falls on the average, a superabundance of water for maturing the crops.

But the rain-fall in different years is very variable; seasons of drought and great floods occur, and in any one season the rain is very unequally distributed in different sections. A dry spring, as in 1873, cuts off one half the crop through the moister parts of the valley, and totally destroys the crops in the southern part, except where irrigation is practiced. From all these facts it therefore appears to be sufficiently established, that some system of controlling the waters of precipitation is needed, and that with such a system annual crops may be secured.

No other means of equalizing the rain-fall will ever take the place of that which nature has provided in her forests. The relations of forests to the public welfare are too vast and too important to be presented here. The most magnificent schemes of irrigation will prove but temporary measures of relief, unless our existing forests are spared, or an equivalent of their value as condensers and equalizers of moisture obtained by artificial planting.

Another great drawback upon the agriculture of California is the lack of timber for fences and fuel. The former costs from three to six hundred dollars a mile, according to the distance from market and the quality of the fence made; and though comparatively little fuel is needed in this mild climate, the lack of it is a serious item of inconvenience and expense. In the neighborhood of Los Angeles, and upon the tule lands, the willow answers an excellent purpose for hedges, and soon supplies firewood and charcoal; grape cuttings are also extensively used; but no more promising outlay of labor or capital is found in the State, than the artificial production of wood in large quantities. Happily for us, Australia has given us trees, of marvelous strength, size, durability, and rapidity of growth, in the eucalyptus or sweet gum family, of which not less than thirty-five useful and ornamental species are now acclimated. Trees are indispensable to break the force of the northers, those destructive winds which are the dread of farmers in the Great Valley.

We gladly give space to the valuable suggestions of George May Powell, Chairman of the American Institute Committee on Forests and Inland Navigation:

Both ancient and modern history, as well as philosophy, unite in ascribing the depletion and the disappearance of streams to the dis

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foresting of the regions of which they are the arteries.

Our own country is not an exception. Streams which the early records of the United States show to have been sufficient to float not only barges with several tons of produce, but vessels of war even, will not now float a skiff at the same seasons of the year. A

very

little examination will show that in its bearing on the great question of inland navigation we have as a nation many many millions of dollars annually involved in it. This interest is increasing in magnitude no less rapidly than is our material growth. The famous engineer, Brunel, used to say that “God made rivers on purpose to feed canals.” Official experiments carried on in this State, during the last year or two, have demonstrated that by the use of steam on our canals, freight can be transported between the seabord and the great lakes in half the time previously required to move it by horse power. We know, too, that eight pounds of traction are required to move a ton of freight on a level by rail, while less than one fourth that traction is required to move a ton afloat in still water. A fair average price of moving freight by rail is $30 per ton, per 1,000 miles. Most of our farmers' boys have enough arithmetic at command to enable them, by use of the above factors and of the census reports, indicating the amount of grain and other products of farms, mines and factories we have to transport, to show that we have an amount here involved annually exceeding the interest on the public debt. There is no doubt that the great body of our freight can and should be floated instead of rolled, leaving the railways still plenty of work in carrying passengers, express and mails. No more silvaculture than is needed for timber, for fuel and manufacturing, and kindred purposes, or that will "pay" as such, will so restore and preserve these streams as to make them available for the grandest system of inland navigation the world ever saw. England has so elaborate a system, that between using the channels of scarce a score of streams-few of which are large enougb to be called rivers in America, together with canal connections, that the aggregate length of her inland lines is more than ten times hier territorial length.

To secure a system similarly continuous in this country we should require in some cases to construct “ slack water” courses, but that in turn would nearly or quite pay for itself in adding to well distributed hydraulic power for manufacturing purposes. Over a large majority of such lines river boats would run, which would move at full treble the speed of steain canal boats, and so be available for passenger travel. Less than fifty years will see not alone the Mississippi, the lakes and the Atlantic connected by ship canals, and the Chesapeake and Ohio united; it will witness the headwaters between the Missouri and the Columbia, and also many of the minor streams tributary to these and to others of the major arteries, so improved by means of combined forest and navigation engineering that the farmers, miners and manufacturers of the next century will have their freight moved at rates fabulously low compared to those now paid. In cases where “summit levels” could not be “locked” over, the transit could be made, as is now done over the Alleghany mountains, by section-boats mounted on rail-cars. We presume it is not necessary to review the ground gone over in previous papers to show that forest care and culture must, in the very nature of the case, have the effect of restoring and of saving the beautiful streams of our country. That it will have such an effect, no truly scientific man will question for a moment. Water enough falls every year to keep our streams alive and strong; but we want the millions of tons of forest leaves and moss, and the millions of acres of soil loosened by the roots of forest trees, to act as the huge sponge, to hold it back from the sudden plunge into the streams, incident to disforested regions. We want the cooling influence of the vast banks of green forest leaves to more frequently contract the water-laden air, so as to give us many minor rain-falls in places of less and less frequent and more and more violent rains, always and necessarily resulting from wholesale slaughter of our forest friends.

CHAPTER XXXI.

AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITIES.

“Agriculture will never be overstocked in America. She says to other countries, bring us your skill and labor; we offer in return competeuce, homes and schools.”

** The gradual development of the principle of equality is a providential fact; universal, durable, it constantly eludes human interference, and all events, as well as men, contribute to its progress."-De Tocqueville. ISOLATION OF FARMERS — DECREASE OF AGRICULTURAL POPULATION : CAUSES

GENESIS OF THE MIDDLE-MAN: HE DEVOURS BOTH FARMER AND MECHANICBETTER EDUCATION THE REMEDY-RECRUITS FOR THE AGRICULTURAL ARMYIMM (GRATION TABLE_SCANDINAVIA IN AMERICA-SUPERIORITY OF THE COLONY SYSTEM-VINELAND, A MODEL RURAL COLONY-OUTLOOK AND CONCLUSIONS. It will not be denied that one of the greatest discouragements to the life of the farmer has been his comparative social isolation; and all the advantages claimed for coöperation in business enterprises are trilling in comparison with the benefits of social coöperation in establishing rural colonies. Especially is this true of California, where the urban is so much more in excess of the rural population than in the older States, and where the census shows the proportionate rate of increase in the latter to be so much smaller. In the older States we find the original farmers' families have disappeared, and new ones of foreign birth are taking their places. The young crowd into the cities, into the mercantile or professional ranks, until the country is depleted of its most energetic and intelligent members, while the overfull city is unable to utilize the labor force which should have been expended upon the land.

Between the years 1850 and 1870, the population of eighteen of our large cities increased one hundred and thirty-one per cent. Deducting the population of these cities from that of

DECREASE OF AGRICULTURAL POPULATION.

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his own.

their respective States, we have an increase of fifty-nine per cent. in the country, including all the smaller cities, villages and towns. In some States this disproportion is even greater, as in Massachusetts, where such a test would show that the rural population has not increased at all, during two decades. Even in the new States, the town population is greatly in excess of the country, as is shown by the following statistics of Ohio: Total State population-1850, 1,980,329; 1870, 2,665,260. Urban population-1850, 400,000; 1870, 1,000,000. Agricultural population-1850, 1,580,329; 1870, 1,665,260. Increase--84,931. This gives an increase of 5.4 per cent. in the agricultural, against an increase of 150 per cent. of the urban population. The cause of this most undesirable state of things is due to a low estimate of the farmer's pursuit, and the absence of the facilities afforded for social enjoyments in compact neighborhoods. Human beings degenerate in proportion to their isolation; for man is preeminently a social animal, and he rises in the scale by the addition of other experiences to

The growth of his intellect and affections require the presence of various objects upon which they may be exercised.

We often hear it remarked that any man can be a farmer; that bone and muscle are the only requisites for success in that calling. The well-bred girl turns away from the manly farmer's boy, and encourages the city snob, often against the dictates of her better judgment, because she thinks there is no place on the farm for refinements or sociability, or intellectual pleasures. It is these notions of farming which have made that ogre of the farmers, the middle-man. He is usually a spoiled farmer, whose wife was discontented on account of hard work and social privations, and who had found country life, as Gail Hamilton expresses it, “one uninterrupted flat." Gen. Francis A. Walker, Superintendent of the United States Census, the most reliable and unprejudiced of witnesses, tells us that there has been in the last decade a marked falling off in the number of common laborers, and an increase of forty per cent. of the trading class. While the demand for farm labor exceeds the supply, the farmers “are maintaining a body of persons not less numerous than the standing army of the British empire, and with a far greater number of dependents in the way of wives and children than are charged to the officers and soldiers of that army, all in excess of the legitimate demands of trade.” Tho farmer claims that the middle-man carries off all his profits, and

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in the somewhat intemperate abuse of this very essential member of the social body, has failed to recognize his origin. Only of the excess should he justly complain.

According to the census of 1870, there are in the United States 12,505,000 bread-earners, who give food, shelter and raiment to the 39,000,000 of inhabitants. Every bread-earner has to feed a little over three mouths. Of these, 5,922,000 are engaged in agriculture, strictly; 1,765,000 in other rural trades and callings, such as blacksmithing, carpentering and the like, making, with their food dependents, 23,830,000 souls out of the 39,000,000. The manufacturers, including operatives and servants, earn bread for 1,117,000. Commerce, including merchants, shop-keepers, sailors, clerks, peddlers, bar-keepers, etc., earn bread for 2,256,000. Railroad and expressmen earn bread for 595,000. Miners for 472,000.

So it comes to this: while agriculture and mechanics fill ten times as many mouths as commerce, twenty times as many as manufactures, forty times as many as railroads, and fifty times as many as mining, yet the least of these, by combination, cooperation and management, exercises three times the influence in the country, and thrice the power with the government, simply because the farmers have not learned how to work and pull together; and, until recently, for a lack of knowledge of the true principles of coöperation and organization.

Now, we have in the Grange a safe, practical organization, simple enough in form to unite the youngest and feeblest agricultural colony, and embracing a wide range of benefits not confined to the agricultural class.

Mechanics have suffered quite as much from middle-men as the agriculturists, and for the same cause, viz., a defective education of both employer and employed. Between the master or employer, who has no skill, and the workman, who has skill without education, the middle-man, who has a little of both, is a kind of necessity. Under the present system, Mr. Scott Russell tells us, the employer of a thousand men may pocket, in the shape of profits, one half of the whole earnings of all the men, or a sum equal to the earnings of fifty or a hundred, as the case may be. But put a hundred men together who have enjoyed equality of education, setting aside all inequalities of birth and fortune, and these proportions must change. “I believe,” he adds, “that the education of the fu