California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



be made for their social wants. Brains 

 and heart need food and clothing as well 

 as bodies; and those who have learned 

 to recognize brains and hearts as the 

 beet and most imijortant part of their 

 personal possessions, will go where they 

 can find the ministry they need." 



Brain Farming. 



The time is coming when the elemen- 

 tary principles of agriculture will be 

 taught in our public schools. The time 

 is coming when the sons of our farmers, 

 who are sent to institutions of learning 

 to obtain a respectable education, will 

 pay less attention to learning the Greek 

 and Latin languages, and the higher 

 mathematics, and more attention to 

 studying such authors as Liebig, John- 

 son, Silliman, Agassiz, itc. The learned 

 professions are all tilled to overflowing. 

 Half of the members cannot make a 

 living. What is now wanted is, educa- 

 tion to fit men for farming — to make the 

 profession of farming as honorable, as 

 reputable, as any other. If the mem- 

 bers of the agricultural profession are as 

 well educated and as well qualified, there 

 is no reason why they should not fill im- 

 portant positions — which are now almost 

 completely absorbed by the learned pro- 

 fessions, as they are termed. It is true 

 there is not much progress in this direc- 

 tion, but there is some. Let there be 

 more. Let farmers be as well educated 

 for their profession as other members 

 are for their special professions. Farm- 

 ing will then become more profitable. 

 Brain farming is increasing yearly. By 

 and bye we hope there will be no other, 

 and that it will be educated brain at 

 that.— £a;. 



Educated Farmers. 



Just in proportion to the successful 

 cultivation of the soil, is the aggregate 

 prosperity of the human family aug- 

 mented. As agi'iculture is the founda- 

 tion of all success in every department 

 of business, how important then that it 

 should be studied and understood by 

 those engaged therein! It was the first 

 vocation to which man was called by the 

 voice of his Maker, to till the soil, and 

 it is yet the highest and noblest profes- 

 sion on earth among men. It is not 

 only above all others, but it underlies 

 and sustains all others, and all others 

 acknowledge their dependence upon it. 



Brains and muscle should share equal- 

 ly all laborious occupations. But the 

 bruin should direct the muscle and utilize 

 and economize its power. 



Culture of Sugar Cane. 



A writer in the Florida ArjHculturist 

 estimates the cost of seed for an acre of 

 sugar cane at S15. The machinery for 

 manufacturing on a moderate scale will 

 cost probably about $200, but the indus- 

 trious poor man can plant a smaller area 

 until he raises his own seed, and the in- 

 come from his first acre manufactvired 

 and sold will pay for all necessary ma- 

 chinery. A market is always at hand, 

 and an article as staple as sugar or syrup 

 can never fail to be in demand at remu- 

 nerative prices. At the present time 

 more than the ordinary inducements are 

 offered for engaging in this business. 

 Cuba, which has furnished no small por- 

 tion of the sugar consumed in America, 

 is now so demoralized by domestic 

 troubles, that for some years at least she 

 will bo wholly unable to furnish the 

 usual quantity, and the market value 

 must necessarily be increased. To raise 

 an aero of corn in the State of Illinois 



requires a greater annual expenditure of 

 capital and labor than to raise an acre of 

 cane in Florida. It has to be planted ev- 

 erj' spring, and cultivated throughout 

 the greater part of the summer, while 

 cane, once planted, gi'ows for years, and 

 needs but little cultivation after the first 

 season. A successful crop of corn gives 

 a yield of about 40 bushels per acre, and 

 an average home price of 50 cents per 

 bushel is usually quite satisfactory to 

 the producer. If, therefore, the Illinois 

 farmer can become rich raising corn at 

 $20 per acre, why cannot the cane grow- 

 er in Florida progress much more rapid- 

 ly, when his crop requires no greater 

 average expense, and yields from $200 to 

 $300, instead of $20 per acre? 



There are portions of California where 

 sugar cane might be produced, we be- 

 lieve, at a profit. We would like to see 

 such of our farmers as can well do so, 

 try the exi^eriment on a small scale, at 

 least, for the sake of knowing how it 

 will grow on their farms. 



^M\ ^mAtu 



Suggestions About Breeding. 



PERFECT development and sound, 

 vigorous health, constitutionally, 

 especially in t he generative organs, 

 are conditions of fertilitj'. 

 2. In the maintenance and im- 

 provement of breed, the truth that "like 

 produces like," that the reproductive 

 germ ■nill stamp upon the animal devel- 

 oped from it the characters of the pa- 

 rent organism, is the backbone of suc- 

 cess. 



3. We can, in a great degree, at will, 

 produce variations and improvements in 

 breeds, as by abundant feeding, a mild 

 and salubrious climate, a rich and 

 healthy soil, moderate use, education, 

 stimulation, or selection of desirable qual- 

 ities; by disease or rejection of \inde- 

 sirable characters and properties; by so- 

 liciting the weight of imagination in our 

 favor; by allowing the breeding animals 

 to mix only with those of the stamp de- 

 sired; by crossing less improved breeds 

 systematically with mates of a better 

 race, and by crossing animals faulty or 

 deficient in some particular point with 

 others in which this point is developed 

 in excess. 



■1. The herding of pregnant high class 

 animals with low bred ones, and the re- 

 sulting attachment between the two races 

 are to be especially avoided, as occasion- 

 ally afl'ecting the progeny injuriously; 

 strong impressions from a new or unu- 

 sual condition of surrounding objects 

 are to be equally guarded against. 



5. If a valuable female is allowed to 

 breed to an inferior male, she cannot be 

 relied upon to jiroduce pure bred animals 

 for several succeeding pregnancies. 

 Through a strong and retained impres- 

 sion, the absorption into the sj'stem of 

 living particles (germinal matter) from 

 the fwtus, or through some influence du- 

 ring pregnancy on the ova, then being 

 moot actively developed, the good or bad 

 features of the first sire are perpetuated 

 in the progeny of succeeding ones. 



6. All breeds show a tendency to 

 "breed back," or to produce offspring 

 bearing the marks of their less improved 

 and comparatively valueless ancestors; 

 hence, individuals of this kind must be 



[ rejected from the best breeds if wo would 

 maintain their excellence. 



7. Certain races and individuals have 

 their characters more fixed, and will 

 transmit and perpetuate them in greater 

 proiiortion than others with which thoy 



may be crossed. If their qualitiea are 

 desirable, they prove highly valuable in 

 raising stock of greater excellence. 



If undesirable they will depreciate the 

 value of any stock crossed for many gen- 

 erations. That fixity of type, however, 

 is, above all, a char.icteristic of those 

 which have been carefully selected and 

 bred up to a certain standard for many 

 generations, so that in our best, longest 

 established and most esteemed breeds we 

 have a most valuable legacy left us by 

 the successful breeders of the past with 

 which we may mould our inferior races 

 almost at will. 



8. While breeding continuously from 

 the nearest relations tends to a weakened 

 constitution, and the aggravation of any 

 taint in the blood to sterility, these may 

 be avoided by infusing at intervals fresh 

 blood of the same family which has been 

 bred apart from this branch of it for sev- 

 eral generations. Moreover, the highest 

 excellence is sometimes attained only by 

 breeding very close for a time. 



9. Diseased or mutilated animals ai-e 

 generally to be discarded from breed- 

 ing. Mutilations resulting from disease 

 existing during pregnancy, and disease 

 with a constitutional morbid taint are 

 abov? all to be dreaded as transmissible. 

 — Pkof. James Law, in New York Her- 

 ald. 



AN EARLY MORNING SOLILOQUY 

 Itlre. S. Talks and Tlunks to Herself 



BY MES. LIZZIE WniGHT. 



"This is very much like savage life," 



Mrs. S said to herself between two 



puffs at the obstinate fire; "when will I 

 learn to look out for myself. It is just 

 as mother used to tell me, exactly." 



Mrs. S was thinking now, fussing 



with the fire meanwhile, putting the half 

 burnt slivers together, and herding up 

 the dim coals, but it would not burn, so 

 she took up an old pan and run out into 

 the shed, half dressed as she was, to 

 pick up chips. The shed was open, and 

 the winter wind made her shiver. 



It is strange how much one can think 

 over in a brief space. She saw while 

 hastily scratching up the chips, a picture 

 of herself away back in the old home, 

 making the fire one cold morning, while 

 her mother's voice from the curtained 

 bed at the other end of the loom was 

 saying, "why don't you lie abed till 

 some of the men folks make the fire. I 

 see this is the way you will always do." 

 Then she had answered in perfect trust, 

 "no, indeed, if ever I'm married, and 

 have a house of my own, the morning 

 fires will go unmade all day if they wait 

 forme to make them." "How is it 

 now," she went on talking and thinking 

 to herself while putting her chips on the 

 fire, "there are two fires to make this 

 morning, and I, alas! am making them 

 both, while he is in bed. Why haven't 

 I common sense enough to know that 

 men will take what ease thej' can get. 

 Oh, why am I not wiser. I am not fit 

 to do such rough work, and yet I keep 

 on doing it because nobody else will do 

 it for me. I have about come to the 

 conclusion that I shall be allowed to do 

 it as long as I can. These ai'e hard 

 thoughts, but I can't help them. I shall 

 keep them to myself, certainly I should 

 be extremely mortified to have (hose 

 things known. I can only tell it nil over 

 to myself to free my mind. If wives 

 did not come so easily, " she soliloquized, 

 •'these farming men would be more care- 



ful of those they have. I wish I could 

 legislate on this subject for them. 'Oh,' 

 they say, exultingly, ' 'tis bard, surely, 

 to find a hired girl, but if you say ici/e, 

 a dozen women are ready to bind them- 

 selves unconditionally.' Oh, I can t 

 help confessing to myself, with bitter- 

 ness, that there is truth in what my 

 mother used to tell me. ' If you work 

 yourself to death you will never get 

 "thank you" for it.' I feel just now 

 like laying this down as an axiom : ' the 

 harder a wife works the less he husband 

 loves her.' " 



"And why should he not love her less? 

 To be sure it may be to save expense, 

 and to make himself and children more 

 comfortable, that she overtaxes and bur- 

 dens herself. She may rise early on 

 Monday morning, make fires, get break- 

 fast, and have her wash water over be- 

 fore her husband is ready to get up — do 

 it all undei silent protest, too, because 

 it must be done and it is so much better 

 to have it all done early and out of the 

 way, for the comfort of the family, and 

 to give time for the sewing and knitting. 

 But in making fires she blackens and 

 burns her hands, may be, and in wash- 

 ing the skin is rubbed off and the joints 

 spread. They are all soaked up and 

 reddened, and after a period of excessive 

 hard work they cease to be pretty, and 

 her husband knows it. She may dress 

 herself neatly when her task is done, 

 and have on her face that pleasant look 

 which the consciousness of a hard job 

 completed tends to give; but she is tired, 

 worn, and jaded; she cannot be bright, 

 joyous, and vivacious; and, unless she 

 has an uncommon amount of spirit and 

 independence, a few years of this round 

 of work drags her down, until her hus- 

 band in thought comes to regard her as 

 'the old woman.' " 



"There are so many things she can do 

 to save expense; house-cleaning and pa- 

 pering, and even whitewashing, and 

 blacking the stoves, and all the sewing, 

 of course, that she can hardly bring the 

 week's work within the week; seldom 

 finding time for those artistic arrange- 

 ments of dress and hair which all ad- 

 mire, whatever they may say; and hus- 

 band, unconsciously perhaps, draws con- 

 trasts between her and the lively, 

 sprightly beings he meets here and 

 there, who are not worn down with work 

 and care, because they have mothers to 

 look out for them, while, alas, in too 

 many cases, the wife of the farmer has 

 no one to aid or council her." 



" It vexes one to hear women, as a 

 class, talked to as though they did noth- 

 ing. Does a woman who rears a family 

 of children do nothing? This wide 

 country is covered with farmer's homes. 

 Some of the wives are strong and hearty, 

 able to walk under their burdens; never- 

 theless it would be fearful to count up 

 the farmer's wives who are literally 

 irorkcd to death .' Some, who have no 

 ambition beyond the round of house- 

 work, may live, and thrive; but the fine- 

 ly organized woman, who has delicate 

 taste and inherent strivings after better 

 things, must look to herself or she will 

 wear rapidly away under the farming 

 regime. Why is this so with farming 

 more than with other business?" 



" But the saddest is the matter-of- 

 course way in which the husband views 

 it all. It is a matter of course that his 

 wife should do all she can; that she 

 should be constantly at work, never fin.l 

 ing time for recreation. A matter t:i 

 course that she should grow weaker and 

 weaker, less and 1 

 finally leave him ; 

 often that the 

 who has worked 

 ty of repining 



