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CALIFORNIA. 



number of inmates having grown to 1,564 in 

 July, 1879. The reason for locating the new 

 prison at Folsom was to enable the prison- 

 ers to be employed in the State granite-quar- 

 ries in the vicinity. The cells at Folsom aver- 

 age 480 cubic feet in size. The cell-space in 

 the older portion of the St. Qnentin building 

 is only 298 cubic feet. There are 324 cells in 

 the branch prison, which is expected to re- 

 lieve St. Quentin of 500 of its inmates. The 

 contract for the labor of 350 convicts for five 

 years in the quarries, at fifty cents a day each, 

 can not be completed under the Constitution, 

 which prohibits letting out the labor of con- 

 victs to private individuals or companies by 

 contract after January 1, 1882. Governor Per- 

 kins suggested that one field in which their 

 labor could be employed without competing 

 with free labor might be in the manufacture 

 of burlap sacks for grain, of which 25,000,000 

 are annually required for the handling of the 

 crops of the State. The cultivation of the 

 jute, of which material these sacks are made, 

 if the lands in any part of the State are adapt- 

 ed for its growth, would prove a new remu- 

 nerative employment for husbandmen, and the 

 manufacture of the sacks in the prisons might 

 lessen their cost to the farmers, whose supply 

 now comes principally from abroad. A bill 

 for encouraging the planting of jute was ac- 

 cordingly passed by the Legislature. 



The Normal School at San Jose was de- 

 stroyed by fire February 10th, and an appro- 

 priation was made for its reerection. 



The policy of the Land-Ofnce at "Washing- 

 ton has been altered with respect to tracts of 

 land, valuable for agricultural purposes, hith- 

 erto designated as mineral lands, though con- 

 taining minerals only in a few places. Ac- 

 cording to a circular from Washington, issued 

 June 2d, settlers upon such lands are not re- 

 quired to bring proof that they contain no 

 minerals, as formerly ; but these are open for 

 preemption to settlers, and, if miners desire to 

 locate mineral claims upon lands thus settled, 

 they are obliged to bring evidence that they 

 contain minerals. This order applies especially 

 to the foot-hill belt in California. The vexa- 

 tions to which settlers upon this tract have 

 often been subjected under the law. which al- 

 lows miners to prospect for minerals anywhere 

 within the belt, has prevented the develop- 

 ment of an immense extent of valuable agricul- 

 tural land. The land has also been despoiled 

 of its timber, and the abuse of occupying 

 mineral lands on a fraudulent agricultural en- 

 try has been practiced, it is thought, as often 

 or oftener in the past than is likely to occur 

 when the region is open to unrestricted settle- 

 ment. 



Congress has passed an act setting apart for 

 park purposes certain lands in California on 

 which are growing " redwood " or " big trees." 

 The largest group of these gigantic conifers 

 yet known, the Calaveras South Grove, has 

 passed out of the possession of the Govern- 



ment, having been included in the agricultural 

 grant to the State University, and by it sold to 

 a Mr. Sperry, who has made of the grove a 

 resort for tourists. There are other groves 

 known to exist on Government lands, notably 

 one north of Visalia, in which the trees are as 

 fine as those in the Mariposa grove. The 

 Legislature passed an act for the care and 

 preservation of the latter grove, and of the 

 Yosemite Valley. 



The southern counties of California desire to 

 secede and organize a separate State govern- 

 ment. The proposition was laid before the 

 Legislature by a member from Los Angeles. 

 The slow development of their portion of the 

 State, and the feeling that they are inequitably 

 taxed for the benefit of the north and ignored 

 in the railroad improvements, furnish the 

 grounds for this agitation. 



A sanguinary conflict over contested land 

 titles occurred upon a tract granted by Con- 

 gress to the Southern Pacific Railroad in Tu- 

 lare and Fresno Counties. The title of the 

 railroad company to the land took effect upon 

 its filing a map of the route in 1867, being de- 

 rived from an act of Congress passed the pre- 

 ceding year, but the patents were not applied 

 for until 1877. A large number of settlers 

 had squatted upon the tract called the Mussel 

 Slough District between 1867 and 1877, and 

 had established farmsteads and villages there. 

 When the company proposed terms of sale to 

 the occupants, incensed at being subjected to 

 the hardship of having to pay the value of the 

 improvements that they themselves had made, 

 they formed a land league for the object of 

 resisting the claims of the railroad to exact 

 more than the price of wild lands. The dis- 

 pute was carried into the United States courts, 

 which decided the case against the settlers. 

 The league were none the less determined to re- 

 tain possession of their homes and to resist all 

 attempts to dispossess them. In 1878 the com- 

 pany conveyed certain parcels of the land to 

 two purchasers, upon which the test suit was 

 brought, which was decided adversely to the set- 

 tlers in December, 1879. In May, 1880, the com- 

 pany applied to the Court to put these purchas- 

 ers in possession. Writs were issued and given 

 to United States Marshal Poole to serve upon 

 the settlers. Accompanied by the grader of 

 the railroad lands in this district, the Marshal 

 and the two men who had purchased from 

 the railroad company and established their 

 title at law proceeded to the district. They 

 dispossessed one family in the absence of the 

 man of the house, setting the household ef- 

 fects in the road, and drove to another farm 

 to take possession. Here they were met by a 

 band of armed and mounted men, who de- 

 manded of the Marshal and the surveyor that 

 they should surrender, which they did. The 

 squad then rode forward to the carriage con- 

 taining the others, and made the same demand. 

 They leaped to the ground and fired at the 

 leaguers, killing five of them, and being finally 



