STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 369 



Total number of pounds imported in the tbrce years. 



Total cost of same 



Aveniijje armiial importation, (pounds) 



Avera^je annual cost 



J 5,735,795 



$2,606,430 



5,245,265 



$868,810 



Thus it seems that notwithstanding the facts stated above, as to the 

 rehitive number of hogs and popuhilion in California, and the rapid 

 increase of the former from eighteen hundred and fifty to eighteen hun- 

 dred and sixty, and notwithstanding the fact that in consequence of the 

 w'ar the Southern States have exported nothing in this line, and the 

 Northern States have had a large .army to feed, still they have been 

 sending us bacon, hams, pork, and lard, at the rate of five million two 

 hundred andYoi;ty-tive thousand two hundred and sixty-five pounds per 

 annum, and for which we have sent them annually, on an average, the 

 sum of eight hundred and sixty eight thousand eight hundred and ten. 

 dollars, in gold., 



During this same time our farmers have been laboring under the fear 

 that if they raised a large quantity of grain they would not be able to 

 find a remunerative market for what they feared Avould be a surplus. 

 Hence we have frequently heard it remarked by farmers that there was 

 no inducement in California to produce a large quantity of grain, or that 

 there was no advantage in having a good crop, for the reason that the 

 price would so much depreciate as to render a good crop less remunera- 

 tive than a poor or scant one. To render agricultural pirsuits successful 

 in any country requires something more than the cultivation of a large 

 number of acres of land, and something more even than the production 

 of splendid crops on all these acres. The farmers of any country may 

 produce ten times as much wheat and barley or any other product as is 

 demanded for consumption, and still be unprosperous and poor. A 

 mechanic in California would bo considered very stupid indeed if he 

 were to turn his attention entirely to the manufacture of sleighs and 

 cutters, when only now and then one is called for, and when at the same 

 time he could sell at a good profit all the wagons and carriages he could 

 make. So it is with the agriculturists j they cannot expect to be pros- 

 perous and successful unless they turn their attention to the production 

 of such articles as are in demand. AVe have often observed that those 

 farmci-s in an}^ country Avho make a practice of driving their grain to 

 market,, that is, who feed it to stock, and when fat, drive that to market, 

 are generally if not universally the most prosperous. . Especially has 

 this'been the ease in California, as any one who will reflect for a moment 

 will agree. In this Ava}^ farmers who live at a great distance from mar- 

 kets can, to a certain extent, overcome this disadvantage, for it costs 

 but a very little to drive a drove of fat hogs or cattle to market com- 

 pared to the expense of ti'ansporting grain of an equal value to the 

 same market. Again, good pork and beef have, as a general thing in 

 California, especially in the winter season, commanded a much better- 

 price comparatively than grains. In fact, we believe no branch of agri- 

 cultural business in our State for the last five or six years has presented 

 the opportunity for so sure and profitable returns as stall or winter feed- 

 ing cattle for the earlj' spring market. Beef and pork has uniformly 

 been high and poor in our markets for years past, from December to 

 April, and unless a reform is brought about by the farmers of this. 



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