436 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



Domestic herbiveroiis animals live and increase without 

 shelter, and without cultivated food. They reach their full 

 growth a year earlier than in the Eastern states. The absence 

 of extreme cold gives them a more rapid growth, and exemp- 

 tion from many diseases. Sheep produce more wool, are 

 healthier, increase more rapidly, and are kept at far less cost 

 in California than in any American state east of the Rocky 

 Mountains. Bees increase more rapidly, and make more 

 honey than there is any record of their doing elsewhere. 

 Thunder and rain storms kill a large proportion of the silk- 

 worms in Italy, France, Turkey, and China every year ; in the 

 valleys of -California we never have any lightning, and no rain 

 during the season when the silk-worms feed. 



The wages of labor in California are higher than in any 

 other part of the world. Mechanics' wages are generally from 

 two dollars and fifty cents to four dollars per day ; common 

 laborers, from one dollar and seventy-five cents to two dollars 

 and fifty cents per day; farm laborers, and men and maid ser- 

 vants, from twenty dollars to thirty dollars per month. Our 

 imports and exports of treasure are larger in proportion to our 

 population than those of any other state. Our chief city is 

 favorably situated for commerce, and its harbor always con- 

 tains vessels of the largest size from every sea. It has an un- 

 doubted supremacy in the commerce of the north Pacific. We 

 have no paper money, and no current coin less than a dime. 



The inhabitants of the state, numbering nearly four hundred 

 thousand, represent in their nativities every American state, 

 and every continent, and every country of Europe, and many 

 of the countries of Asia and Africa. Our population is unsur- 

 passed in intelligence, experience in travelhng, and skill in the 

 arts. Our society is liberal in tone, and free in intercourse. 



With many drawbacks, which have been set forth clearly 

 and unreservedly, California is still the richest part of the civ- 

 ilized world. It possesses most of the luxuries of Europe, and 

 many of the advantages which the valley of the Ohio had forty 

 years ago. It offers an oj^en career to talents. In the few 



