CALIFOKNIA. 



81 



steadily and rapidly increasing for several 

 years. The product of the Pacific coast in 

 1868 was 16,036,656 Ibs., of which 706,800 Ibs. 

 were from Oregon, Washington Territory, and 

 British Columbia; in 1869 the product of the 

 coast was a little more than twenty million 

 pounds, of which nineteen million pounds were 

 from California. About three million pounds 

 were consumed by the woollen-mills of the 

 State, and the remainder was shipped to New 

 York and Boston. The refining of sugar and 

 the cultivation of both the sugar-cane and sor- 

 ghum are making very great progress. The 

 cultivation of the sugar-beet for sugar has not 

 yet, we believe, been attempted to any great 

 extent in the State, but in the deep, rich soil 

 and the long, rainless season of California, it 

 could not fail to be followed with greater suc- 

 cess than has attended it elsewhere. 



The iron and steel manufactories and the foun- 

 deries, and machine and locomotive works, the 

 greater part of them located in San Francisco, 

 are constantly increasing and enlarging their 

 facilities for work. The greater part of the 

 locomotives, and most of the cars for supplying 

 the twenty-one railroads finished or in progress 

 in the State, are manufactured in that city ; as 

 are also the arastras, quartz-crushers, steam- 

 engines, and other machinery required both in 

 quartz and hydraulic mining in California, Ne- 

 vada, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, 

 and Arizona. "This business seems to admit of 

 an almost indefinite extension, and the iron and 

 copper of the State furnish supplies of the 

 raw material for a considerable portion of the 

 work. We have alluded to the culture of fruit, 

 as a specialty in which California would un- 

 doubtedly excel any other State of the Union. 

 The fruits are generally larger and finer than 

 those of other sections of the country, and the 

 trees commence bearing earlier and yield more 

 profusely. It is said that some of the* fruits, and 

 especially apples, plums, and apricots, have not 

 so fine a flavor as those of the Eastern States, 

 but the pear, the peach, and the cherry, are un- 

 rivalled both in size and quality. The follow- 

 ing table shows the number of fruit-trees and 

 fruit-bearing plants which were reported in the 

 State in 1867. The most intelligent agricul- 

 turists of the State say that the number has 

 been more than doubled since that time, and, 

 in the case of the fig, lemon, orange, and olive 

 trees, quadrupled. The quantity of small fruits 

 has also been more than quadrupled : 



Fruit-trees, Vines, etc. 



Apple-trees 1 



Peach " 



Pear " 



Plum " 



Cherry " 



Nectarine-trees 



Quince 



Apricot 



sfi - 



Lemon 



Orange 



Olive ' 



VOL. ix. 6. A 



,217,790 



969,692 



302,392 



195,896 



93,998 



43,999 



40,404 



52,308 



33,924 



3,712 



17,281 



14,838 



Prune-trees 6 527 



Almond" 25319 



Walnut 15 ; 614 



Gooseberry-bushes 172 783 



Easpbeny " 1,336,048 



Strawberry-vines 9,981,575 



The mulberry-trees, reported in 1868 as 

 1,175,000, had reached over two millions in 

 July of 1869, and were being put out as fast as 

 slips could be obtained. Mr. Prevost, the 

 pioneer of the. silk culture, reports, in Los 

 Angeles County, the growth of single shoots, 

 fourteen feet in length in one year, and that 

 cuttings planted in the spring, or, rather, in 

 February, furnished abundant food for the silk- 

 worms of the second crop, in August following. 

 The cultivation of sumac for tanning pur- 

 poses has been commenced on a large scale on 

 the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada and on the 

 sterile plains, which have been hitherto re- 

 garded as utterly worthless. It is said to yield 

 from one to two tons to the acre, and to be 

 very easily cultivated. This quality of sumac 

 brings in the New York market from $100 to 

 $120 per ton. 



The timber and lumber product of California 

 itself is diminishing ; the redwood, their prin- 

 cipal and best forest-tree for these purposes, 

 being confined to the fog belt of the Pacific 

 slope of the Sierra Nevada, and being so sus- 

 ceptible of climatic changes, that where it is cut 

 off it does not make a second growth, but is 

 replaced by other hardier, but less valuable 

 woods ; but the supply of timber and lumber 

 from Oregon, Washington, and British Colum- 

 bia, is apparently inexhaustible, and this in- 

 sures lumber to California at low prices. The 

 Central Pacific Eailroad has consumed im- 

 mense quantities of lumber and timber, not 

 only in the construction of the road, but in the 

 erection of its miles of snow-sheds and its sta- 

 tions. 



The immigration to California, since the com- 

 pletion of the Pacific Eailroad, has been very 

 large, both by that road and by the steamships. 

 Much of this immigration is from Europe, 

 though the tide is also setting strongly toward 

 its shores from China and Japan, and there is 

 a certainty of the speedy settlement of large 

 colonies of Japanese, to engage in agriculture 

 in the State. The southern portion of the 

 State, which had long been somewhat neglected, 

 has, for two or three years past, attracted the 

 attention of immigrants, and the population 

 of the southern counties has in that time more 

 than doubled. The climate of this part of the 

 State is said to be salubrious and delightful, 

 well adapted to the relief of invalids suffering 

 from pulmonary diseases, and the subtropical 

 fruits, the fig, orange, lemon, pomegranate, 

 banana, and the more delicate varieties of 

 grapes, grow there in great profusion. 



Education in California is making excellent 

 progress. The schools of the cities and larger 

 towns are unsurpassed by those of any section 

 of the country, and the academies and schools 



