674 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (CALIFORNIA.) 



ty, and to a few other isolated spots, it attracted 

 little attention and made but a small figure in the 

 industrial possibilities of the State. In the past 

 two years, however, when the oil prospectors 

 have proved, through discoveries made in Kern 

 County, that a large section of the State was 

 underlaid with oil-bearing strata, the status of 

 petroleum in its relation to the industries was 

 completely altered. The rapidity with which wells 

 have been sunk in the Coalinga and Kern river 

 districts has been marvelous. Within two years 

 the output has increased from hundreds of bar- 

 rels to millions. Perhaps the most expressive 

 evidence of the growth of oil-production is in the 

 enormous advance in land values and other prop- 

 erty in that section of the State. The assessed 

 valuation of property in Kern County rose under 

 the inspiration of oil-developments from $13,- 

 293,000 in 1900 to $19,165,000 in 1901. The Stand- 

 ard Oil Company has taken the initiative toward 

 the investment of at least $10,000,000 in the 

 State for the construction of plants for trans- 

 porting the crude petroleum to tide-water at San 

 Francisco Bay and for the refining of it afterward. 

 Contracts for the pipe-line have been let, and 

 some of the material has been delivered on the 

 ground. This pipe-line will be 270 miles long, 

 extending from Bakersfield to Point Richmond. 

 The main line, with its branches, will be about 

 400 miles long. As the total grade is only 415 

 feet, pumping-stations will be erected about 8 

 miles apart. Contemporaneous with the con- 

 struction of this pipe-line, a large refinery, cost- 

 ing more than $3,000,000, will be erected at Point 

 Richmond. California has always been handi- 

 capped in manufacturing by the high cost of fuel, 

 but crude petroleum has solved that problem. 

 Many of the largest manufacturing plants in the 

 State are using fuel oil, and many new industries 

 are starting. 



Recently the ferry-boats of the railroad com- 

 panies plying on San Francisco Bay have been 

 converted from coal-burners to oil-burners, and 

 the locomotives are being similarly treated. The 

 railroad companies thus use 4,000,000 barrels of 

 crude oil a year. The total consumption of crude 

 oil in the State at present is more than 7,000,000 

 barrels per annum. At the close of the year the 

 Kern river field had 447 producing wells, with an 

 annual capacity of 9,655,000 barrels. The neigh- 

 boring Sunset and Coalinga fields have a capacity 

 of 4,440,000 barrels a year, and the Los Angeles, 

 Ventura, and Santa Barbara fields 1,900,000 bar- ' 

 rels a year. The oil-producing capacity of the 

 State, therefore, at the close of 1901 was about 

 16,000,000 barrels. The search for petroleum oil 

 is being prosecuted in 29 counties. Petroleum 

 now stands third in value among the State's pro- 

 ductions, wheat being first and gold second. 



Banking. Reports from the 257 State banks 

 show the financial condition of these institutions 

 at the close of business on Dec. 31, 1901, with 

 resources aggregating $371,547,972.07. This is a 

 gain of $36,702,700.67, compared with the total 

 for the same date of the previous year. Such an 

 increase is without precedent in the history of 

 banking in California. The item showing the 

 largest gain is the amount due depositors. On 

 Dec. 31, 1900, this total was $258,928,138.28, and 

 on Dec. 31, 1901, it had grown to $290,076,038.79, 

 thus showing an increase in deposits for the year 

 of $31,147,900.51. Nearly all that large increase 

 evidently found profitable investment, for the in- 

 crease in cash on hand was only $554,318.82, com- 

 pared with the previous year. During the preced- 

 ing years, which were considered years of excep- 

 tional prosperity, the gain in banking resources 



for the State was as follows: From August, 1898,, 

 to July, 1899, $19,701,246; from July, 1899, to Au- 

 gust, 1900, $23,235,547. These reports include 178. 

 commercial banks, of which 17 are in San Fran- 

 cisco; 59 savings-banks, of which 9 are in San 

 Francisco; and 20 private banks. In addition to 

 these, which are under the jurisdiction of the 

 bank commissioners, there are 43 national banks 

 in California, 5 of them being in San Francisco. 

 The resources of national banks amount to $74,- 

 752,680.66, and they hold deposits aggregating 

 $42,019,351.32. At the close of 1901 there were 

 400 banks in the State, with total resources of 

 $446,300,652.73. The deposits in all banks 

 amounted to $300,947,490, or more than $200 per 

 capita of the State's population. 



Agriculture. The year was one of prosperity 

 for the farming interests, although prices for 

 cereals ruled low for several months. The wheat- 

 crop was a fair average for the central portion 

 of the State, excellent for the northern counties, 

 and poor for the southern section. The yield 

 was 30,633,000 bushels, and the value about $18,- 

 350,000. The crop of barley was a trifle in excess 

 of 20,000,000 bushels, worth about $7,500,000. 

 Corn and oats are not grown extensively, and the 

 yield of the former is estimated at 1,500,000 bush- 

 els, while the latter does not exceed 2,000,000 

 bushels. The bean-crop was liberal, and prices 

 were remunerative. The yield is estimated at 

 54,000,000 pounds, or about 6,000,000 pounds more 

 than in the previous year. 



Contrary to expectations, the honey-crop was 

 below the average. Before the close of autumn 

 it was evident that the total would not exceed 

 220 car-loads. 



The hop-crop was a good average yield, and 

 considerably better than in the previous year. 

 The total was about 45,000 bales, or 8,820,000 

 pounds. 



The growth of sugar-beets has made steady 

 progress for some years, and the sugar output 

 for 1901 is the greatest in the history of the State. 

 The total sugar production of the 8 refineries 

 was 80,000 short tons, or more than double the 

 output of the preceding year. 



The dairy interests made substantial progress,, 

 and some of the large' grain areas of the San 

 Joaquin valley are now being devoted to dairy 

 uses. Some of the large dairies imported more 

 than 1,000 head of fine stock from the Eastern 

 States for the improvement of California herds. 

 The value of dairy-products for 1901 was a little 

 more than $16,000,000. 



The wool industry is still quite important, but 

 not so much so as in former years. The clip of 

 1901 is estimated at 15,000,000 pounds. 



Horticulture. The fruit-crop was scarcely up 

 to the average in quantity, but the quality was 

 excellent and good prices were obtained. The 

 shipments of deciduous fruits to the Eastern 

 States amounted to 6,459 car-loads, while 24,000 

 car-loads of oranges and lemons constituted the 

 shipments of citrus fruits. The prune-crop was 

 short, the total cured product aggregating about 

 72,000,000 pounds, the bulk of this being grown 

 in Santa Clara County. The yield of raisins was 

 about 70,000,000 pounds, a larger percentage than 

 usual being of the seedless variety. Other dried 

 fruits, with the exception of peaches, apricots, and 

 pears, were about the same in quantity as in the 

 previous year. The estimates of dried-fruit pro- 

 duction for 1901 are as follow: Peaches, 28,500,000 

 pounds; apricots, 11,650,000 pounds; apples,. 

 6,000,000 pounds; pears, 7,500,000 pounds; plums,. 

 4,400,000 pounds; nectarines, 600,000 pounds; 

 dried grapes, 440,000 pounds; and figs, 4,000,000' 



