210 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



mate bounds of our present available resources? It is true, too, tliat the 

 scarcity of money, and the high rates of interest which capital com- 

 mands, precludes the possibility of engaging in many enterprises for the 

 development of the mines and the im])i'Ovenient of the material resources 

 of the State; but we can and ought to produce more than we do, even 

 with our present means and the present high price of labor and capital. 

 I will not assert that we can at once remedy all the trouble that seems 

 to beset oiir path ; but I do say that it is in our power to remedy much 

 of it. But so long as we continue to import things that can be produced 

 here, just so long must we send awaj- our gold to pay for them. Wc can 

 and ought to produce all or nearly all of the thousands of barrels, boxes, 

 and cases of dried apples, I'aisins, and other iruits, which we import, 

 amounting annually to half a million of dollars. We could pi-oduce nearly 

 all of the brandies, wines, malt and other liquors, if we must have them, 

 which we import, and thereby save, annually, a quarter of a million dol- 

 lars more. We have tlie nieans and should produce all of the butter, 

 cheese, bacon, hams, pork, lard, lard oil, linseed, and in time, even olive 

 oil, which Avc import, and thereby make a saving of at least half a mil- 

 lion of dollars more ever}' year. AYe have in this State exhaustless 

 mines of nearly pure iron ; and we can and ought to produce ail of tliat 

 material used for ?'ailroads, machinery, and other purposes, and thereby 

 save annuail}" millions of dollars more. These, and thousands of other 

 things, which we ought and will eventually be compelled to ])roduce 

 here, or do without, we have to pay for in gold, and at prices which 

 charge the consumer with transportation, insurance, and ])rotit on the 

 articles; and then again, with transportation, insurance, and protit, and 

 the gold sent to pay for them, and this of course in addition to the origi- 

 nal cost; all of which can be saved li}' producing them here. If we can- 

 not do all of this at once, we should do as much as we can, and aim to 

 make the residue at the earliest practical period. Is it true that in this 

 land of luxuriant vegetation, where, literall}'. the "cattle upon a thou- 

 sand hills" graze and thrive in winter as well as summer, with little or 

 no attention, that we must continue to transport butter and cheese from 

 New York? There is no such necessity, and I speak fi-om experience. 



But a few years ago nearly all the farmers of this valley, and, I among 

 the rest, purchased nearly all the butter they used — butter that had 

 been inqjorted across the Isthmus of Panama, or around Cape Horn. 

 Some of it seemed old enough to have made a voyage around the world. 

 I became ashamed of it, and resolved that if 1 could not, with thousands 

 .of cattle, which I had at that time, make sufficient butter to siq)ply my 

 own family — and my family is large, over fitfy, antl sometimes a hundred 

 in number — I would do without it. And with many other things 1 have 

 made similar resolves ; and I am happy to be able to say that they have 

 resulted in success. If the whole State, ai-oused to the importance of 

 decreasing importations, which deplete our purses and absorb the means 

 that would give us prosperity and incKqiendence, would make a firm 

 resolve to manufacture more of many things or do without them, the 

 result would be an impetus to all branches of industry that would revo- 

 lutionize the condition of thin^^s and banish com]i!aint from our shores. 



However similar the pastoral habits of the early ])ioneers to tins coast 

 may be to those of Spain, as before alluded to, the comparison does not 

 hold true in regard io the physical featui-es — while in most ])arts of 

 Spain the heat of the climate, as mentioned by the historian, renders it 

 inq^ossible for the laborer to work the whole day, and the climate itself, 

 from certain causes, was habitually unhealthy, and the aridity of the 



