leaves the figures as 

 stated. Let us assume the feeding value 

 of this food to be equivalent to $8 per 

 ton, and the average price of milk to be 

 2; J cents a (juart, net, then the average 

 cow will bring a profit of §111. .50, while 

 the average superior cow will show a 

 jirofit of $13. Suppose, however, tho 

 cow is a very superior one, and will yield 

 3,000 quarts, then we have a profit, 

 under our sujipositiou, of $-13. This 

 illustration indicates clearly, then, how 

 the farmer can meet the depression iu 

 tho value of his milk liy increasing the 

 lu'oductiveness of his cows. The experi- 

 ence of ev<.'ry one who has had any nc- 

 (juaiutauce with the breeding of cattle 

 testifies to the value of a thoroughbred 

 bull, or, to use a common expression, 

 tho grading u]) a herd toward a thorough- 

 bred. The introducti(Ui of thoroughbred 

 dairy bulls into 

 dry cattle would 



