178 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



addresses, for it contains suggestions and ideas which are calculated 

 not only to assist California farmers, but to give to strangers and for- 

 eigners new conceptions regarding the resources and the destiny of 

 this State. Mr. Larue points out the highly significant and impor-, 

 tant fact that the crops of the last season have practically disproved 

 the soundness of the prevalent fear that our wheat lands were being- 

 exhausted by overcropping to a single staple. He shows that land 

 which has borne heavy wheat harvests for many years is still pro- 

 ducing with a vigor and fecundity, showing no signs of exhaustion, 

 and his inference that the wheat yield of the State will increase 

 until it has reached the enormous figure of one hundred million 

 bushels appears to be justified by experience. The next question 

 dealt with in the address is that of transportation, and here it is 

 impossible to overestimate the value of the advice given to the farm- 

 ers. It is evident that with the increase of the crops the difficulties 

 of taking them to tide-water become greater, and that these difficul- 

 ties even now practically prevent the farmer from making his market 

 to suit himself. Dependent as he is upon Liverpool rulings, it is 

 absolutely necessary, for his own prosperitj^, that he should be able 

 to seize whatever advantages a fluctuating market offers, on the 

 instant. But so long as hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat lie 

 scattered all over the valleys, and so long as any rise in the market 

 is certain to impose a sudden paralyzing strain upon the railroads, it 

 is clear that there can be no certainty about sales, and equally clear 

 that a large number of farmers must be liable to lose the favorable 

 market through their inability to transport their crops. There is 

 but one remedy for this, and it is to construct spacious warehouses at 

 tide-water, and store the wheat there as soon as it is cut. Mr. Larue 

 proposes that the farmers should combine and build these ware- 

 houses themselves, and there can be no doubt that in following this 

 advice they would effect a very considerable saving in a variety of 

 ways. It is estimated that the expense of selling the wheat, includ- 

 ing brokerage and all cognate charges, amounts to three million 

 dollars per annum. By far the greater portion of this would be 

 saved if the farmers did their own warehousing, and in addition they 

 would thus be able to take prompt advantage of any rise in the market. 

 The speculations indulged in by Mr. Larue regarding the future 

 of the markets for wheat and stock are in the main sound. It is 

 already certain that Great Britain must soon cease to depend at all 

 upon her own crops, and that she must look to this country for nearly 

 all her breadstuff's. The case of beef cattle is, however, not yet so 

 clear. It is true that the Western prairies can furnish beef in prac- 

 tically unlimited quantities, but here a question of quality has tobe 

 considered. The proportion of really fine American beef which 

 finds its way to England is at present very small — far too small to 

 enter into serious competition with the English stock, whose excel- 

 lence is its sure protection. Wild beef cannot, at least for some time, 

 hope to compete in that field, and it is not yet apparent that Ameri- 

 can stock raisers have decided upon adopting more careful (and 

 consequently less economical) methods. The breadstuff market, 

 however, is already in the hands of the Western States of the Union, 

 and it is possible that these States may presently be able to furnish 

 beef as well as wheat. 



Mr. Larue calls attention to an advantage in wheat growing which 

 distinguishes California above all other cereal-producing regions, 



