California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



A PROSPECTUS OF PRINCIPLES. 



To such of our readers as are already 

 well acquainted with tho stand we have 

 taken, and the principles we have sup- 

 ported in conducting this jourual, we 

 need saj' nothing. But to our many new 

 readers, and others who enquire about 

 the character of the AuRicnLTumsT, we 

 feel warranted in offering an inkling of 

 some of the ideas we have always advo- 

 cated, now believe, and propose to ad- 

 here to until we are properly convinced 

 to the contrary. 



To begin with, the Aukicultueist is 

 not a policy paper. Its motives are 

 grounded in principle. If a thing is 

 thought to be right, it hesitates not to 

 support it; if wrong, that is sufficient 

 reason why it should be opposed. It 

 depends, for its patronage, upon being 

 true to the best interests of humanity, 

 irrespective of personal considerations. If 

 it cannot stand upon such ground it will 

 fall upon it. While it aims to be chai-it- 

 able to all, and will allow the fullest ex- 

 pression to oijiuious adverse to what it 

 m.aintains, it is a jourual of decided 

 opinions. No blowing hot to-day and 

 cold to-morrow — changing like a weather 

 cock to suit the wind of vacilatiug public 

 opinion or party interest. Nor is it a 

 "milk-and-water" concern that reserves 

 expression, fearful of offending those 

 high in authority or influential in some 

 circle. It aims, like the needle of a com- 

 pass, to be true to common interests. 



It is not political in any partizan sense 

 — takes sides with no party — advocates 

 the claims of no candidate for office — 

 but, on general principles, supports re- 

 form measures of every kind that appear 

 to be demanded for the general good. It 

 deprecates official corruption, and, to se- 

 cure honest and efficient legislation and 

 reduce taxation, would reduce salaries of 

 public servants to the standard of wages 

 earned by the hard-working, honest and 

 intelligent producer. It would see a 

 broad patriotism displace the narrow ex- 

 travagance shown in public affairs. 



It would see a financial system founded 

 in the honor and industrial responsibil- 

 ity of the people, and gauged to the ne- 

 cessities of business intercourse. The 

 Government should not pay interest on 

 money issued to banks, nor allow its is- 

 sues fluctuated in value; and the specu- 

 lator who would discount its value should 

 be held guilty of treason and punished 

 accordingly. 



Monopoly of every description it op- 

 poses as wrong and pernicious. Our 

 public lands should be held sacred to the 

 actual settler. No individual nor corpo- 

 ration should be allowed to claim but a 

 limited number of acres under any pre- 

 tense. He who would hold more land 

 than he can use, to the exclusion of an- 

 other, should be held an enemy to his 

 ountrj'. 



Railroad corporations, now so power- 

 ful to extort imjust and unequal rates of 

 fare and freight, and to control public 

 affairs, should be shorn of such power. 

 All lines of public travel, telegraphs and 

 postal routes should become common 

 property, and be strictly under Govern- 

 ment control. 



Co-operation is advocated for every 

 department of business as a fundamental 

 principle of advancing civilization, as a 

 protective measure for the working and 

 producing people, and as a measure cal- 

 culated to properly secure the comforts 

 of life to every deserving creature and 

 equalize wealth to the advantage of all 

 A and injury to none. 

 It. Education it would see made public for 

 Jl nil, and no child upon our soil should be 

 ,< allowed to be deprived of its advantages. 

 It advocates higher principles of educa- 



tion. Our common schools and colleges 

 should include in their tuition instruc- 

 tion in the use of such tools, principles 

 and trades as are applicable to tho wants 

 of everyday life, and, by combining prac- 

 tical work with theoretical propositions 

 and positive science, turn out men and 

 women competent to grapple with life's 

 realities. 



With so-called "social" and religious 

 questions, this jounal is conservative. 

 Discussions inimical to virtue, constancy 

 and established marriage will not be ad- 

 mitted. It can never bo the vehicle of 

 immorality or vileness. While tolerant, 

 it will not be the tool of any sect or 

 creed, either of free-thought or religious 

 denomination. It occupies a broader 

 field of usefulness, interfering with no 

 one's religious opinions, but holding fast 

 to morality in the interest of all good 

 people alike. 



Woman is held to be of equal import- 

 ance with man, and naturally entitled to 

 all the rights, immunities and privileges 

 of man, politically, religiously and so- 

 cially, as a human being of equal en- 

 dowments and rrsponsibilities. There is 

 a Woman's DErAKTsiENT open for such 

 questions as properly come under it. 



Temperance is advocated as of great 

 moral and material importance. It is a 

 fundamental virtue without which there 

 can be no advancement in other direc- 

 tions. Intemperance is a blight that de- 

 stroys the gei-m of development, and 

 soon sinks man into hopeless degrada- 

 tion. The Agkicultdbist has never ad- 

 vocated the making of wine, brandy or 

 other liquors as legitimate agricultural 

 industries. It has constantly advocated 

 the making of the best use of the grape, 

 which is a noble fruit, highly nutritious 

 and capable of being utilized as food in 

 many ways and of becoming a blessing 

 instead of a curse to mankind. It has 

 often been shown, and can be proven to 

 any reasonable man, that, aside from the 

 moral part of the question, it is much 

 more profitable, in Cidifornia, to grow 

 grapes for table, raisins, canning and 

 shipping than for wine. We have made 

 many enemies by the course we have 

 taken, and lost much patronage also, but 

 we must insist that wo are right until 

 we are otherwise convinced. 



Its columns are open to discussions 

 of all imjiortant subjects within the 

 scope of its field, and all persons of op- 

 posite opinions, as well as others inter- 

 ested in any topic, are invited to com- 

 municate their ideas for the public 

 benefit. 



Horse-race gambling is another evil 

 barnacled upon agriculture for respecta- 

 ble support that this jourual has always 

 vigorously combatted. This course has 

 also brought it much abuse, and weak- 

 ened its patronage; but it will never 

 cease its work while gambling is a con- 

 troling interest at agricultural fairs. 



Advocating the best use of the soil 

 and of all products of the labor of man, 

 no article commending tobacco-growing 

 nor hop-growing has ever appeared in its 

 columns. It is not conceded to be in 

 accordance with duty to advocate any 

 thing destructive of health, or calculated 

 to injure individuals, or the public weal. 



The Acraci'LTURisT claims to be clear 

 of any and all pecuniary considerations 

 for any opinion appearing in its reading 

 columns, editorial, selected or communi- 

 cated from any person or party. Not 

 one cent, directly or indirectly, has ever 

 been received for "puffing," or for pub- 

 lishing any article as reading matter. 

 Its voice is used purely in the best in- 

 terests of its readers. While under its 

 preseni management, the AGKictjLTCKisT 

 can never be bought to advocate any- 

 thing, good, bad or indifl'erent. It shall 



never fall to that detestable position, so 

 common with many papers to-day, of 

 advocating a thing for pay, of claiming 

 to be working for the good of the people 

 while it is the hirling of some designing 

 man, clique or party. It detests such 

 perfidy, and as loudly condemns it as it 

 does any other species of venal corrup- 

 tion. 



The AoRicnLTCRtsT is not the organ of 

 any order, clique or party whatever. 

 While it is in full sympathy with Grange 

 principles and good work for human ad- 

 vancement, it chooses to remain a free 

 agent, advocating the good for the sake 

 of the right, in the broad interests of all. 



It admits none but respectable adver- 

 tising to its columns. It allows business 

 men to put their business before the 

 people in a business manner, as a busi- 

 ness proposition. No clap-trap, eye- 

 catching, imposition advervising solicited 

 or allowed, if we can help it. Any busi- 

 ness that is not able to stand on its own 

 merits, in a fair, decent advertisement, 

 we would sooner not see represented in 

 cur columns. 



Our departments for reading matter 

 are numerous, and largely filled with 

 original articles from subscribers, prac- 

 tical, common-sense articles for every- 

 day reading, applicable to every depart- 

 ment of the farm and home. Among 

 these we mention the Stock Breeder's 

 department. There is enough solid read- 

 ing, of practical use, in this department 

 ment alone, during the year, to give the 

 paper a great value. The Dairy, Sheep 

 AND Goats, Porcine, The Horse, Plsci- 

 cnLTUKE, Apiakt, Poultry Yard, The 

 Okchaed, The Vineyard, Vegetable 

 Gakden, The Grain-Gbcwek, and out- 

 of-doors farming generally, are always 

 treated upon from a practical standpoint. 

 All articles are prepared or selected with 

 special reference to their applicability to 

 the Pacific Coast. The subjects of Irri- 

 gation, Alkaline Soils, Land Monopoly, 

 Timber-growing, Capital and Labor, the 

 proper cultivation of the soil for our cli- 

 mate, and, in fact, all topics of inter- 

 est and information, such as are needed 

 by the practical farmer, are given in suc- 

 cessive issues. 



The Editor was educated to hard work 

 on the farm, and in the nursery, orchard 

 and garden, and has been twenty years 

 upon the Pacific Coast. 



The best part of the farm— the House- 

 hold — is not neglected. In fact, this 

 journal is so largely household in its 

 get-up as to be a special favorite with 

 farmers' wives, and with all families 

 where it is known. Among the writers 

 for these departments are many of the 

 best upon the Pacific Coast, We might 

 say a good deal in praise of its contribu- 

 tors without undue flattery. Everj- lady 

 should specially examine the columns of 



the AORICULTURIST. 



The departments Hosuehold, Domes- 

 tic, Hygienic, Educational, Boys and 

 Girls, City Gardening, and Woman, 

 are almost entirely filled with original 

 articles each month, and of a most in- 

 teresting character. The beautiful and 

 useful are together combined in its con- 

 tents and make-up. Man's nature not 

 only demands to be supplied with mate- 

 rial comforts, but the things that feed 

 intellectual and moral life and induce to 

 progress of soul. The a'sthetic nature 

 needs its food of subtler things, and 

 grows upon beauty in everything. Such 

 tastes as are allied to the finer sensibili- 

 ties and really give us the purest joys of 

 life are by no means overlooked in the 

 spirit and design of the Agbiculturist. 

 Its beautiful frontispiece, on cover, de- 

 signed, fashioned .and engraved by 

 woman's head, heart and hand, is in 

 strict harmony with its purposes — even 



as much so as the sterner .subjects that 

 relate to the practical parts of life. 



Ever}' general reader of this journal 

 will bear the publishers out in the above 

 statements. It is from such as have not 

 become acquainted with the California 

 Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal, 

 A Household Magazine and Kubal 

 Monthly for In-doors and Out, that the 

 publishers respectfully ask an examina- 

 tion of its merits. And if the price and 

 character of the paper suits, your sub- 

 scription is solicited, and your influence 

 in further extending it will be gratefully 

 acknowledged. 



BRUTE ANIMALS COMPARED 

 WITH MAN. 



IIo%v Do They Differ from Usi Hare 

 The}- .MlntU ! Will They I.lve .Asnin! 



BY J. A. CHITTENTEN. 



In what respects the tho dumb ani- 

 mals resemble man, and what are the 

 limits of the resemblance, it may be well 

 sometimes to consider. One difl'erence 

 that would first occur to most minds is 

 that the brute animals have not the pow- 

 er of speech ; next, that they have not 

 thinking minds — that they do not reason; 

 and, finally, that they do not possess 

 immortal spirits. 



Let us see how much they resemble 

 us. In the matter of bodies containing 

 the bony framework, the muscular cov- 

 ering, the arterial, venous, nervous sys- 

 tems, etc., they are like ourselves. They 

 have sight, hearing — indeed, all the 

 senses. Have they minds also? 



The mind is that part which thinks, 

 wills, remembers and reasons. Has the 

 brute all these evidences of mind? 



Some seem to regard the brute as a 

 mere mass of organized matter endowed 

 by its Creator with what they call in- 

 stinct. That is, it has an inward 

 prompting to eat without knowing why 

 it eats; it runs away from danger, but 

 don't know why; it may run so long as 

 possible, and when running will no 

 longer answer, it will hide in the best 

 place at hand or turn upon its pursuer 

 in self defence, but never reasons about 

 it. Men say it is instinct. 



The bird looks about for the best place 

 where it may build its nest. It examines 

 this place, and that, and the other, and 

 after a good deal of investigation makes 

 a selection, and you are obliged to con- 

 fess that it chose well with reference to 

 convenience of construction and security 

 from its foes. But men say it did not 

 reason: it did not know why it made all 

 that examination and finally decided or 

 chose so well. This would be according 

 to our ideas of instinct. Men have long 

 so decided in regard to the dumb ani- 

 mals. They have set up a pillar, in- 

 scribed upon it ' ' miima Thnle, ' ' and have 

 rested. No, not quite. Here and there 

 the conviction has existed that there may 

 be something more, and some have ven- 

 tured to beUeve that the dumb animals 

 have spirits that will live again. 



Let us go back again to the place of 

 beginning. It is said that animals have 

 no language. But are we quite sure of 

 that? They do call for each other, — the 

 parent for the young, and the young for 

 the parent — and they recognize each 

 other's voice among many others. They 

 They make plaintive sounds, and sounds 

 for distress and rejoicing. What at least 

 answers the purpose of language so far 

 may go farther. 



Animals remember. They do not for- 

 get their homes; and some animals do 

 not forget that a neighbor has good pro 

 visions or good feed beyond the fence. 



