AGRICULTURAL REVIEW. 



BY I. N. HOAG, AGRICULTURAL EDITOR OF THE SACRAMENTO RECORD. 



The past year has been one of very gratifying prosperity to the ma- 

 terial industries of California. It is with pleasure and State pride we 

 turn, on this happy morning of the new year, to review the progress of 

 those industries during the past twelve months, and then with renewed 

 cheer and hope, gathered from the substantial successes of the past, to 

 look forward to the promised accelerated progress of the future. But 

 what is California that she should so engage the affections, stimulate the 

 enterprise, and rouse the business energies of all her citizens? And why 

 is it that she has sprung, as it were, with one bound, from the position 

 of an unimportant territory of the United States to the foremost place 

 in industrial importance among her sister States of the Union? And 

 why is it that in so short a time she has changed her position, from that 

 of an importer of all the food her people consumed, and all the clothing 

 they wore, to that of the most extensive exporter of both food and 

 clothing material in the Union, and in proportion to her population, in 

 the world? Why is her wheat, her barley, her fruits, her mines, her 

 stock, her every agricultural product, prized above that of her sister 

 States; and why do they command the highest prices in the world's 

 great produce markets and commei'cial centers? Why are the average 

 individual accumulations of wealth in California, as shown by our ma- 

 terial statistics, so much greater than in any other State or country? 

 To an old resident of California the. answers to all these questions are 

 plain and easy, and for such we would not take the trouble to record 

 them; but for the benefit of those in all parts of the world who have not 

 seen this naturally favored land of ours, and who are consequently to a 

 great extent ignorant of its many advantages of location, soil, and cli- 

 mate, we will preface our annual review with a paragraph devoted to 

 these general subjects. 



Our State lies between thirty-two degrees forty-five minutes and forty- 

 two degrees of north latitude, is about seven hundred miles in length, 

 and on an average, two hundred in width, and contains over one hun- 

 dred and twenty million acres of surface. The Pacific Ocean washes it 

 the entire length on the west, furnishing numerous harbors for the ac* 



