86 



CALIFORNIA. 



cloths of excellent quality are also made. The 

 necessities of the mining districts led at an early 

 date to the establishment of manufactories of 

 mining implements, and as quartz mining in- 

 creased, and especially as there began to be a 

 demand for mills of the best class to crush the 

 quartz, and furnaces for reducing refractory 

 silver, copper, and lead ores, machine-works 

 were established capable of turning out quartz- 

 crushers and stamps of the highest quality. The 

 building of steam-engines, both stationary and 

 locomotive, has also risen into a thriving busi- 

 ness, and rolling-mills for the manufacture of 

 railroad iron for the Pacific Railroad have re- 

 cently been established. The manufacture of 

 silk has commenced, and that of glass for the 

 supply of the rapidly increasing wine trade is 

 prospering. 



The commerce of the State is attaining large 

 dimensions. The communications with the At- 

 lantic States are now weekly by two lines, and 

 an active commerce is carried on with the 

 western ports of South America, the Sandwich 

 Islands, China, Japan, and Australia. A regu- 

 lar line of steamers of the first class, receiving 

 a Government subsidy, plying to China and 

 Japan, was established in December, 1866, and 

 will undoubtedly be followed by other lines, 

 and when the Pacific Railroad is completed, as 

 it will be by 1870 or sooner, the carrying trade 

 of Asia and the whole of the farthest East 

 must pass through San Francisco. 



The Central Pacific Railroad, the portion of 

 the great thoroughfare which California is to 

 build, is making rapid progress. Beginning at 

 Sacramento, which had steam communication 

 with San Francisco, the road was completed 

 nearly or quite to the summit ridge of the 

 great range, 105 miles eastward, by January 1, 

 1867, and the cars had been running to a point 

 93 miles from Sacramento since October, 1806. 

 The summit ridge is 7,042 feet above the sea 

 level. The gradients are better than was to 

 have been expected. From Sacramento to 

 Dutch Flat, 68 miles, the highest ascending 

 grade is 105 feet to the mile, or less than one 

 foot in 50, and the average is only 70; from 

 Dutch Flat to Blue Canon, 10 miles, the maxi- 

 mum grade allowed by Government, 116 feet 

 to the mile, is reached several times, but the 

 longest plane or continuous stretch of this grade 

 is only 3 miles, and after Blue Cafion is passed 

 it is never reached again. From this latter 

 point to the summit, a distance of 2G-J miles, 95 

 feet to the mile is the highest grade, while the 

 average for this distance is only 84. The tun- 

 nel which passes the summit is 1.600 feet in 

 length, and is to be cut through solid granite. 

 There are to be five other tunnels, but none of 

 them will exceed 400 feet in length. The cur- 

 vatures are better than on most roads over 

 mountain-passes, the sharpest curve being one 

 with a radius of 573 feet. It is expected that 

 Virginia City, Nevada, will be reached by Sep- 

 tember, 1867, and Salt Lake City by January, 

 1870, at farthest. 



California has taken a high position in it* 

 educational system. The report of Hon. John 

 Swett, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 

 to the Legislature, which met in January, 

 1866, embraced the two years 1864 and 1865. 

 There were, in 1865, 831 school districts in the 

 State, an increase of 147 siii.ee 1863, and in 

 those districts there were 947 schools and 1,155 

 teachers. There were in the State, in 1865, 

 95,067 white children between the ages of four 

 and eighteen years, and the whole number en- 

 rolled upon the public school registers for 1865 

 was 50,089, an increase of 2,501 over the pre- 

 vious year ; the average daily attendance at the 

 public schools was 29,592 in 1865, against 24,- 

 704 in 1864, and 19,992 in 1863. The money 

 for the support of the schools is derived from 

 State and county taxes, a direct property tax 

 levied in the districts, and subscriptions and 

 tuition. The public schools are made free just 

 as fast as the taxes will allow, and there were, 

 in 1865, 293 schools maintained without resort 

 to rate bills. Fully half of the pupils received 

 their instruction free, and the average cost of 

 tuition for the remaining half was only 25 cents 

 per month. The amount of school money re- 

 ceived from all sources in 1865 was $952,930, 

 against $756,999 in 1864, and $581,055 in 1863. 

 The amount expended in building and repair- 

 ing school-houses in 1865 was $257,804, an in- 

 crease of $164,000 over the like expenses in 

 1863. The valuation of the public school prop- 

 erty was $1,200,000, and the average cost of 

 tuition for each pupil $10.50 for an average of 

 seven and one-third months for the year. 



Of the $19,657,000 expended by California 

 for all purposes from the organization of the 

 State government up to August, 1865, nearly 

 $9,000,000 were expended for educational pur- 

 poses. The average expenditure for each child 

 between four and eighteen years of age in 1865, 

 was twenty cents more than in Massachusetts. 

 The average monthly pay of the teachers was 

 $74 for males and $62 for females, an increase 

 in the latter case of $7.9 over 1864. The sala- 

 ries of the female teachers were higher than in 

 any other State in the Union, and almost four 

 times as high, deducting board in each case, as 

 in Massachusetts. There was much less differ- 

 ence between the wages of male and female 

 teachers than at the East, and all the leading 

 educators in the State took strong grounds in 

 favor of a more general employment than at 

 present of female teachers in the public schools, 

 not on the ground of cheapness, but because 

 that " to teach and train the young seems to be 

 one of the chief missions of woman." 



Aside from the public schools, there was a 

 State normal school, and nearly twenty colleges 

 and seminaries, with a valuation of $1,500,000, 

 and an attendance of about 2,000. In 1866 the 

 law respecting the school age of children was 

 modified, and the enumeration was made to in- 

 clude only children between five and fifteen y ears 

 of age. This reduced the number of children 

 of school age about 11 per cent., and the fol- 



