302 Transactions op tiie 



I am enabled to append the following figures, than which a more 

 striking proof of the absolute necessity of the immediate introduction 

 into this State of this industry, on a large scale, could not be produced: 



In the port of San Francisco alone the imports of sugar and molasses 

 for the current year ending the thirtieth of September, reached sixty- 

 five million seven hundred and fifty-seven thousand and fifty-one pounds 

 of sugar, and seventy-four thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine gal- 

 lons of molasses, on which were collected from one and threo fourths 

 cents to four cents per pound import duty. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



It is an axiom in political economy that a nation which exports the 

 raw products of the' soil, and imports manufactured goods and those 

 necessities of life which it could produce at home, will grow relatively 

 poor. 



Nature, however lavish in her gifts, cannot compensate for a lack of 

 industry on the part of the occupants of the soil. 



The complaint so frequently made that California does not increase so 

 rapidly in population and wealth as, considering her great natural ad- 

 vantages, she ought, is mainly due to. the fact that sufficient attention has 

 not been paid to the establishment of industries which may give employ- 

 ment to those people who have only their hands with which to gain a 

 living. 



Among the most neglected and most important-of these various indus- 

 tries is the manufacture of sugar from the beet. The millions of acres 

 of reclaimed land in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, which are 

 at present comparatively unproductive, are destined at no far distant 

 day to supply the United States with this important article, and thus 

 enrich this State at the rate of more than one hundred million dollars 

 per annum. 



The repeated growing of wheat has already impoverished our soil in 

 many parts to an alarming extent, as is manifested by the fact that year 

 after year lands produce less and less, both in quantity and quality. 

 This is caused by the soil being deprived of its phosphates, upon which 

 its nutrition depends. 



The climate and soil of California is more adapted to sugar making 

 than is the best sugar-producing country in Europe; their cultivation 

 for this purpose is yearly increasing, promising to become a profitable 

 occupation for thousands. 



Since the introduction of this industry there have been produced in 

 California: 



