6 Transactions of the 



In the meantime California agriculture has continued gradually to 

 expand and diversify; first stretching out over the next higher table of 

 red lands, and then creeping slowly but cautiously and surely up the 

 sides of the foothills, until we now find her luxuriating in the elevated 

 valleys and spanning the mountain sides of the Sierras and Coast Ranges 

 from the extreme north to the extreme southern end of the State. She 

 is also extending her arms seaward, and embracing and reclaiming the 

 islands and tide lands in and about our inland fresh water bays. And 

 both on the hills and in the low lands during the past dry season have 

 •all kinds of crops done much better than in the open valleys. 



DIVERSITY OP PRODUCTS. 



Our products, instead of being confined to a few of the more necessary 

 staples of life, have been cautiously and slowly, but surely and profita- 

 bly, multiplying, until we now cultivate in greater or less abundance and 

 perfection nearly every article of necessity or luxury that is grown from 

 the earth within the temperate and tropical zones. We excel France 

 and Italy in their vineyards and mulberry orchards, and equal them in 

 the products of these orchards: wines, brandies, raisins, and silk 

 cocoons. We are already competing with Germany and Austria in the 

 cultivation of their greatest and most profitable products, beet sugar, 

 and will soon be able to supply not only our own demand for this article 

 but the entire demand of our sister States as well. From the success of 

 experiments recently made in the cultivation of tea and coffee we have 

 reason to hope the day is not far distant when we shall be able to cope 

 with China and Japan in the production of the former, and with the 

 islands of the Indian Ocean in the cultivation of the latter of these 

 luxuries of the world. The cultivation of rice to a limited extent has 

 been attended with such perfect success on some of our swamp and tide 

 lands as to warrant the belief that this valuable staple can be grown 

 here in quality equal to the best produced in the Carolinas themselves, 

 and limited only by the hundreds of thousands of acres of these lands 

 within our borders. 



Cotton and the ramie plant have both been so successfully cultivated 

 in the State within the past few years that there can no longer be enter- 

 tained any doubt that we shall soon be aide to excel in the production 

 of the former of these vegetable fibres the best cotton districts of the 

 Southern Atlantic States, and dispute with China and the Asiatic islands 

 the monopoly they have so long sustained in the cultivation of the 

 latter. 



New Zealand flax-hemp and common flax-hemp have also been suc- 

 cessfully cultivated here in various portions of the State; and while the 

 hitter is grown very extensively and profitably for the seed, the time 

 when all will be extensively cultivated for their fibres is only delayed 

 for want of proper manufacturing facilities to render those fibres 

 available. 



It has long since been proven that the best tobacco lands of Virginia 

 cannot outdo us in the production of this article in quantity; and by the 

 perseverance and skill of a citizen of our State it has this year been 

 successfully demonstrated that we can equal if not excel her in quality. 



At our last State Fair were shown some samples of opium which, 

 upon being tested by some of our most skillful chemists and physicians, 

 were pronounced equal to the best imported article, and we are assured 



