STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 183 



not only justify, but command a much lower rate than five dollars 

 per ton. The situation, therefore, is full of hope for the producer. 

 Even if the freight rates to Liverpool should remain nominally the 

 same, the immense gain in time must amount to a practical radical 

 lowering of them; and as a matter of fact, the actual diminution 

 even of the nominal rates is a certainty under the new dispensation. 



That the Southern Pacific Railroad will carry the entire wheat crop 

 of this State, almost immediately after its completion, must now be 

 accepted as a certainty. That this staple alone will give the road a 

 freightage of at least fifty thousand tons per month is not less certain; 

 and that one fact settles the question of the profitableness of the 

 undertaking. Thenceforward our farmers will be practically inde- 

 pendent. They will be able to take prompt advantage of every rise 

 in the quotations. They will be able to put their wheat on the mar- 

 ket precisely when it will fetch the best price. They will no longer 

 be embarrassed and impoverished by a four months' voyage, during 

 which all their calculations must be clouded, or to avoid which they 

 must sell at a sacrifice. It is of course apparent that this important 

 change in the transportation lines must stimulate wheat growing. It 

 will very probably cause President Larue's prediction of a hundred 

 million bushels of production to be borne out. For it must give to 

 California wheat growers an assurance which they have never before 

 possessed, and this it does by bringing them ten thousand miles 

 nearer to their market. 



The effect of the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad upon 

 California business and productions generally will be of the most 

 important character. It is quite probable that the existing grooves 

 of trade and commerce may be seriously affected, and it is beyond 

 doubt that it will become necessary to readjust many long established 

 interests. These necessities, however, must be faced manfully, since 

 it is perfectly clear that they are unavoidable. There is no possibil- 

 ity of hindering or preventing enterprises which bring great benefits 

 to large areas. To exclaim against the Southern Pacific Railroad 

 would be as unreasonable and futile as to exclaim against the Suez 

 Canal, though the latter has brought stagnation and decay to many 

 a port and city which flourished vigorously before its construction. 

 The .Southern Pacific annihilates ten thousand miles of space, and 

 therefore it is necessary to this coast and State. It solves the greatest 

 problem before the producers of California, and therefore its comple- 

 tion will be a great public boon and benefit. It will save millions 

 every year to our farmers, and retain in their pockets what has here- 

 tofore been paid to middlemen or been spent in overcoming the 

 drawback of great distance from market. Nothing of so much impor- 

 tance to the agriculture of this State as the building of this road 

 could possibly have occurred, and if the farmers have the sagacity 

 and enterprise to combine and build their own warehouses, they will 

 be in a position to secure the greatest advantages from the coming 

 change. And if it is suggested that a route which serves to conduct 

 California products to tide-water at the Gulf with so much facility, 

 must serve equally well to convey imports from abroad to California, 

 we reply that this also is doubtless among the consequences which 

 the new route will produce. 



With the effects upon other routes of transportation we of course 

 have nothing to do, nor could these effects, whatever they may be, 

 be in any way modified or altered by discussion. Superiority in the 



