96 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



few articles of produce that were imported by sea 

 in 1853, viz. : 



Dried apples 12,000 bbls. at $12 $ 144,000 



Barley 294,000 sacks at 2V> 4 per Ib. 735,000 



Bread 60,000 kegs at $10.50 630,000 



Butter 140,00 kegs at $20 2,800.000 



Flour 298,000 bbls. at $10 2,980,000 



Oats 150,000 bbls. at $4 600,000 



$7,889,000 



Obviously these were only a few staples and no 

 higher class foods and provisions are included. 

 Although the rancheros gained much gold by selling 

 their flocks and herds to furnish meat for the miners, 

 they did not conceive the purpose of multiplying 

 animals for that trade but were soon driving herds 

 and flocks in from Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and 

 from old Mexico to furnish a supply which they could 

 probably have met by wisely farming the breeding 

 stock they already possessed. 



Quite in contrast with the foregoing was the Amer- 

 ican recognition of the opportunity for profitable 

 agriculture and their zeal to realize it. The first 

 fresh fruits for San Francisco and the mines came 

 from trees and vines surviving the partial abandon- 

 ment of the old mission orchards and restored to 

 fruitfulness by Americans who leased or purchased 

 them. This was only a side issue of the general 

 effort. Almost immediately on their assurance that 

 the soil was surprisingly fertile if farmed aright, the 

 newcomers began to plant everything which they con- 

 ceived to be acceptable in the local markets and they 



