STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 109 



INDUSTRIAL GROWTH OF CALIFORNIA. 



ANNUAL ADDRESS DELIVERED SEPTEMBER ELEVENTH, AT THE 

 PAVILION, BY HON. J. V. WEBSTER. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : The occasion which 

 has induced the presence of so many strangers in this lovely city at 

 the present time, is one worthy of the best wishes and sincere con- 

 gratulations of our whole people. That the known and hidden 

 resources of our beloved State may receive new life and further 

 development, to the end that ours, and the generations which are to 

 follow, may enjoy the blessings of intellectual and material increase, 

 you have for a brief season left your usual vocations, your loved ones, 

 and home life scenes, to come up here as pilgrims to learn of and 

 worship at a shrine of love. And with reason, for the blessings of 

 God ever rest upon those who labor to bless themselves. Than here, 

 where else under the sun can industry and enterprise find a wider or 

 more prolific field in which to labor ? God has given every land a 

 joy, around which the heartstrings of its people cling like evening 

 sunbeams to the mountain slopes ; but here, in this favored State, 

 nature appears to have exhausted her resources in uniting and com- 

 bining the blissful conditions of all other climes. Whether the 

 stranger's eyes which first beheld and realized the glories of this new 

 El Dorado were those of Cabrella, Drake, or some wild rover of the 

 sea, will most likely never be definitely known. Suffice it to say that 

 the first mark in the line of modern civilization was made by Father 

 Serra, who is recognized by the Catholic Church as the apostle of 

 upper California, and in history as its founder. 



The first mission settlement was established at San Diego, in 1769 ; 

 that of San Francisco, in 1776. The avowed object of their establish- 

 ment was the education and spiritual conversion of the country's 

 natives, a race practically without history or tradition — mound- 

 builders, without religion or morals, even in their most elementary 

 and perverted forms. Nevertheless, they were capable of improve- 

 ment, and the missions prospered to such an extent — other than 

 spiritual — that in the year 1831 wheat, barlej^ Indian corn, and peas 

 were produced, in quantities — ^equal in value to $86,000. Slow pro- 

 gress was made in the development of the country until the discovery 

 of gold in 1848, which event worked a new era in its history. At the 

 time of the admission of the State into the Union in 1850, knowledge 

 of the extent of our gold fields having gone abroad, the most hardy, 

 intelligent, and enterprising people of every clime were pressing 

 toward our shores. Agriculture and stock raising began to assume 

 an impetus and importance hitherto unknown. 



By proper cultivation, sere, and apparently barren lands, were 

 made to yield an hundred-fold of golden grain and other crops. 

 Products grew so prodigious in size, which, to mention beyond the 

 limits of the State, was received as incredulous, or as fabrications of 



