14 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



country, by English syndicates, and Congress should take action 

 to prevent such concentration of ownership in land. 



John Cragin of New York has an immense estate nearly in the 

 centre of the Sacramento valley, with the Sierra Nevada mount- 

 ains on the east and the Coast Range on the west. He takes a 

 different course in the management of his estate. It is divided 

 into ranches of about 20,000 acres, each in charge of a foreman 

 to whom he paj's a salary of about Si, 500. He has provided a 

 complete system of irrigation, and is bringing his estate into 

 condition to put on the market. He cultivates alfalfa largel}' ; 

 with irrigation it will yield ten tons of dry hay per acre. This is 

 stored in stacks of about three hundred tons each, and he has 

 about 60,000 tons on hand. Cattle will fatten on it. Mr. Cragin 

 has about ten thousand horses ; you cannot buy a single horse, 

 but the surplus is sent to San Francisco and sold at auction ; the 

 proceeds of a recent sale of fat steers amounted to 838,000. At 

 Riverside a man fed three horses from one acre of alfalfa. 



The people of California are happy, contented and self-satisfied ; 

 every one thinks his location the best of all, and where every one 

 has the best, of course there can be no jealousy ; but every one 

 wants to sell out. They want from S200 to 8350 per acre, which 

 Mr. Ware thought too high ; it is rather a prospective value. At 

 Bakersfield, there is the best system of irrigation and all kinds of 

 fruit may be successfull}^ grown there. The speaker saw fine 

 specimens on exhibition ; including raisins and nuts of all kinds. 

 The peaches were of enormous size ; the}' are put in a strong 

 pickle to preserve them for show. 



Jack rabbits, larger than our rabbits and having long ears, 

 abound to such an extent as to be a perfect nuisance. Parties of 

 two hundred or more, are formed to destroy them ; a corral is 

 first built by the hunters, who then surround a circuit of four 

 miles or more, and gradually coming nearer together drive the 

 rabbits into the corral. Ten thousand have been killed in one 

 hunt, and two ladies riding out in a buggj' killed two hundred 

 with a rifle. 



Riverside is the grand centre of the orange industry. Twelve 

 years ago it was a prairie covered with grass and not a tree was to 

 be seen anywhere. Now Magnolia avenue extends for miles in a 

 straight line, bordered with palms, magnolias, and pepper trees, and 

 the orange groves are enclosed with trimmed hedges of Monterey 



