STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 41 



tive high rulins; prices of sugar, we have here another branch of industry- 

 promising a liberal compensation for skilled labor, and a munificent 

 return for the investment of capital, managed and directed b}' the lights 

 of science and practical experience. 



The cultivation of. silk, also, by the experience of competent judges 

 for some ten years in our State, has proved to be a perfect success. The 

 mulberry tree flourishes here with a luxuriance known in no other 

 country. The absence of moisture and explosive electricity in the 

 atmosphere, during the season of feeding and hatching the worms and 

 securing the cocoons, are circumstances which render our State more 

 favorable for the prosecution of this pleasant and important branch of 

 industry than any other country in which silk is produced. 



It is a historical fact, that the seasons in the principal silk producing 

 countries in the soutli of Europe have for years past been growing more 

 cold and moist, and hence less favorable for the production of silk. These 

 are significant facts, which may very profitably be taken into account 

 by those who are to control the future material destiny of our State. It 

 may not be improper here to state that J. Morenhout, Consul of France 

 at Los Angeles, lately sent five samples of cotton, produced in that 

 county by as many different persons, to the Minister of Agriculture and 

 Commerce in France, who, after having the same carefully examined by 

 competent judges, returned in his official report that the samples were 

 all identical in quality, and would command then about the same price 

 as the short silk cotton of the Southern States — from sixty-two dollars to 

 sixty-three dollars per one hundred pounds. The experiment will be 

 thoroughly tested in that county this year. By experiments extending 

 through a series of years in various parts of our State, it is conclusively 

 proved that raisins, figs, almonds, prunes, olives — all articles of com- 

 merce, and consequently not liable to overstock any market — can be 

 produced here in equal perfection and greater abundance than in any 

 other part of the world. In a word, to sum up the foregoing statements, 

 we may say we know we have within our borders the elements of great- 

 ness and prosperit}^ equal, if not superior, to those of anj^ other State in 

 the Union. Then, what do we lack? what do we need? The answer 

 most emphaticallj' is, lahor and capital. We cannot attain material great- 

 ness or prosper well without these — without both ; and capital for invest- 

 ment in our material resources will not, for obvious reasons, precede 

 labor — it would follow. Then labor is the first great necessity. And 

 how shall we obtain it? The General Government, through agents and 

 the distribution of favorable information, is wisely and successfully 

 exerting her means and energies to induce emigration to the United 

 States. According to the report of the iS'ew York Commissioners of 

 Immigration, the number of immigrants that arrived at that port during 

 the eleven months ending the thirtieth of November, eighteen hundred 

 and sixty-three, was one hundred and forty-six thousand five hundr-ed 

 and nineteen, against seventy-six thousand three hundred and six during 

 eighteen hundred and sixty-two, showing an increase in one year of nearly 

 fifty per cent from extra exertion. But does the Pacific coast or Cali- 

 fornia receive anj' portion of that immigration, or any immediate benefit 

 from it ? Very little, if any at all. The moment the newcomer sets 

 foot on shore at New York, or anj^ other eastern port, he is hurried 

 off to Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, or some other new State east of the 

 Eocky Mountains, but never to California; hence those States, with far 

 less natural advantages, except as to convenient location for immigra- 



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