HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 75 



CALIFORNIA POPULATION AND RANK AMONG STATES ] 



Population Rank 



1850 92,597 29 



1860 379,994 26 



1870 560,247 24 



1880 864,694 24 



1890 1,213,398 22 



1900 1,485,053 21 



1910 2,377,549 12 



1920 3,426,861 8 



While during the first decade of California state- 

 hood, the per capita production of gold was the 

 greatest in the world at that date, there was also 

 attained agricultural production which rendered the 

 State independent of imported foods. During the 

 second decade, although the era of picking up gold 

 in stream-beds and pulling it up with grass roots had 

 practically closed and the flood of incoming settlers 

 largely checked by the Civil War, a vast surplus of 

 wheat was produced for export and subsequently Cali- 

 fornia became for a time the greatest wheat-produc- 

 ing state in the Union. In the third decade flocks 

 were increased to such an extent that California 

 became the greatest wool-producing state. During 

 the fourth decade fruit production entered on its 

 course toward the leadership of all California indus- 

 tries by fuller application of the force of proprietary 

 and cooperative colonization of fruit lands, by the 

 dawn of cooperative enterprise in packing and dis- 

 tribution of fruits and fruit products, which in 1899 



1 The rural and urban populations of California counties and 

 the number and valuation of farms in each, according to the 

 Census of 1920, are given in Appendix A. 



