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establishment of an industry in our State more valuable than were ever 

 our gold mines or ever will be some of the now leading agricultural pro- 

 ductions. 



Considering the great value of our silk trade and consumption, the 

 successful cultivation of silk in California becomes a matter of the great- 

 est moment, and the State would make monej 7 by dealing liberally with 

 those who. in the true spirit of enterprise, have taken the lead in that culti- 

 vation. The United States import, on an average, over thirty million 

 dollars in value, of silks, per annum. The import duty on the same is 

 over sixteen million dollars, being a little over fifty per cent, on cost of 

 invoiced prices. It will be seen, therefore, that the annual export of 

 gold from California to pay for foreign silks imported can not be less 

 than two million dollars. This sum is taken from the industry of our 

 own people, and goes to enrich foreign capitalists and to pay foreign labor. 



SILK MANUFACTURE. 



The fact that California can raise the raw material successfully and 

 profitably is no longer a question. We have already a large number of 

 trees growing in the State and a goodly number of people engaged in 

 the business, and we must not let it fail. It is too valuable an indus- 

 try. But the mere production of the raw material is but of small con- 

 sideration compared to the manufacture of this material into the various 

 forms of fabrics for general use. It is the manufacture of silk that gives 

 labor and capital profitable employment to a much greater extent than 

 the cultivation. France is a very large producer of silk, but she is also 

 a large importer of silk in its unmanufactured shape; while England is 

 the largest manufacturing country of silk goods in the world, she does 

 not raise a pound. All is imported, and her profits are made from this 

 branch of the industry. We are highly favored. We can both produce 

 and manufacture and reap the profits of the iudustiy in all its branches. 

 A continuance of the encouragement of the production of cocoons, and 

 a liberal inducement for the "establishment of factories, by legislative 

 action, we believe would result in great benefit to the State. 



FLAX AND HEMP. 



We would call the attention of our farmers to the cultivation of flax 

 and hemp. Both these plants are natives of our State, and experiments 

 in their cultivation show that they may both be very successfully culti- 

 vated in the rich alluvial soils of all our river bottoms and valleys. 

 Formerly, there being no factories here for working up the flax seed, or 

 for converting the fibres of these plants into cloth, there was no market 

 and no inducement for engaging in this branch of agriculture. Now, 

 there is a market for both seed and straw. The oil factory in San Fran- 

 cisco is using all the flax seed produced in the State, and importing 

 largely to keep the factory running. The cultivation of flax for the seed 

 alone would prove much more remunerative than wheat or barley on 

 our river bottoms. It may be sown after the water of the rivers has 

 subsided, and mature well. An acre of ground will produce, on an aver- 

 age, two thousand pound of seed, which is worth four cents a pound, 

 giving eighty dollars as the product per acre for seed alone. The yield 

 of straw will be from two to three, tons per acre. This, in the Atlantic 

 States, is worth from twenty dollars to thirty dollars per ton. The 

 immense demand for bags and bagging material on this coast, estimated 



