25 



intelligent cultivation of that great diversity of product so favored by 

 the climate of California. The fruit and the wine product of the year 

 1888 aggregated in value $25,000,000. Of this sum, at least sixty per 

 cent, or $15,000,000, is to be credited to the three valleys under con- 

 sideration . 



The acreage of California devoted to barley, corn, oats, rye and wheat 

 aggregates 2,560,000 acres. The value of the product for the year 1888 

 was $49,000,000. The acreage devoted to fruit is about 240,000 acres 

 equal to about nine per cent of the acreage devoted to cereals, and yet 

 the product of the orchards and vineyards was valued at $25,009,000, or 

 fifty per cent of the value of the crop of cereals for that year. 



The distinctively agricultural population, excluding those engaged in 

 horticulture, in this State, is less than 100,000 inhabitants, including 

 juvenile members of families and agricultural laborers. And yet care- 

 fully compiled statistics of the value of the product of field culture, 

 excluding fruit, for the year 1888, exhibit the following : 



Wheat $32,000,000 



Cattle and sheep 30,000,000 



Barley 10,000,000 



Cereals unspecified 7,53o,ooo 



Wool 5,000,000 



Dairy produce 6,000,000 



Total $90,530,000 



The operative mining population of California, including as above 

 specified, minors and employed laborers, is less than 80,000. The pro- 

 duct of their labor compiled from authentic sources, is as follows : 



Gold and silver $20,000,000 



Quicksilver 1,300,000 



Bullion and lead 1,250,000 



Other base metals 1,000,000 



Coal 300,000 



Total $23,850,000 



Thus while the populations engaged in the two classes of industry are 

 approximately the same, tne aggregate of the mining product scarcely 

 reaches thirty per cent of the value of the field culture. But if we add 

 to the $90,530,000 given as the value of the agricultural products of 

 the State for the year 1888, $25,000,000 the ascertained value of the 

 fruit and wine product, we have $115,530,000, as to the total annual pro- 

 duct of field culture, thus reducing the annual output of the mining 

 industry to less than twenty-five per cent of the value, notwithstanding 

 approximately the same number of people are engaged in the two general 

 classifications of industry. 



