68 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



smelted, after a voyage consuming many months, and at heavy cost in 

 freight. The establishment of smelting works, with machinery to man- 

 ufacture the copper into sheathing metal, and other kinds of material 

 suited to every kind of the mechanical arts, would give an impetus and 

 value to our copper interests, which would add vastly to the productive 

 wealth of the State. The Legislature may wisely offer a premium of 

 ten or twenty thousand dollars for the production of a given quantity 

 of sheathing copper, wire, bell metal, plate and bar copper, manufac- 

 tured within the State from ores obtained in California, Oregon, or any 

 of the adjacent Territories. 



Again, was the production of bar or railroad iron encouraged by the 

 offer of a munificent premium, it would not be long before our rich and 

 exhaustless iron mines would save millions of dollars to the State. 



Even were it made an object, by an offer of State bounty, the manu- 

 facture of lead pipe from the newly discovered exhaustless beds of 

 galena found in California, should in no long time stop the importation 

 of articles in the plumbers' line, which now are a vast item in our im- 

 ports. 



As one of the results of this law, there was exhibited for the first 

 time at our Fairs, rosin, tar, and rectified spirits of turpentine, produced 

 within the State. This branch of productive industry, springing sud- 

 denly into importance by the circumstance that the heretofore largest 

 producing locality has become the theatre of devastating war, is obtain- 

 ing such encouragement as to promise its successful continuance against 

 any possible future competition. The number of pine trees now avail- 

 able for producing rosin along the foot hill districts of the Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains is already sufficiently large to make this business one of 

 great importance ; and when the millions of young trees, springing up 

 in dense thickets all along these slopes, shall in a few years be suffi- 

 ciently large for tapping, there will be added to the present field of 

 operations so large a supply, that the exportation of rosin and turpen- 

 tine may become one of our large exports. National and State legisla- 

 tion is required to protect these young and invaluable forests from the 

 wanton and inconsiderate vandalism of our present migratory popula- 

 tion, as well as to prevent the unnecessary destruction of the trees from 

 which the gum is now gathered by a reckless system of tapping. The 

 value of this source of supply of a necessary article to a commercial 

 marine, will be fully appreciated when the commerce of the Pacific, cen- 

 tering toward California, shall surpass in magnitude that of any other 

 on the great highway of nations. 



Favorable as is our climate to the most perfect development of animal 

 and vegetable organism, it is no less favorable for the prosecution of 

 those pursuits which claim the attention and means of our citizens in 

 the development of our mines, fisheries, and transposing our magnificent 

 forests of timber into every conceivable form which can render them 

 useful to man. This favorableness of climate particularly applies to the 

 extracting of pitch from the pine, the season here for this purpose ex- 

 tending through eight months of the year. 



Hops, for which a large premium is offered, have alread}' attained an 

 extensive culture in the State, and although no one grower has produced 

 the large amount of two hundred and fifty bales required to entitle him 

 to the prize, yet there are those who pick from fifty to sixty bales in a 

 season ; and doubtless this lucrative branch of agriculture will very soon 

 be entered into by individuals on so large a scale that this premium will 

 be secured. 



