STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 243 



will also be successfully carried on Quite a number of ledges containing 

 silver have already been discovered in different parts of the district. 

 Heretofore gold mining has been confined to the one branch, viz : placer 

 mining. All attempts at quartz mining, up to a few months back, have 

 been unsuccessful ; but I am satisfied from recent discoveries of rich, 

 gold bearing quartz ledges in the northern part of the district, that quartz 

 mining is, within a very short time, destined to become a very impor- 

 tant branch also. 



There is but a small portion of the district that affords any great 

 advantages for agriculture, though the land now under cultivation, as a 

 general thing, produces well. This branch of industry, however, is 

 entirely de])endent upon the mines, and cannot, in my opinion, expand 

 beyond a supply for the mining population. 



W. VAN VACTOR, 

 Assessor Eevenue District No. 3. 



ALAMEDA COUNTY. 

 II. W. Crabb Assessor Eden Township, 



Assessor's Office, 



San Lorenzo, August 25th, 1865. 

 I. N. Ho AG, Esq., 



Secretary State Board of Agriculture: , 



Dear Sir: — Eden Township is an agricultural district, and that por- 

 tion lying between the bay and the foothills (embracing about twelve 

 thousand acres) for location and quality is second to none in the State, 

 being a black, strong, rich soil, and is naturally adapted to the produc- 

 tion of barley, yielding from forty to seventy-five, and in some instances 

 one hundred bushels per acre; fifty is a low average. Wheat is not as 

 certain a crop as barley, and yields from twenty to fifty bushels per 

 acre. The late apple crop is less than half that of lust year, being 

 destroyed by worms eating up the foliage, and then the apple about the 

 stem till it falls. About eighteen acres of cucumbers are grown in thjs 

 district, and about twenty-six in Brooklyn, yielding in each case about 

 one hundred and twenty-five sacks of one hundred pounds each per 

 acre, and are manufactured by one or two firms in San Francisco into 

 pickles. Large quantities of salt are manufactured along the shore of 

 the bay in natural ponds, which are allowed to fill up at high tide, and 

 by means of floodgates the water is retained there until it is evaporated. 

 The sheet of salt left on the bottom is then gathered into piles, and after 

 sufficient drainage, is sacked and shipped to market. 



Yours, 



H. W. CRABB^ 



Assessor Eden Township. 



