California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



foot! aud the construction of clothing, it 

 was a principle of duty and benevolence 

 to give as wide circulation as possible to 

 methods — new or old — which will tend 

 to promote health. We supposed that, 

 ia the matter of "dress reform," all its 

 advocates were philanthropically in- 

 clined, but the paragraph above shows 

 how easy it is to mistake, and that some 

 people, who have a " good thing, " will 

 obtain a government privdego for its ex- 

 clusive sale. Doubtless " there's money 

 in it." 



Thus justly says the Phrenological 

 Journal and Science of Beallh, referring 

 to some eastern reform under-garments. 

 Now, be it known to all good jjeople, 

 that the C. C. C. Company of San Fran- 

 cisco, have beiler .slylis of reform under- 

 clothing--the invention of a philan- 

 thropic California lady well known to the 

 editor — and they offer to sell patterns to 

 everybody. They also manufacture to 

 order, when desired. See advertisement 

 in this issue of the AoKicnLTnnisT, aud 

 profit by it and be happy. Benevolence 

 7iot at a discount in this case. — [Ed. Ag. 



Imaginary Sorrows the Cause 

 of "the Blues." 



The old story of '■ The Smoke HouBe," is thus 

 put into rhyme by Mr. H. H- Tdttle, of San 

 Jose. 



An old lady sat at tho smoke house door, 



While she wept, as women have wept before. 



Her husband came, with a heavy heart, 



Real peace and comfori, to impart. 



Says he "my darling, dtjarest wife. 



You've beeu my comfort ali my life. 



Lean now on me, your troubles tell; 



I'll bring relief and make you well." 



At these kind words she i-aised her head 



And heaved a sigh, aud thus sue said; 



" Our Sally dear is sm;ill you know. 



But large in time is sure to grow; 



And married then she'll likely be. 



And live the same as you an;i me. 



In time a little boy will grow, 



Mark well my word, it will be so; 



And full of auticr', full of tricks, 



His horse he'll play with whip and sticks. 



And in this house I now do see 



The little fellow, full of glee; 



That ham you see a swiugiug there. 



Suspended now in open air. 



Is fjUing on his little head! — 



My God! dear man, the rhild Is dead! 



And into grief tho woman flew. 



As tho' the thiug were real and true. 



The Object of Manueino. — The ob- 

 ject of manuring is to keep the crops 

 abundantly supplied in available forms 

 with all the kinds of food they require 

 throughout their growth. All our crops 

 recpiiro the same kinds of food, although 

 in soiuewliat different proportions. 



Farmyard manure is, and apparently 

 must iilwaj's be, our stable manure. It 

 contains all the elements our crops re- 

 quire, and is the cheapest form in ■which 

 tho whole of them can be obtained. 



More than half of tho weight of all 

 plants is made tip of elements which the 

 phuits get from water and from tho at- 

 mosphere — the loaves being imt out by 

 the plant to absorb food from the air 

 just as the rootlets absorb it from the 

 soil. — \ortli Britiah AtjiiouUurist. 



Look to the water supply for your 

 stock, see that it is pure and plentiful, 

 and by so doing kee|) them heidthy, and 

 they will reward you for the feed which 

 they consume. See to the winter quar- 

 ters for your stock, have them well sup- 

 jilicd with good food, and so keep your 

 stock iu good condition. Yoii will gain 

 by every attention you can pay to your 

 stock in keeping them warm aud com- 

 fortable. 



[For the AoiurULTUltlST.l 



DOTTINCS AND JOTTINGS. 



BY ISAAC KINLEY. 



'HESE sermons in stone: The earth 

 has daguerreotyped its history on 

 the rock, full of instructive lessons 

 aj, for those who will take the trouble 

 y^ to read. 



This little fossil, not so large as a wal- 

 nut, is a petrified organism that lived, I 

 dare not guess how many ages ago. 

 Buried in its rock-built mausoleum, tho 

 depcsit of ancient ocean, it has lain 

 under these Silurian rocks for uncounted 

 ages. During long, long years, rolled 

 over it the waters of a mighty ocean. 

 During long, long ages, strange wild 

 beasts, such as live not now on tho 

 e.arth, roamed, and howded, and preyed 

 on one another in a primeval forest. 

 During thousands and thousands of 

 years, this river has been widening aud 

 deepening its channel in the solid rock. 

 For unknown ages a race of men whose 

 very traditions have been lost, lived and 

 loved and hunted on its banks. And for 

 an unrecorded time the red Indian 

 roamed the denizen and lord of this 

 wilderness. 



A new race of men — a new civilization 

 is here. Aud is it not strange, almost 

 to bewilderment, that geologic cycles, 

 men, nations, whole races, pass like a 

 figment away and this moilusk endures'? 



And I can look upon it, handle it, nay, 

 reason about it, and learn from it the 

 races that far back iu the dim twilight of 

 time peopled this primeval ocean. 



At creation s early dawn, when matter 

 first assumed organic form, this little 

 stone was a living being — a type, perhaps 

 the highest, of the then existing life, and 

 a prophecy of the higher developments 

 during the millennial ages to come. 



I hear of human reason as something 

 in contradistinction aud antagonistic to 

 the divine. The power to distinguish 

 the relation of things, to perceive truth, 

 aud to deduce cause from efl'cct or eft'ect 

 from cause, is indeed a human power, 

 the crowning one Of the human facul- 

 ties. 



Whatever be the nature of truth — 

 call it human or divine — it is a human 

 faculty which perceives and comprehends 

 it, and this clamorous denunciation of 

 human reason is but human stultifica- 

 tion. Whatever you know, my reader, 

 whether it be a revelation from God, or 

 of the discoveries of science, you know 

 through your powers of reason, aud you 

 could as well disparage the human hand 

 that earns your bread as the human rea- 

 son that thinks your thoughts. 



Keason is the sword of truth, its buck- 

 ler, and its shield. Distrust it not. Put 

 on the armor and meet boldly the issue. 



In the commonwealth of reason prop- 

 erty is secure, and action free. No one 

 can say of the deductions of reason or 

 thf> precepts of truth, "This is my prop- 

 erty to the exclusion of my neighbor;" 

 nor to the free mind, "Thus far shalt 

 thou go aud no farther." God has given 

 us the Viist territory of truth. We have 

 but to explore, and subdue, and it is 

 ours. All known truth is jiroperty in 

 possession. All unknown, but know- 

 able, truth is property in abeyance. The 

 mind's dominion is bounded only by tho 

 imi^ossible and the inlinito. 



Save ms from those who laioic. When 

 one only believes, ho is likely to have a 



reason for the faith that is in him; but 

 if he knows, his assurance cuts ofi' inves- 

 tigation, though his assumptions are 

 ■without a sustaining fact or argument. 



But there are those who will believe a 

 positive man without a reason rather 

 than a modest one whose reasons are 

 demonstrations. The dogmatist has fol- 

 lowers, and the Mormon prophet builds 

 up a church while the philosopher has 

 only here and there a listener. 



Nature lives, and by an innate energy 

 is ever struggling to higher life. 



Plants, animals, and the human race 

 itself, grow; not only as individuals, but 

 develop a.% races. 



The works of God are no failure. 

 During the infinity of geologic cycles, 

 from the birth of the first monad, na- 

 ture's motto has been, "Higher aud still 

 higher." 



Upward and upieard is nature's law, 

 and the history of her march is written 

 in her own vernacular on the rocks, and 

 aU who will may read. 



Pain, physical pain — struggle as one 

 ma}', long years of bodily suffering will 

 conquer at last, and, in spite of him, 

 groove the face with lines of agony. 



Philosophy is indeed a good thing, j 

 and dogged endurance even better; but 

 both must succumb. Aud though there 

 be not a whit of good in it, one groans 

 through his very resolution to endure. 



As sledging gives muscle to the black- 

 smith's arm; so thinking increases the 

 power to think. He who masters one 

 subject gains thereby in mental capacity 

 and is the more able to grapple with 

 other and more difficult ones. The mind 

 as well as the body needs its gymnasium. 

 All the faculties clamor for exercise. 



Drink, it you will — drink deeply — 

 drink to the very dregs the cup of bitter- 

 ness. 



Is it sweet? Is there joy in it? Then 

 fill and quaff again; aud when your 

 breath is a pollution, and you have be- 

 come a putrescence, stinking with moral 

 rottenness, enjoy whatsoever there is of 

 joy in the reflection that all this abomin- 

 ation is j'our own work — this hell on 

 earth your own creation. 



Those persons who are ever suspecting 

 Ouhers — who ascribe good deeds to bad 

 and sinister motives; it is their own pe- 

 culiar devil that in.spires. Do not trust 

 them; they will deceive you. Do not 

 confide in them ; they will betray you. 



" now.'ver darkly sin may twine 

 Its tlireiids around tlie human heart. 



The impress of the hand divine 

 Can never utterly depart. 



And though the taint of every ill 

 Hub marred the spirit with its blight. 



Some leaves are pure aud stainless still — 

 On these at times the angels wrile." 



No one is so good but he has some 

 alloy of badness. No one is so bad but 

 he has a tnvce of goodness. \A'hat is bad 

 in another is like unto your badness. 

 What is good in another is like unto 

 your goodness. And you two are simili- 

 tudes only a little removed. 



The foundation of our political edifice 

 rests on the solid rock of political truth 

 — the durable granite of human eciuality. 

 If wo build to this foundation our system 

 will secure e(jual aud exact justice to all, 

 with a resulting civilization such as the 

 earth has never before witnessed. 



The battle of liberty is forever being 

 fought. Selfish aud dishonorable men 

 there will always be, ready to carry their 

 j)urposes of personal promotion and ag- 



grandizement at the cost of the rights of 

 the citizen. Always will there be those 

 who, while they shout freedom to the 

 people, will seek to link the chains^ that 

 bind them. 



San Jose, December, 1876. 



FAMILIAR TALKS— No. I. 



BY LtJIP. 

 "TO TOIIj ANT) TO SPIN." 



Lookihg over a Southern paper not 

 long since, the following passage arrested 

 my attention; 



" There are among us now young peo- 

 ple who are growing up in that saddest 

 phase of life for the young, " old before 

 their time;" who have to bake and 

 brew, to toil and to spin ; across whose 

 fair j'oung brows no shadows should 

 have come, yet their daily lives are har- 

 rassed by carping cares and petty anxie- 

 ties, whose desires are thwarted, whose 

 hopes are baffled and aspirations chilled. ' ' 



Why should those who have to bake, 

 brew and spin, grow ■ old before their 

 time? Why should household work 

 throw such shadows across their fair 

 young brows? Why should such work 

 be designated as " carping cares " and 

 "petty anxieties" and harrass their lives? 

 Suppose some desires are thwarted, and 

 seme hopes b.afBed, is it more than 

 Northern girls have to bear with? They 

 do not become " mere drudges " because 

 they can not have everything just as they 

 wish. Because they must learn to "look 

 well to the ways of their households," 

 they are . not looked upon as being ill- 

 treated by Fortune. And if they are 

 girls of good sense, they do not consider 

 themselves mistreated. It was a queer 

 position for the editor of an agricultural 

 paper to assume. He, and those 

 "daughters of the South," perhaps, 

 never heard, or have forgotten that 

 "labor conquers all things," aud the 

 motto so often seen — " Labor is wor- 

 ship." 



Surely, in most cases at least, the 

 mere fact that one must wait on herself, 

 and others too, perhaps, and learn to do 

 with little, and help keep the home neat 

 and tidy, need not interfere with one's 

 education. True, one may be unable to 

 attend school constantly, and take a long 

 collegiate course when the public school 

 studies are ended; but more really use- 

 ful knowledge is to be gained out of 

 school than some may imagine. Many 

 of the courses of study pursued in the 

 higher schools and colleges are of no 

 real benefit to those iu the humble walks 

 of life. And these grow more in quan- 

 tiiq every year. Dio Lewis thinks a re- 

 turn to the public schools of fifty years 

 ago would be an improvement. Then 

 the child studied the spellinR-book, read- 

 ar, common arithmetic, and the writing- 

 book, thoroughly, and went out from 

 the school with a constitution sufficient- 

 ly good to enable him or her to work 

 and earn a respectable living, and to at- 

 tend college in after years, or to gain a 

 good education during leisure hours. 

 Some of the brightest stars in the liter- 

 ary world, aud some of the smartest men 

 that ever lived have been self-taught. 



But there are two ways of looking at 

 the work that falls to women generally : 

 the American women as a class, I mi an, 

 aud those especially who have fariiui 

 husbands. One is, that duty in itself is 

 a pleasure, and brings its own reward. 

 Another is tho idea that some womni 

 have that they are fitted for better thin-ti 

 than to be, as they term it, more house- 

 hold drudges. But sometimes the good- 

 man is more to blame than the wife. 

 He in, too often, apt to forget, that his 

 wife is much farther out of tho world as 



