I 

 AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 127 



a commercial initiative, which is rather unusual. At 

 the opening of the first permanent pavilion of the 

 State Agricultural Society in Sacramento, in 1860, it 

 was announced that "samples of California-grown 

 wheat sent to the chief agricultural societies of both 

 hemispheres elicit the most unqualified testimony to 

 its great superiority which testimony is sufficiently 

 corroborated by the price it brings in foreign markets 

 whither the farmers have, from the last harvest, 

 shipped already a very large amount to various parts 

 of the world." 



At the State Fair of 1860, the late John Bidwell 

 said: "From 1848 to 1853 we were dependent upon 

 importation from abroad for almost everything 

 including the staff of life. In 1853 we imported 

 498,740 barrels of flour. We are now able to export 

 half a million ourselves. In 1853 we imported 

 80,186 bags of wheat now the scales have turned 

 and we are able to export. Our success in raising 

 to the greatest perfection this the most valuable staple 

 of the world involves the momentous question of 

 our capacity to augment the production until we can 

 justly claim, that ours is the granary of the Pacific 

 hemisphere/' 



General Bidwell lived long enough to see Cali- 

 fornia become the leading wheat state in the Union, 

 over Minnesota, her rival of that time, and to see her 

 produce in 1878 and 1879, two wheat crops with a 

 farm value for each of about $40,000,000, more than 

 twice the value of her gold output for each of those 

 years. 



