80 



CALIFORNIA. 



the Chinese into the State, and their competi- 

 tion with white laborers ; arraigning the Radi- 

 cal party for its profligacy, tyranny, extortion, 

 disfranchisement, and contempt of constitu- 

 tional obligations, and for its appointment of 

 healthy and able-bodied negroes to office, while 

 capable white citizens were suffering for the 

 common necessaries of life ; and approved of 

 the economy and efficiency of the Democratic 

 State government. 



At the election the Democratic candidates 

 were elected ; Wallace by a majority of 5,756 

 votes, and Crockett by a majority of 10,292 

 votes, and the now Legislature stood as fol- 

 lows: Senate, 26 Democrats, 11 Republicans, 

 and 8 Independents. House of Representa- 

 tives, 6T Democrats, 10 Republicans, and 3 In- 

 dependents. Of the District Judges elected, 

 all were Democrats. 



The railroad enterprises in California have 

 made great progress during the year 1869. 

 The Central Pacific, which had at the begin- 

 ning of the year passed her borders, was, in 

 May, united to the Union Pacific at Ogden, 

 and a continuous railway line bound together 

 the Atlantic and Pacific coasts; quickening 

 immensely the commerce and the mechanical, 

 manufacturing, mining, and agricultural inter- 

 ests of the State, and giving it at once a posi- 

 tion of equality with the older States of the 

 East. Of this Central Pacific road, 138 miles 

 only are within the bounds of California ; but 

 aside from this there are twenty-three other 

 railroads in progress, or completed in the State, 

 with a total finished length on the 1st of Novem- 

 ber, 1869, of 672 miles, and a projected extent 

 of about 2,500 miles. The roads already com- 

 pleted have cost, in round numbers, $46,650,- 

 000, and those in progress will undoubtedly 

 require $80,000,000 for their cost of roadway 

 and equipment. 



The amount of gold mined in the State, in 

 1869, is not accurately known, considerable 

 sums having been sent to San Francisco from 

 adjacent gold-producing territories, while a 

 portion of the State product, since the opening 

 of the Pacific Railway, finds its way eastward 

 without going to San Francisco. From the 

 best data, however, there is reason to believe 

 that it did not vary greatly from the aggregate 

 of the previous year; new processes, and 

 greater care and labor, having made up for the 

 less abundant yield of some of the mines. For 

 the first six months of the year, $21,046,000 in 

 coin and bullion were exported from San Fran- 

 cisco. The exports of merchandise from the 

 same port from September, 1868, to July 

 1869, were $21,844,000; one-half of which 

 was of flour and wheat ; quicksilver, $921,000 

 fnra, $987,000; wool, $2,378,000; and wine 

 $800,000. 



The time has passed when the products of 

 the gold-mines of the State will constitute her 

 greatest source of weal th or of exports. While 

 the export of gold and silver will probably not 

 vary much from $40,000,000 (not wholly from 



her own territory), merchandise, including 

 quicksilver, wheat and flour, wines, silk, both in 

 cocoons and manufactured, fruits, in which the 

 traffic since the opening of the Pacific Railroad 

 is large, wool and woollen manufactures, in 

 some of which the State greatly excels, barley, 

 esculent roots, olives and olive-oil, figs, etc., 

 etc., will speedily equal and surpass her exports 

 of treasure. Her manufactures at the begin- 

 ning of 1869 exceeded $35,000,000, and during 

 the year took a great step forward, especially 

 in wine and silk. The agricultural products of 

 the State at the same time exceeded $36,000,- 

 000, and every year is bringing larger quanti- 

 ties of new land into cultivation, and in the 

 districts hitherto affected by drought is accom- 

 plishing almost miraculous results by means of 

 irrigation. The swamp or tule lands, over- 

 flown hitherto by the rivers in the rainy 

 season, have to a considerable extent been 

 drained and diked, and, the tule rushes having 

 been burnt, reveal a soil of the most wonderful 

 fertility, yielding in the case of the Suisun Bay 

 Islands 83.5 bushels of wheat to the acre, 

 and 112 bushels of barley to the acre, without 

 ploughing. New articles of cultivation are 

 constantly introduced; during the past year 

 colonies of Japanese have taken up lands in the 

 State, and commenced the culture of tea and the 

 rearing of silk-worms, according to their cus- 

 toms. The orange, fig, pomegranate, and olive, 

 are coming extensively into cultivation in the 

 southern part of the State, and the production 

 of wheat (the Californian wheat being in great 

 demand from its peculiarly nutritious char- 

 acter) increases largely with each year. The 

 culture of the grape in California, both for wine 

 and brandy, and as a table-fruit, has become 

 unprecedented in extent. It is estimated that 

 there are sixty millions of vines now growing 

 in the State, and most of them bearing. Over 

 one hundred and fifty varieties of the grape 

 are cultivated, including the choicest Euro- 

 pean kinds, which do better in that climate and 

 soil than they ever did in their native region. 

 California wines are now a staple article of 

 commerce, and the demand for them is in- 

 creasing fully as fast as the supply. It is said 

 that large quantities of spurious wines are manu- 

 factured in San Francisco, and shipped to the 

 Eastern States; but the genuine product of 

 the California vineyards in 1869 was over 

 10,000,000 gallons. The silk culture, it was 

 estimated, would reach a production of sixty 

 million cocoons during 1869, with a very much 

 greater increase in the coming years, the only 

 difficulty now experienced being that of pro^ 

 viding sufficient food for the silk-worms. Thfc 

 assessed value of real and personal estate for 

 1869 (the assessed value never exceeding 50 

 per cent, of the real value, and often falling be- 

 low it) was above $250,000,000, to which were 

 tojbe added about $23,000,000 exempt from tax- 

 ation. Of this assessed valuation one-half was 

 of property in San Francisco County. 

 The wool product of California has been 



