HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 71 



comer" in the standards of the time. The census 

 taken in July 1850 made no account of those who 

 had come and gone before that date, of whom there 

 were thousands. It is estimated that not less than 

 fifty thousand came by sea and even more by land 

 in the first rush. 



Nevertheless, the gold-seekers were not wholly 

 actuated by a mining motive. One historian writes : 



"It is still customary to speak of the immigrants 

 of 1849 and the ? 50s as gold-hunters and they were 

 such to some extent : but they were something more 

 and better. They were primarily home hunters, as 

 is proven by the fact that some brought their families 

 with them even in 1849 and a much larger number in 

 later years. . . . Mining, if they resorted to it at 

 all, was to be only an expedient. People were hun- 

 gry for land to be tilled by their own hands. The 

 greater number came to do each his part and in 

 his own way, of the great work that has since been 

 done." 



They were disappointed at first by the aspect of 

 the country, but were almost immediately surprised 

 by its agricultural capability, and their impulse was 

 to try every plant and animal that was held in high 

 esteem in the states and countries whence they came. 

 As they were from numerous countries, the develop- 

 ment of California was thus endowed at the very out- 

 set with agricultural knowledge and materials of 

 great diversity. 



Although the first comers before the gold discovery 

 were chiefly from the frontiers of pioneering in the 



