iMliMll DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 577 



dons. It seems to me that the grounds on which the adverse decisions are 

 made are such that there is slight prospecl of reversal. It is better always 

 to look danger square in the face. 1 feel certain thai nothing permanenl 



lined by furtive evasions of the decrees of Courts. It* ever there is a 

 change of policy from that now existing, it will lie because there is a gen- 

 eral conviction that it is a mistake: qo1 because the miners resist. Nbclass 



of men and no community can successfully resist the law. even if the law 

 were improvident. The first element of public security is obedience to law, 

 and all just influences rise up to effect such obedience. The way among a 

 free people to repeal or reverse an obnoxious law is to enforce it. If any- 

 thing can change this conviction of the State, it will lie the want of the gold 

 hoarded in these hills. If that want never takes shape so as to control the 

 Bubject. the hydraulic miners' cause is hopeless. If this is so it is the policy 

 of the hydraulic miners to absolutely cease, as they have in great measure, 

 to tap these gold leads; to scrupulously obey the injunctions, and let the 

 State know that they are doing so. It is hard to advise to let these indus- 

 tries lie dormant; to let the mountain towns, created by hydraulic mining 

 and depending on it, dwindle and perish. The prospect is not encoura- 

 ging, but what other resource is there worthy of consideration? It is cer- 

 tainly not in defying the Courts, or the adverse opinion of the State, or in 

 moonlight, furtive mining. Pardon me for plain speaking. We are enough 

 friends to deal truthfully with each other. 



The question comes back to us. in the absence of hydraulic mining, what 

 is the prospect of this district? You have your quartz ledges, now more 

 explored and more profitable than ever. This branch of mining industry 

 has not caused complaints, and probably never will. It would be a most 

 extraordinary circumstance should it do so. Fortunately it rewards intel- 

 ligent enterprise. It is not liable to the criticism of wasting the country 

 where it is prosecuted, or incommoding the regions below. But this indus- 

 try alone will not serve for all resources of a community like this. Can you, 

 as practical men, turn to other pursuits with a chance of success? Anyone 

 who compared the soil and climate of this district with those of Prussia, for 

 example, and saw in Germany a population approximating that of the 

 United States, upon an area a third larger than California, would readily 

 concede that right here is by comparison a Garden of Eden, and capacities 

 unapproachable. I know no part of Prussia where there are so many 

 inducements to cultivate the soil as in this district. In that country are 

 dreary wastes of sand and pine barrens, from which inadequate subsistence 

 is painfully wrung. It is only by long hours of labor and strict economy 

 that the farmer gains his bread ; and the workman at any trade is glad of a 

 pittance that would be scorned here. It is true the great population there 

 furnishes a market for all products, though competition with outside pro- 

 ducers makes the compensation small. Hence Bismarck excluded our pork 

 products, and now agitates for a duty on wheat. 



A few generations hence, when this State will have some millions of 

 population, all these hills will be covered with grapevines, and orchards 

 will fill all the valleys. Then manufacturing interests will have grown up, 

 sufficient at least for local supply. But that time is far distant. The 

 serious question is, how shall the present population find the means of live- 

 lihood? Californians have been accustomed to lavish expenditure out of 

 corresponding gains. It is irksome to come down in receipts and expendi- 

 tures. It seems sordid and pitiful. But it is necessary, and even beneficial. 

 This economy has to be practiced in San Francisco as well as in the moun- 



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