MICHIGAN STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 149 



fornia ought to be above the necessity of competing with the 

 inhospitable and half-wild plains of Russia and Minnesota. 



" But we must have some exports with which to meet our 

 exchanges, and wheat is, so far, the most available, and so it is 

 the main item in our agricultural statistics. California is bet- 

 ter fitted for producing wine, silk, fresh and dried fruits, nuts, 

 olive oil, and other articles of the semi-tropical class, which 

 command a much higher price per pound than wheat, with a 

 greater yield, and little more expense to the acre. Our soil 

 and climate gives us a natural monopoly of these things on 

 the North American Continent, and it is questionable whether 

 any part of any other continent can show advantages equal to 

 ours, for growing the semi-tropical fruits. 



"But we have not yet been able to change our agricultural 

 base. Our farmers know more about wheat than about fruit, 

 and can get returns from it much sooner; and, as many of 

 them live from hand to mouth, they must grow wheat. Grad- 

 ually, however, we are swinging round ; the vine and mul- 

 berry, almond, olive, and orange trees are multiplying more 

 rapidly than the wheatfields. As nearly every year sees a 

 decided increase in the quantity, and an improvement in the 

 quality of our still and sparkling wines, and of our raisins 

 and dried figs and prunes, we are justified in expecting con- 

 tinued progress, which must give to the future a success 

 higher than that which the present is able to attain." 



THE LESSON TAUGHT US BY THE OLDER STATES. 



There seems to be an absolute and imperative necessity for 

 new industries. The old agriculture of Michigan, to save 

 itself from ruin, must turn to new sources of wealth ; must 

 seek new branches of husbandry : must learn lessons of political 

 economy from her more immediate and elder neighbors, Ohio, 

 Indiana, and Illinois. The State of New York relinquished 

 wheat production because she found it profitable and necessary 

 to do so. The production of butter and cheese — the dairy 

 products of that great State — have greatly grown in import- 



