272 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



dealers, the necessary statistical information to enable him to judge 

 of the relative demand and supply in the world, is in equally as 

 unsatisfactory a condition; he is a mere "hewer of wood and drawer 

 of water" to those who, having the necessary information and the 

 money, manipulate the wheat market and handle the wheat, and 

 gobble up the lion's share of the profits. 



But, Mr. President, we come now to the last, and perhaps the most 

 important, subject connected with this wheat business. We refer to 

 the subject of transportation — and first, of transportation to tide- 

 water. Before we can load sea-going vessels with wheat, we must 

 convey it to a point where these vessels can come to receive it. For 

 this purpose, and without cost to us or any one else, Nature has 

 produced a great free highway, upon which the farmers of this dis- 

 trict may convey their wheat to tide-water at the very least possible 

 expense. The noble Sacramento divides the district in the center, 

 and was intended by Nature's God as an everlasting inheritance to 

 the farmers of Central and Northern California. As if to thwart this 

 intention, however, the great pioneer industry of the State — the min- 

 ing industry — has taken possession of, and become the owner of the 

 mountains at the headwaters of all the tributaries of this noble river, 

 and is washing these mountains down through these tributaries with 

 a rapidity that threatens its usefulness as a means of transportation at 

 a very early day. 



It is true that a company of men who have built nearly all the 

 railroads of the State, and who now control the railroad system of 

 the entire coast, have, with characteristic foresight and enterprise, 

 built roads on either side of the river connecting with the sea, and 

 will be able to carry forward all the wheat that can be produced in the 

 district for all time to come. Could these roads carry this wheat to 

 tide-water and bring return freights back as cheaply as the same work 

 could be done by water, they would in a measure compensate the 

 farmers for the loss of the river as a highway; but they cannot 

 do it. We are not informed as to the exact difference in cost of 

 freight by the roads and the river, but if we assume it to cost two 

 dollars per ton more by the railroads than by the river on all down 

 and up freight, we presume we shall not miss the truth very far. 

 We will, however, suppose it to be one dollar. Upon this suppo- 

 sition, we may estimate approximately the value of the river as a 

 highway to the wheat farmers of the district. We have stated that 

 there would be exported about four hundred thousand tons of wheat 

 from the district this year. One dollar per ton on this will be a 

 saving of four hundred thousand dollars on wheat freights alone. 

 Assuming that all other freights, both down and up, between the dis- 

 trict and the sea are equal to the tonnage on wheat down, the annual 

 value of the river as a highway to the district, would be eight hun- 

 dred thousand dollars. In ten years it would amount to eight mill- 

 ion dollars, and the ultimate value would be incalculable. With 

 these facts before them, will the people of Agricultural District Num- 

 ber Three allow the Sacramento, as a navigable river, to be destroyed? 

 We think not. The general interests of the State would doubtless 

 be subserved by a perpetuity of both the mining and farming indus- 

 tries, and we trust and hope that they may both be perpetuated, but 

 the Sacramento, as a navigable stream and competing freight route, 

 should be preserved in any event. The wheat farmers of this dis- 

 trict, in common with the wheat farmers of all other sections of the 



