Agriculturist 



E*iirE 



i-oon^ jrciTLyiRwrAX* 



Vol. 8— No. 2, 



SAN JOSE AND SAN FRANCISCO, CAL,, FEBROARY, 18]?, 



J SoBBCuiiTioN PmcE. $1.60 a TeiT. 

 \ Siiiglv Coplen, 15 OnU, 



®itw fi>iudcuiuj). 



GARDENING FOR FEBRUARY. 



TA VEGETABLE GARDEN. 



(«! F uot already done, prepare the soil 

 2|l at ouce for the garden. Stift' soil 

 ll[ should be covered with sand, where 

 sf obtainable, and at anj' rate should 

 Kg be very completely pulverized seve- 

 ral inches in depth, and well manured. 

 Plant peas, onions, beets, carrots, pars- 

 nips, lettuce, cress, radish, turnips, etc., 

 ■where they are to grow, also potatoes, 

 and set out cabbage and cauliflower 

 plants if you have or can get them. If 

 not, start some in beds at once. Also, 

 start tomatoes, egg plauts, sweet pota- 

 toes and peppers, in beds or boxes, 

 where they can be well sheltered from 

 frosts. Delay planting corn till the mid- 

 dle of March, and squashes, beans and 

 cucumbers and melons until near the 

 first of May, when there is little danger 

 of frost. Then tomatoes, etc., can be 

 transplanted with safety. 



FLOWEK GARDEN. 



If not already attended to, plant out 

 your flowering bulbs, such as lilies, glad- 

 iolus, amaryllis, tuberoses, dahlias, peo- 

 nies, agapanthus, etc. Trim back your 

 geraniums for a new start, also petunias, 

 and other half-hardy perennials. Cut 

 back rose bushes at once. Divide up 

 the sweet-williams, pinks, chrysanthe- 

 mums, violets, .etc., and give enough 

 room to spread in rich soil. This is an 

 excellent season for dividing most plants 

 at the roots, and to start cuttings in sand 

 in a moist sheltered place, in garden 

 beds or in boxes. Plant hardy and half- 

 hardy annuals of all kinds. We refer 

 you to catalogues, which can be had for 

 the asking, for the varieties you want. 

 But don't forget that a few showy vane- 

 ties are better than too many kinds. The 

 alyssums, asters, balsam, cockscombs, 

 daturas, amaranths, nasturtiums, phlox, 

 portulacas, salvias, zinnias, etc., etc., 

 are especially fine in variety. If you did 

 not plant biennials and perennials last 

 fall, plant at once, and they will give 

 you some flowers this season; if a little 

 late they will make a fine show when 

 many others are out of bloom, if they 

 get plenty of water and care. 



Make war against weeds of all kinds; 

 hoe or pull them out. Also, look out 

 for slugs and cut-worms, and other in- 

 sects. Don't crowd too many plants to- 

 gether. Where too thick, thin out. 

 Group together for color and effect, but 

 do not plant tall growing plants so as to 

 hide the short ones. Do not give very 

 much water until hot, dry weather, but 

 let the plants grow in a light, dry, warm 

 soil, during spring weather. This is im- 

 portant. 



THE FKDIT GARDEN. 



divided at the roots and transplanted, 

 when desirable to increase their number 

 Cut scions now for grafting, pack in 

 sand in boxes, keep under shelter, and 

 use in March or April. Nurserymen 

 rootgraft young trees and small plants 

 this month, and until May. Scions 

 saved now in sand will keep til! June, 

 as will cuttings of most kinds. 



This should be a busy month in the 

 garden. Overhaul your house plants, 

 re-pot all that do not look thrifty, re- 

 placing the soil with fresh, rich loam. 

 Start hanging baskets. Chinese prim- 

 roses and French violets, with wild 

 strawberries, lobelias, sedums, madeira 

 vines, smilax, ivys, wandorering Jew, 

 stone crock, and many other creeping 

 plants of tine foliage, in fact almost any 

 good plants look fine in hanging baskets. 

 Moss and ferns should be used also when 

 obtainable. 



ANGORAS vs. SHEEP DURING A 

 DROUTH. 



Trim your blackberry, raspberry, cur- 

 rant and gooseberry bushes, if not al- 

 ready attended to. Delay pruning grape 

 vines until danger of frost is past. Thin 

 out and hoe your strawberries. Grape 

 and other cuttings may be planted this 

 and next month, and all small fruits be 



While the sheep suffered and much 

 loss was sustained during the late short 

 season of drought, the Angoras got along 

 as well as ever, and were fat, with plenty 

 to eat upon their natural ranges. The 

 reason for this is plain. The sheep is a 

 grass eating animal, and the grass being 

 annual, gave out. The Angora is a 

 brousing animal, subsisting largely on 

 herbaceous shrubs. It can live indepen- 

 dently of grass, while a sheep would 

 perish upon the same range. 



In this respect it is more nearly re- 

 lated to the deer and girafi'e. Its flesh 

 also resembles the deer's, and is more 

 like venison than mutton. There is a 

 similar difference in its habits from the 

 sheep, as the camel is diflerent from the 

 horse. The camel is a shrub eater, the 

 horse a grass eater. 



There is an immense deal of feed on 

 this coast suitable for the Angora. The 

 many uses to which the beautiful fleece, 

 the pelts and skins can bo put, are con- 

 stantly increasing, and the price of the 

 skins and pelts are advancing. Lately 

 the Angora Robe and Glove Company, 

 of San Jose, have added whiplash braid- 

 ing to their industries, and they are now 

 tanning the real pebble kid for gloves, 

 etc. The fleece of pelts make the best 

 dusters in the world— superior to feath- 

 ers for all nice furniture, etc. 



The Company is selling all the gloves, 

 robes, etc., as fast as they can make 

 them. 



Auother industry is now inaugurated, 

 and will in future be pushed right along. 

 This is the cauning of .\ngora venison. 

 Ht-retofere there has been some difliucul- 

 ty experienced in disposing of the meat 

 to butchers at paying rates. Now Mr. 

 C. P. Bailey has demonstrated that the 

 meat can be put up in cans and sold at 

 good prices. This will give an increased 

 value to these animals. When once 

 popular, the Angora venison will be in 

 great demand. We have eaten of the 

 meat at m.any a meal, and must say that 

 we prefer fre'sh Angora meat to mutton. 

 There is no healthier meat, or sweeter, 

 cooked in any way. 



SHEEP STRAW STOCK FARM- 

 ING. 



During the late winter drought many , 

 thousands of sheep perished from bun- | 

 ger. The grass upon the ntngee pave 

 out, and no provision had been made to 

 feed them with either hay or straw. | 

 There is annually enough straw burned j 

 by farmers, to get rid of it, to winter all i 

 the sheep in the htate were it properly 

 stacked and saved for that purpose. \ 

 little co-oporative understanding and ar- 

 rangement between stock men and grain 

 farmers would benefit both parties. Ev- 

 ery good grain farmer should save his 

 straw. Well stacked it will last good a 

 dozen years, and feed his own or some- 

 body's stock in time of need. Every 

 owner of live stock upon large ranges 

 should make arrangements with some 

 convenient grain producer to have the 

 straw saved for the use of his stock. 

 Of course a still better way is for every 

 farmer to diversity his farming with 

 grain, hay, stock, etc., and thus econom- 

 ically manage his affairs. Only the best 

 stock pays much anyway, and where 

 each farmer keeps a few head he can 

 have the best, and also best conduct his 

 farming to his own advantage. 



CHIPS FROM CORRESPONDENTS 



Mr. Woodward, of the Mountain 

 House, Contra Costa county, has per- 

 fected a model of a machine for loading 

 and unloading vessels with sacks of 

 grain or other material, coal, lumber or 

 heavy timbers. The work is accom- 

 plished by means of a geared belt mov- 

 ing upon rollers. The power may be 

 applied at either end of the belt, or at 

 any convenient point, and the machine 

 can be readily adjusted to convey cargo 

 to or from the deck or hold of a ship or 

 barge at almost any angles less than 

 perpendicular. Your correspondent was 

 favored with a private exhibition of its 

 capacity and adaptability, whereat min- 

 ture sacks of wheat, liliputian sticks of 

 timber, were rapidly conveyed from im- 

 aginary barges to tlie holds of imaginary 

 ships on docks, and vice versa. The in- 

 ventor, who was formerly captiiin of a 

 bay and river steamer here, claims for 

 his method, economy of time, labor and 

 power, over any otliers now employed 

 for taking or discharging cargo of the 

 kind above mentioned, or for storiog the 

 same in elevated places, or removing 

 therefrom. It is understood that cer- 

 tain parties have become interested in 

 Mr. Woodward's plan, and will test it. 



C. 



"If some ingenious misanthrope 

 should set about devising a place of tor- 

 ture far a fellow being, a place forlorn, 

 where not a blade of grass nor living, 

 shrub nor green thing should be. where 

 neglect, decay and dry-rot should reign, 

 and solitude and desolation combine to 

 crush the spirits, strangle hope and in- 

 duce the keenest pangs of remorse, a 

 place where every object and prospect 

 would call to mind and fearfully magnify 

 some misdeed or folly of the victim's 



past life, and preclude the faintest hope 

 for repi-ntance or forgiveness, a place 

 where his meat should be Pharoah's 

 lean kiue, his Mocha bilge water, and 

 his consolation the weed of bitterness, 

 so that he might hate all human kind — 

 bimaelf most of all, in short, a place of 

 mental anguish and soul's torment; 

 still, in the writer's opinion the misan- 

 thrope's ingenuity and maliiniity could 

 not contrive anything comparable to a 

 Calforuia second-rate rural hotel in a 

 dtoughthy season. Mabtyb." 



' "Martyr" might have added: Whir. 

 charges are eiorbitant in proportion i 

 poorness of accommodations, and unl' 

 the visitor will treat all hands to vii.- 

 whisky, he is counted no gentleman, i 

 and is open ts insult and abuse.— [Ed. 



From Bishop's Creek, Inyo Co., a 

 subscriber writes; " We have a fine little 

 valley here in this remote corner of the 

 country, where farming is principally 

 conducted by main strength and awk- 

 wardness, and we have the best market 

 lor everything we raise that I know of 

 on this coast." 



The Alden fruit drying estoblishiui at 

 at San Lorenzo, owned by u couip»ny . 

 composed of Messrs. Meek, Crane, Lew- 

 elen, and others of that vicinity, was '< 

 uot in operation last season. The estab- 

 lishment is located in the heart of a fa- ■ 

 inous fruit region. The expense o( the 

 Alden process of curing fruit, together 

 with the low price (or the product, cou- 

 pled with the fact that green frnit so 

 near the market brings ready sale, |s the 

 reason why. C. 



J. W. Dongherty reports that S. B. 

 Martin, John Jonston and himself, of 

 Murray township, Amador Valley, have 

 imported nineteen studs from clydesdalc, 

 Scotland, and that they have upwards of 

 three hundred half-breeds, three-fourths, 

 and a few fnll bloods each, also fonr or 

 five young studs, (or sale. They ought 

 to advertise. C. 



Stop! 



Stop depreciating property and labor, 

 and appreciating debts. Do justice to 

 (he debtor, and no injustice to the 

 creditor. Stop the piracy of makiug 

 the commodity a debt is to be paid in, 

 impossible of being obtained. Stoj) the 

 conspiracy that has been going on for 

 the last few years, of turning this gresit 

 land and its uoble men and women over 

 into the hands of a few bankers who con- 

 trol the gold of the world. The scheme 

 is too murderous of the rights of men 

 to be tolerated any longer. Stop pass- 

 ing laws by Congress that only a fey 

 desperate rascals know anything aboni, 

 the others sitting like basswood men, 

 while the crime against the country is 

 being perpetrated. Thus it was with 

 the demonetizing of silver. Stop all this 

 — stop this villainous law-making!" 



jy See the notice of arrival of a car- 

 load of King's Boilers and Engines. 

 Prepare for irrigation, by getting one. 



