--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - John M. Horner collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 7 number: 8 published: 1904-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'John M. Horner, "Adventures of a Pioneer. II," *Improvement Era* 7, no. 8 (June 1904): 571–574.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0708unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0708unse start_page: 571 end_page: 574 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1904-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0708unse publication_year: 1904 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1904, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Adventures of a Pioneer. II ADVENTURES OF A PIONEER. EMBRACING THE STRUGGLES AND TRIUMPHS OF A LONG AND BUSY LIFE. BY HON. JOHN M. HORNER, OF PAAUILO, HAWAH. II.— FARMING IN CALIFORNIA— FIRST POTATOES. War was raging; in California, when we arrived there, between Mexico and the United States. The upper part of the territory was al- ready in possession of the United States forces, which we were pleased to know. Some of our brethren volunteered and went down with Colonel Fremont to help finish up the work in the lower part of the territory. Most of our brethren took turns standing guard for about one month, in what is now San Francisco. The population of Yerba Buena, (now San Francisco), when we arrived there, was said to be forty; our company of two hundred and sixty-eight made an addition to their number of over six hundred per cent. Yerba Buena was no place for an ambitious farmer; and, as farming was my profession, and I had brought some farming tools with me, I was anxious to get to work. So, after about thirty days, Brother James Light and I, with our families, left to fill a contract made with Dr. John Marsh, to put in a field of wheat on shares, on his farm, which was situated on the lower San Joaquin. We put in forty acres. It grew well; the land was good, while the rains were early and abundant that year. After the wheat was sown and there being nothing more to be done at the doctor's, in March, 1847, I moved over to the Mis- sion de San Jose, where I found farming prospects more favorable. In its vicinity, my large farming operations were afterward prose- cuted. At the Mission, in March, I plowed and sowed wheat, bar- ley, peas, and potatoes, and made a garden, planted with different kinds of truck. All of this sowing and planting were of no avail, as the plants were destroyed by grasshoppers, an affliction from which my farm never after suffered, although I followed agricul- tural pursuits in that neighborhood for thirty odd years. Later, I planted a small patch of potatoes on what I thought suitable soil, about one and a half miles from where I resided. They grew encouragingly, the vines being very thrifty. I had no thought of the potatoes being yet on the vines. At this time, I saw, in a dream, a young cow standing in my potato patch munching a hill of potatoes which she had evidently pulled up. The roots with potatoes on were hanging down. I was impressed with my dream, and hastened in the morning to visit my patch. When I reached it, sure enough, in the midst of the patch, with her face toward me, stood the identical cov/ that I saw in my dream, munching a hill of potatoes — her standing position, size, color, shape of horns, the green tops in her mouth, and roots hanging with white potatoes on them, just as I had seen inmy dream! I looked upon this dream as providential, since but for the dream, all the potatoes would have disappeared, and I would not have known whether that land would grow potatoes or not. This might have made me unwilling to try again, but now I knew, and went ahead. The wheat at the doctor's was harvested and stored in his granary, but when our share was called for, the doctor gravely in- formed us: "You have no wheat here, your share was destroyed by elk, antelope, and other wild animals; my share alone was harvested." So we got nothing for our labor. Thus ended my first year's farming in California. Although I got no dollars out of it, I did get experience, which I profited by in after years. I had tested the soil in different places, with several different kinds of farm products, and learned the most suitable season for sowing and planting. Nearby, I bought a piece of land from an Indian, and built a small house upon it, moving into it in the spring of 1848, with a determination of making another farming venture that year. There ADVENTURES OF A PIONEER. 573 being no fences, nor fence material for miles, I went to the red- woods, twenty-five miles distant, for fencing. I made a pen to hold animals, fenced a small garden plot, and sowed it with various kinds of garden seeds, intending to transplant them later on into the open ground. Since human plans are not infallible, the plants were never transplanted, for the reason that gold was discovered about this time. The gold fever broke out with epidemic violence, and took nearly all the people (ourselves included) off to the mines. We did not get much gold, but got the ague without much exertion, and did considerable shaking. The gold fever having left us, we returned home in the fall, and, in the healthy coast climate, the ague soon left us. We were a happy couple when we got back to the farm, although our garden was destroyed, and our hogs had gone wild. Our house was only walls, the roof and outer and inner doors were made of rough slabs, and were hung with raw-hide hinges. Our windows were muslin, and we had "ground for the floor;" but it was our mansion. We enjoyed and improved it as time rolled on. There were two rooms, and a chimney was built up with the division wall, which accommodated a fireplace in each room.One dark, blustery, rainy night in December, a company of Indians (bucks and squaws) were caught from home in the storm, and knocked at our door for shelter. We welcomed them in, and let them occupy the outer room. No; we did not fear them, anymore than so many children. We knew only one of them, but the happy indications of the remainder on being admitted, convinced us that all was well. We closed, but did not fasten, the door between us. Having had our experience in the mines, we bade them farewell, and thus ended our second year in California. My mind turned to the farm; farming was my profession, I had a good piece of land, and my experience gave me confidence in the soil; and, as if the fates had decreed it, farm I must and farm I did. My farm had no wood or timber upon it, fencing could only be obtained at the redwoods, twenty-five miles distant. My 1847 experience taught me that no success could be obtained with- out fencing the land, as stock were on the plains by the scores. On account of the water and green feed, on and around my farm, they made it their feeding ground, in the fall of the year. So I prepared the seed, with a determination of fencing and farming all the land that I could, during 1849. On the 10th of March, I started for the redwoods to make rails and posts for my prospect- ive fence. I took with me three Indians (the best help I could get), four yoke of oxen, tools and one wagon. Night overtook us, and we camped about ten miles from our destination. During the night, an unusual and unexpected snow-fall occurred, completely covering the hills and the plains. The grass was entirely hidden by the snow, and the cattle came out of the hills bellowing through the valley, seeking food. Fortunately, after two days, the grass began to show on the plain, and in a few days we were again able to labor in the hills. We worked some three days preparing fence material, when we loaded the wagon and reached home within the week. The In- dians suffered considerably, as they were working in the snow with bare feet, but fortunately the sun shone out brightly, warming the logs and rails. The Indians would work awhile in the snow, and then step quickly upon some stick or log to warm their feet. We continued making trips to the woods, at short intervals, for fence material, until the latter part of the summer, when we built the fence. Meanwhile, we had plowed, planted and cared for our young crops. In this way we fenced and planted sixteen acres. Potatoes was our principal crop. We had also onions, turnips, cabbage, water melons, and musk melons. The crop grew well, but one part of the fence was weak. In the fall, my farm, con- taining the only green feed in the neighborhood, proved an al- most irresistible temptation to the hungry cattle; and that fact was a source of many anxious fears on my part, lest my promis- ing crop should be destroyed by them, and I have to struggle on another year to make a success of my farming venture. The cat- tle breaking into my field a few times, aroused my combativeness to such a pitch that I abandoned my bed in the house, and with blankets and gun, spent my nights in the field, thus guarding and saving my crop. I did not injure the stock, but aimed only to scare them by the report of the gun, and sting the worst of them with small shot. I kept up this watchfulness until the late fall rains started green f eed,af ter which the stock scattered and annoyed me no more that year.