STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 49 



It is undoubtedly true that thousands, and perhaps hundreds of thou- 

 sands, daily look from their homes in the far East toward the setting 

 sun, while they earnestly labor to hoard the means to bring themselves 

 and their families to this favored land. They think of the wide barrier 

 of mountain and desert that lies between them and the fertile fields on 

 the Pacific slope, and many is the heart that sinks with despair in view 

 of the (to them) small fortune that is required to transport themselves 

 and their household treasures to this alluring State. If they propose to 

 themselves a journey over the plains, they think of the time lost, and 

 the dangers that attend the dull, fatiguing, and monstrous trip. 



Looking at the statistics of emigration to some of the strictly agricultu- 

 ral States during the ten years that preceded the census of eighteen hun- 

 dred and sixty, that are comparatively easy of access — States that com- 

 menced their onward career almost simultaneously with our own — we have 

 cause for astonishment, as we stud} r their ratio of emigration, t:> find how 

 greatly they are in excess of California. The increase in the population of 

 Iowa, during the decade just mentioned, was, according to last census, four 

 hundred and eighty-two thousand six hundred and ninety-nine. The in- 

 crease in Wisconsin was four hundred and seventy thousand three hun- 

 dred and ninety — while the increase in California was but two hundred 

 and eighty-seven thousand four hundred and ninety-seven. Now, of this 

 increase in our own State, it is probable that at least two thirds were 

 attracted thithor, not as farmers to cultivate the soil, but as representa- 

 tives of other interests, who came to this coast to profit by the mineral 

 wealth, of which fabulous stories have been spread far and wide. This 

 would leave less than one hundred thousand persons that could be con- 

 sidered as strictly among the farming immigration to California during 

 the ten years between eighteen hundred and fifty and eighteen hundred 

 and sixty. In that time Iowa and Wisconsin each received nearly five 

 times as many persons to add to their agricultural population. 



To remedy this state of affairs, and to divert this vast moving popula- 

 tion, which will increase, year by year, to our own shores, two things are 

 necessary to be accomplished : 



First — To spread out before the farming communities of other States 

 authentic information, in the shape of reliable statistics, as to the pro- 

 ductions of our soil, and the noble field that is here offered for the indus- 

 trious and energetic farmer. 



Second — To provide all who desire to emigrate, a safe, expeditious, and 

 easy means of accomplishing their purpose. 



Of the varied interests of California, none will reap richer benefits 

 from a railroad across the continent than those depending upon the pur- 

 suit of agriculture. By it the attention of the world will be attracted 

 to our State; its population will be augmented; new fields of industry 

 will be explored, and new markets opened for the products of our soil. 

 Indeed, with the construction of the Pacific Railroad — its inducements 

 for immigration — the vast commercial relations it must establish — the 

 great bay cities which, as one of its results, will in twenty-five years 

 have a population of a million inhabitants — all these will create for the 

 farmers of our State a market that will be almost illimitable in extent. 

 It is well for agriculturists to consider the might} T future of the Pacific 

 slope, and the consequent influence upon their oion future so closely con- 

 nected with it. 



Surely there is much that the farmer is blest with in California. With 



