State Agricultural Society. 21 



strongest arguments in favor of a change of law and custom on this 

 subject. It is now but about twenty-two years since the consumption 

 of timber and lumber commenced in California, and according to a care- 

 ful estimate of those best acquainted with the subject at least one third 

 of all accessible timber of value then growing in the State is already 

 consumed or destroyed. 



We have but just commenced the great work of internal improve- 

 ments, such as the building railroads, bridges, warehouses, wharves, fac- 

 tories, bulkheads, timbering mines, etc., and in the twenty-two years to 

 come we shall require for such purposes ten times as much timber as we 

 have used in that period of the past. If the scarcity and cost of fencing 

 material is already among the greatest drawbacks or discouraging cir- 

 cumstances to the agricultural advancement of our State, without a 

 change in this respect we may well feel a degree of solicitude for our 

 agricultural interest ten years hence. To dispense with the necessity of 

 the use of lumber is equivalent to its production. We hope, therefore, 

 the subject of the fence laws will receive the impassionate and careful 

 consideration at the hands of the Legislature that its importance at this 

 time demands. 



FOREST CULTURE. 



No more important subject can engage the attention of a California 

 Legislature than the encouragement of tree and artificial forest culture. 

 The most wisely managed and most enterprising and prosperous coun- 

 tries of Europe long since saw the importance and necessity of planting 

 and cultivating forests, and England and Scotland can boast of their 

 thousands of acres of majestic pines, beeches, and oaks, at home, and 

 their extensive forests of valuable timbers in their provinces abroad. 

 Germany has large groves of our valuable California redwood growing 

 in Government forests, in connection with other groves of valuable 

 timbers collected from all portions of the world, and these forests are 

 the pride as they are ■ monuments of the wisdom of the nation. 

 Germany has a special Bureau of the Government, devoted to the culti- 

 vation of the science and practice of artificial forest culture, and the 

 preservation and protection of the natural forests. France, Austria, 

 and Russia, even at an early day, gave to forest culture the countenance 

 and encouragement of the Governments, and now the artificial forests of 

 those countries are classed among the most valuable and highly prized 

 Government property. California naturally was but a poorly timbered 

 country, and the limited natural forests within her borders have been 

 most recklessly and uselessly destro} r ed. While it is one of the first 

 duties of the State to check this reckless destruction of the natural 

 forests, it is a matter of no less importance to encourage and foster the 

 growth and cultivation of artificial forests. 



HARD TIMBER. 



The scarcity of hard wood timber in this State, fit for the manufacture 

 of wagons, carriages, and agricultural machinery generally, has operated 

 to retard these particular branches of mechanical industry, and has at 

 the same time been a serious tax on the farmers who have been under 

 the necessity of using such machinery. From the fact that so few 

 valuable varieties of hard timber were found growing here, naturally 

 the impression generally prevailed that the climate of the State was not 

 adapted to the production of such timber; that even though the most 



