THE BROWN FAMILY IN CALIFORNIA. 



Then, In two brief hours, with the aid of the stereopticon, we journeyed 

 all through California. We saw the Golden Gate crimsoned by the setting 

 sun; the wonders of Yosemite, where great cataracts tumble thousands of 

 feet into one of the most fertile and lovely valleys of earth; the dazzling 

 whiteness of Mount Shasta, with its inexhaustible stores of water; the New 

 Year's Flower Festival at Pasadena; the great combined steam harvesters 

 that wind ponderously over the vast fields of waving grain, not only cutting, 

 but threshing, and leaving the grain sacked in piles to be gathered up by the 

 wagons following. Then we saw the lovely orchards all in blossom, and sud- 

 denly a bit of old New England flashed upon the screen. 



"Whoop! look at those pumpkins!" cried Robert, startling the assem- 

 blage. 



There they were — regular old New England pumpkins, a great field of 

 them, and one appearing in the foreground was as high as the shoulders of 

 a little girl standing beside it who, I should say, was about eight years old. 



"Raw material for the kind of pie mother used to make," said Mr. 

 Erwin. 



Then we saw acres of peaches, prunes and apricots drying in the sun; 

 a vineyard where raisins were being cut, and a merry party who were har- 

 vesting fruit and making a sort of outing party of their work by camping out. 



"My, Jason, just think of it," said my wife, "we hear so much of Cali- 

 fornia that we don't believe half of it, and yet when we do see it we know 

 that it's so wonderful we wouldn't believe a well-informed man at all if he 

 was bold enough to tell the truth." 



"That's just it, Mrs. Brown. I've often thought the same thing, but it 

 never came to me so forcibly as now, when we are seeing so many different 

 features of California all at once." 



At last the lecture was over and we all thanked the kindly man who had 

 given us such a pleasant evening. 



The next evening we were all seated out on the veranda talking over 

 the lecture. You know in the country we get a double pleasure from our 

 amusements by talking them over. 



"What is the reason, Mr. Simpson," asked my wife, "that California, 

 with its varied resources, imports so many manufactured products from the 

 East?" 



"That very point occurred to me, Mrs. Brown, when I looked at those 

 wonderful lantern slides last night," said Simpson, "and it has occurred to 

 me hundreds of times before when I have shipped material away back East 

 to be manufactured into goods that I know can be made just as well out 

 here. There are tremendous opportunities for manufacturing out in Cali- 

 fornia, and we farmers have got just as good a chance to take advantage 

 of the factors which make manufacturing possible as have any other class 

 of people." 



"What, in your mind, are some of the greatest inducements to manu- 

 facturing in California," I asked, "and how can the California farmer take 

 advantage of its essentials?" 



"Well," said Simpson, "you know this is beginning to be an age of 

 machines. The farmer is getting to realize more and more that farming 

 is most successfully done and best results are obtained when, as far as 

 possible, the labor of man is supplanted by the labor of machinery, intelli- 

 gently directed. As people have advanced in farming they have done away 

 as far as possible with physical drudgery. In very early days manpower on 

 the farm was succeeded by horsepower, although some manpower is still 

 used, and in some countries women haul the plow. Now horsepower is 

 being succeeded by machine power, and some day pretty nearly all the work 

 of the farm, especially the drudgery, will be done by machines. Here in 

 California we have an abundance of cheap power. There is petroleum and 

 electricity. While an abundant supply of power induces to manufacturing, 

 it also conduces to agriculture." 



