CALIFORNIA. 



135 



made, with considerable success, to cultivate 

 tobacco, and to utilize the wet bottom lands 

 which are, or can be annually overflowed, in 

 the production of rice. In his message of De- 

 cember, 1865, Governor Low urges the import- 

 ance of extending this crop. The climate of 

 California has proved to be well adapted to the 

 rearing of silkworms, and in San Jose and its 

 vicinity the production of silk has become a 

 business of -considerable magnitude. 



The development of agriculture in California 

 is seriously impeded by two causes, viz. : the 

 great number of large estates, held under Mexi- 

 can grants, and which, while comprising much 

 of the best land in the State, are of necessity 

 but very imperfectly cultivated by their own- 

 ers ; and the great uncertainty of titles in lands, 

 which leads to slovenly and wasteful tillage, 

 where the tenure is not fully settled. Time 

 will eventually partially remedy these evils, but 

 they now exert a very unfavorable influence 

 upon agricultural enterprise. 



The State Board of Agriculture, a very effi- 

 cient organization, is exerting itself for the pro- 

 motion of agricultural interests. It has, the 

 past year, been urging the necessity of irriga- 

 tion in many parts of the State. The mining 

 interest has received a marked impetus during 

 the year 1865. In gold mining vast numbers 

 of rich and productive quartz ledges have been 

 opened, and placer digging has been almost 

 entirely abandoned. The product of gold in 

 1864 was forty-two millions of dollars; in 1865 

 it exceeded fifty millions not all, however, 

 from California mines. There has been also a 

 considerable enlargement of the quicksilver 

 mines, and new mines have been opened. The 

 quicksilver mines are almost uniformly profit- 

 able, and their yield is very uniform. Copper 

 is also mined with great success at several 

 points in the State, and the development of 

 this metal in 1865 has received a decided im- 

 pulse. The copper ore of the State is very 

 rich, and occurs mainly at Copperopolis and 

 other points near the coast, where it can rapidly 

 be shipped. Like the South American ore, it 

 is mostly sent to Europe for reduction. The 

 existence of petroleum in the State had been 

 suspected for some years, and the geological 

 survey of the State had demonstrated the pres- 

 ence of oil-bearing strata of rock in several 

 localities. In the summer and autumn of 1864 

 explorations were made, and asphaltum and 

 some other oil products discovered in Santa 

 Barbara and other counties along the coast. 

 Companies were formed, and in 1865 oil was 

 discovered, not only in these counties, but in 

 Humboldt and Loa Angeles Counties. That in 

 the latter county, while possessing, according 

 to chemical analysis, the highest qualities for 

 illuminating and lubricating purposes, possessed 

 the remarkable property of emitting a pleasant 

 and fragrant odor instead of the pungent and 

 disagreeable one usually in petroleum oils. 



On the 23d of September, 1865, Mt. Hood, 

 which had not previously, since the settlement 



of California, teen in a state of eruption, com- 

 menced giving signs of activity, and continued, 

 for a month or more, to belch forth smoke and 

 flame. On the 8th and 9th of October several 

 shocks of an earthquake of considerable sever- 

 ity were felt along nearly the whole coast 

 region, from Petaluma to Santa Cruz. It was 

 most severely felt at San Francisco, where it in- 

 jured buildings, etc., to the amount of more than 

 $250,000. The shocks were as follows : First, 

 very heavy oscillating at fifteen minutes to one, 

 p. M., Sunday, October 8th ; second, five sec- 

 onds later, much heavier undulations, and ac- 

 companied with a loud rumbling noise in the 

 earth, and the music of falling walls, ringing 

 of bells, barking of dogs, screams of fainting 

 women, and the general stampede of frightened 

 men and horses in every direction; third, a 

 mere tremor at four, p. M. ; fourth, do. do. at 

 seven p. M. ; fifth, a little heavier at ten, p. M. ; 

 sixth and last, up to this time at thirty-five 

 minutes past ten, A. M. which, though com- 

 pared with those of the previous day, was very 

 light, was still heavy enough to- send everybody 

 into the streets, and create a terrific panic (for- 

 tunately unaccompanied by fatal results) in some 

 of the public schools. 



In education the State is making commend- 

 able progress. The statistics of its public school 

 system for 1865 were : Number of children be- 

 tween the ages of four and eighteen, 95,067 : 

 of these 41,376 attended public schools ; 12,478 

 attended private schools, and 20,441 did not 

 attend school. The total amount received for 

 school purposes in 1865 was $876,406.69, an 

 increase over the receipts of 1863 of $286,- 

 350.92. There were in the State a total of 947 

 schools, taught by 1,155 teachers, but there 

 were only 885 school houses, of which sixty- 

 nine were rented. There were eight schools 

 for colored children, with an attendance of 

 278. There are school funds in each county 

 arising from the sale of the school sections, and 

 the State has also a school fund derived from 

 the sale of swamp and other lands, amounting 

 in 1865 to $696,020, and yielding an income of 

 $48,721.40. The State school tax is half a mill 

 on the dollar, and there is also a county tax for 

 schools, the minimum of which is $3.00 per 

 scholar. The normal school is in a flourishing 

 condition, and has proved of great advantage 

 in raising the standard of teaching in the State. 

 There are numerous chartered colleges in the 

 State, and some of the number, after a severe 

 struggle from insufficiency of present resources, 

 have attained to a respectable rank among the 

 educational institutions of the country, and have 

 able faculties and the necessary appliances for 

 imparting a good collegiate education. Among 

 these the College of California occupies the first 

 position. Several of the Roman Catholic col 

 leges of the State also give a very full course 

 of instruction. 



Of the correctional institutions of the State, 

 the State Reform School had forty-seven chil- 

 dren under training, and was meeting with a 



