15 



pany, whose farm and experimental factory are located on the south side 

 of the American Eiver, some four miles from Sacramento, have proved 

 beyond all doubt the practicability and success of this industry in our 

 State. They have secured, in their first experiment, with new, rough 

 and imperfect machinery, and from beets of very poor quality, a product 

 of sugar equal to seven per cent, of the beets experimented on. This is 

 within about one per cent, of the average product in Europe, where 

 experiments in every department of the business have been in operation 

 for years, with a view to increase the per cent, of product in the greatest 

 possible ratio. 



This we consider an exceedingly good and promising beginning, under 

 the circumstances. The land on which their beets were grown is by far 

 too wild and rich for the production of beets for this purpose. The 

 beets grown on it are too rank and too large, containing too great a pro- 

 portion of water to secure the greatest yield of sugar. Experience has 

 proven that the best sugar land is that which will produce the best 

 wheat or secrete a good supply of saccharine matter in grapes. No one 

 would select an alluvial soil, already as rich as nature could make it, cov- 

 ered with a recent deposit of sediment, either for wheat or grapes. Nor 

 is such soil at all adapted to the production of beets for sugar. When 

 the proper quality of soil shall be selected, and the manufacture of sugar 

 in our State shall be commenced under favorable circumstances, we have 

 no doubt it will prove as successful and profitable here as in any other 

 part of the world. 



TEA CULTURE. 



The tea consumed in California costs the consumers about two million 

 dollars annually. In our last report, we called the attention of the 

 Legislature to the generally entertained opinion, among persons who 

 had visited the tea producing portions of China and other Asiat'.c coun- 

 tries where the plant is cultivated, that the western slope of the Sierras. 

 running the whole length of the State, is as well adapted to the produc- 

 tion of this article as any of the countries named. We now call atten- 

 tion to the fact that, since that time, a company of Japanese tea cultur- 

 ists have come to our State for the purpose of engaging in this industry. 

 They have located in El Dorado County, where they have purchased a 

 considerable tract of land and planted a small tea nursery. Though 

 their arrival here was quite late in the season, and their commencement, 

 consequently, was made under very unfavorable circumstances, their 

 experience so far gives them great encouragement and promises final 

 success. We entertain strong hopes that the effort to introduce this new 

 and rich industry among us may not be allowed to fail for want of any 

 necessary encouragement, and that we may, at no distant day, be able to 

 produce enough for our own consumption and contribute no small share 

 of the forty-five million pounds of tea annually consumed by the other 

 States of the Union. 



It could, by the same process of reasoning, be shown that judicious 

 bounties, offered for the production of tea, would be followed by the 

 same beneficial results to the State as in the case of sugar from beet 

 root. 



RAISINS. 



We have frequently called the attention of our people to the cultiva- 

 tion of this fruit, and pointed out the peculiar advantages our climate 

 offers, not only for the growing of the grape but curing of the raisin. 



