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silence with which the old bounty goes forward has not yielded one word 

 of explanation. One is constrained to respect the perfection of this world 

 in which our senses converse. How wide; how rich; what invitation from 

 every property it conveys to every faculty of man — in its fruitful soils; in 

 its navigable seas; in the mountains of metal and stone; in its forests of 

 all woods; in its animals; in its chemical ingredients; in the power and 

 path of light, heat, attraction, and life. It is well worth the pith and heart 

 of great men to subdue and enjoy." 



Though applied to a distant part of the Union, these eloquent words ful- 

 fill the requisites of a description of California, the winterless land. 



I have given some time and care to the study of this State and its capa- 

 cities, and have availed myself of the experience of others. I have compared 

 it with other lands noted in the ancient and the modern world for their 

 scenery, their climate, and their fertility, and out of the trial of every such 

 comparison California comes mathematically vindicated as a region com- 

 bining more advantages which add to the desirability of life, and furnish 

 the means of comfortable and luxurious existence, than any other land on 

 earth. 



But Nature has not here broken the string and carelessly scattered her 

 jewels, so that in finding and using them there shall be no difference 

 between idleness and industry, between thrift and wastefulness. I have 

 used the names of men who deserve to be called great in our annals, because 

 they had the steadfast courage to pursue lines of original investigation into 

 the capacities of the State, and to finally prove them, and in the proof open 

 the way to thousands of others by will and work to earn bread, and to do 

 it inspired by the hope of a competency. 



Looking over the vast and varied field of California's materialities, we 

 may say with Emerson, this State "is well worth the pith and heart of 

 great men to subdue and enjoy." 



I have had no time to prepare comparative tables showing the increase 

 in our staple articles of commerce, since bold experiment proved that their 

 production was possible. In outline, then, it may be affirmed as a fact 

 demonstrated that this State produces in lush abundance the grains and 

 grasses, fruits, nuts, and vegetables which Nature has scattered widely over 

 the earth, but only here has grouped in a contented and profitable com- 

 panionship. The rural proprietor in California is indeed an international 

 merchant, for he is producing crops that are amongst the daily necessaries 

 of life in every civilized land. The Frenchman must soon consider our 

 wine crop, for his own is receding. The English market takes now one 

 sixth of our raisin crop, and the time will come when the Christmas plum 

 puddings will lack plums unless California has a surplus of raisins for 

 export equal to the English demand. With two crops of wheat stored in 

 our warehouses, bread is rising in France and England, and California's 

 surplus must stand between famine and the seventy millions of bread eaters 

 in the two countries. The source of olive oil supply along the Mediter- 

 ranean is failing, and if it were not for American cotton seed and lard oil, 

 Marseilles and Lucca would have no olive oil to export. The foreign maker 

 of this oil seems to have nothing left but his brand, and that does duty on 

 oils that would not know an olive tree from a manzanita. 



So I might show in the case of production of the staples as well as the 

 luxuries of life that the whole world looks to California as the freshest and 

 best source of supplies that are extinct or rapidly exhausting in their 

 ancient locations. The effect of this fact is seen in the advancing value 

 of real estate and its improvements in this State. 



