PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB.n'C 809 



twelve feet of it. It will easily be perceived that the centre 

 garden of the half circle sutFered most — the water excavating 

 the ground from under the house to half its depth, leaving the 

 front half suspended over the torrent. In all the mining towns, 

 more or less damage was done in the destruction of mills, and 

 dams and bridges. But as respects the great agricultural portion 

 of the State, the plains, where, in my former letter I described 

 the extensive farm work I saw being done, that portion of the 

 State was said to be laid eighteen feet under water, ruining 

 everything. In confirmation of this as a truth I have just been to 

 see our county sherilf, Mr. Crippen, who returned from San Fran- 

 cisco during the flood, in a steamer. Mr. Crippen says that at 

 Stockton he had business at Wells, Fargo & Co.'s office, and was 

 conveyed to it in a boat. Mr. Crippen further said, he was 

 credibl}^ informed that the U. S. war steamer Shubrick waiS 

 cruising on the Sacremento river and twenty miles therefrom over 

 the plains, saving the people who had taken refuge in trees, 

 rafts and such other most ready available means, whereby their 

 lives might be saved. 



" The agricultural interests of this State have received a shock 

 that will take them a long time to recover from. 



"The next thing I apprehend to be dreaded is a partial famine. 

 From the unprecedented long continuance of the rain atone time, 

 the farmers have thus far been unable to plow and sow, their grain, 

 which I am told by one of them should now be six inches above 

 ground, and doubts are entertained that the crops of grain will 

 not mature in season. Apprehensions of this must have entered 

 the minds of the people of San Francisco, they having discontinued 

 the shipment of grain to Europe, which was going on to some 

 extent. From the observations I have made, I have come to the 

 conclusion that all attempts to make this an agricultural country 

 for a long time to come, must prove a failure, and that it is mad- 

 ness to attempt to compete with countries where cheap labor 

 exists. Here, in Mariposa, no man can be hired to labor under 

 three dollars a day, mechanics receive much higher wages. Nor 

 will these prices abate so long as the mountains contain gold. 

 The late rains have developed new diggings that will greatly 

 augment the interest of miners, quadrupling the profits of the 

 merchants who fail not to raise the price of their goods in pro- 

 portion to the difficulty of obtaining them from San Francisco. 



" I am now writing this' in clear sunshine with the weather so 



