Agricultural, &c.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1256, 16 December 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

Agricultural, &c.

4 THE SOCIAL SIDE OF RURAL LIFE. One of the reasons why agriculture has so few attractions for young men in this state is that there are fewer social advantages connected with the pursuit than are to be found in the older State of the Union, Farming as it lms thus far been pursued is an isolated business. The dwellings are far apart, and they are by no means attractive, except in a few instances. If one contrasts the attractions of a California farm with those of an improved New England farm, the difference is found to be very great. Yet even there the attractions are not great enough to retain more than a small proportion of the young men. The reason is that farms in the Western States of much greater fertility and productiveness can still be bought cheap, and that even there the social advantages common with agriculture are reproduced. Any one who has travelled in those new Northwestern States and has been a close observer, has not failed to note how soon farming communities are formed. The dwelling and outbuildings are copies from the old homesteads, in the Eastern States, The school house and the church add to the rural attractions. The social features of agricultural life are not only re. produced, but are enlarged, In this way young men and young women become inter- ■ ested in agriculture, It is associated with beautiful homesteads, with books, with rural ■ ornamentation, with pride in well kept farms, ! good breeds of cattle, sheep, orchards and

vineyards. Now, what has been done in other States can be done in California, and until it is done it will be impossible to fasten restless young men to the soil, The sons of farmers will turn their backs on the business, They have done it many times. The remedy is plain enough. Farming is not attractive to the majority 01 young people, In its present condition perhaps it ought not to be. The desolate old rookery of a farm house, the bunks or the haystacks for the hired men, the rough kitchen table with a coarse abundance, the treeless fields, the dust and aridity of six months ol rainless weather, the oppressive dullness not isolation—these are some of the drawbacks oi the business, Some changes have beer wrought by the planting of vineyards anc orchards. There are many beautiful home, steads now upon the hillsides, But the aver age Californian faim is not attractive becausi it lacks the outward beauty and social attrac tions found in the farms of the Northern States, The wheat farm of the plains is especially re pulsive to young men, They are oppressec with the isolation, and ride off to the nearesl village or hamlet where they can find people to talk with, and get a fresh assurance tha there is still life in the world, A change fo the better is gradually going on. But unlesi these rude and primitive homesteads can bi made more attractive it is useless to affirn that young men ought to betake themselves t< agriculture, An agriculturist in a recent address pointed out the fact that young men from ten t( eighteen years were now in the schools, ant during that time they learned little or nothinj about farming, The inference was that in this way they were neglecting a moie importanl vocation, There is no neglect in the case These are years in which young men ought K be at school, if possible, There is time enougl after that period to learn the practical part o agriculture. If these young men in some waj manage to have their asthetic sense siimulatec and developed, it will be reasonably certaii that in lime the homestead will be revolution ized, It was the educated rural element wind in the Northern states created so many tive homesteads. It is this element which i: working in the same way in the Westerr States, It is none other than the trained ant disciplined young'men who will work tin same change in California, It is idle tc lament that these young people are now ii the schools, They will leam something there and when they go home it is quite possible tha they will take a handle in turning' the fara barracks into more attractive habitations,—, San Fancisco Bulletin,

■:< ■'.",':'..: CARP BRMDIMft; M--'KV:^'v ■ The'Kern.County terte says '-. .Thai arty;■ ; ' (wo carp ponds of small dimensions 'near Bakersfield, in each of which the plant was made • last spring, The fish are. doing well, and there are to be seen great-numbers of'young; . ■ fish. 'lt cannot be long before this market will be well supplied with this excellent fish. It would be well for every farmer who_ has : . half an acre of ground fitted for a pond, with a certain supply of water, to. raise the fish for ■•'.-. the household alone, as they raise their fowls, The Foothill Tidingt tells of the Rev. J. W. Brier, who is breeding, carp some three miles ~ from Grass Valley. He finds that'i,ooo carp ' : will live and grow finely upon what, one hog will—in both cases from birth to two years old. At this age the carp will weigh 4,000 pounds the average lot, while the average porker will weigh 250 pounds. At present prices for the two articles of food, the fish would bring £2OO and the hog £s, lh South Coast, published at San Luis Obispo, says that a Mr, McLelland, a resident of that country, recently caught 300 carp at one haul of a seine, in a small lake of that country, where only a little over two years ago ten were planted, Owing to a rent that was in the seine, he thinks he did not secure more than half that were in the net. The average weight of the 300 was about one pound.