separate them. Take, for example, dried fruit, and referring to the 

 table, see how this tendency has already produced results. In 1880, the 

 rate on dried fruit to the Missouri river was $3 per 100 pounds, or $600 

 per car. The rate to New York was $4 per 100 pounds, or $800 per car- 

 load. In 1889 the rates had descended to an equal rate of $1.40 per 100 

 pounds, or $280 per car. This readjustment and equalization of freight 

 rates, disregarding the difference of distance between the points named, 

 was controlled and adjusted by the standard of the commercial relations 

 between the producer and the consumer, since difference of distance is 

 practically lost sight of. The significance of this tendency to the indus- 

 tries of California, both as to its downward character and to its disregard 

 of distance, cannot be overestimated. It means that in the near future 

 the products of California will stand in the markets of the world on 

 terms of perfect equality as to the cost of reaching markets, with the 

 products of all other countries. 



THE INDUSTRIES OF CALIFORNIA AND THEIR FUTURE. 



Our Eastern friends, even many of our own citizens, are constantly 

 predicting the speedy approach of a condition of overproduction. This 

 apprehension both at home and abroad has exerted a strong influence in 

 retarding our growth and development. It is time the matter was placed 

 at rest, and the question which confronts us at the outset of its discussion 

 is, what are the facts and what are the most reasonable inferences to be 

 drawn from these facts? Enterprising men everywhere look to the 

 future with the most serene confidence, and when that confidence is 

 challenged we find it to rest in the great common-sense proposition that 

 no country has ever yet been ruined by its excessive fertility or the ex- 

 panded possibilities of its climate. 



The vast diversity of agriculture and horticulture in California places 

 our industries in competition with the industries of nearly every climate 

 and zone of the habitable earth. In this diversity our safety resides. As 

 a wheat-producing country alone we would share the vicissitudes of the 

 wheat zones of the earth. Failure of crops or of prices would inflict 

 upon us constantly recurring years of loss, but our climate admits of the 

 production of every object of cultivation grown on the entire face of 

 Europe. The list embraces many articles which have but a very limited 

 area of production on the earth, and, fortunately for us, these articles 

 are in the list of those which cannot be produced by the countries sus- 

 taining the largest populations of the world. 



Let us take first the question of citrus fruit. That industry in Califor- 

 nia is still in its infancy, notwithstanding it has long since" passed its 

 experimental stage. Citrus fruits are now produced in commercial quan- 

 tities. Thirty years ago there was imported into the United States 300,- 

 ooo boxes of citrus fruit. Last year Florida contributed to supply the 

 demand 600,000 boxes and California contributed 780,000 boxes. Thus 



