xviii REPORT. 



quate supply of the raw material in this State. But it would be 

 impossible to enumerate all the benefits which this State would 

 derive from such an increased application of her agricultural ca- 

 pacity. Kesidents of California who have visited our plantations, 

 vineyards, and farms, and who have attended our district and 

 county fairs, may be able to appreciate these just anticipations. 



European governments, well knowing the importance of agri- 

 culture and horticulture, appropriate large sums every year, in 

 various ways, for the encouragement of these most important 

 branches of their wealth. Agents are sent to all parts of the 

 world to collect information, to report on new inventions and 

 ameliorations, and to purchase new varieties of vines, trees, seeds, 

 etc. Botanical or experimental gardens are kept, where the plants, 

 vines, or fruit-trees are propagated, and then sold to the people 

 for cost price, or given free of charge to each and every communi- 

 ty, according to population, for distribution among its landhold- 

 ers. Scientific and practical men are employed at high salaries 

 as officers of agriculture and horticulture, whose duty it is to make 

 experiments in all their various branches. The magnificent agri- 

 cultural and horticultural schools, with their experimental gar- 

 dens, costs some States hundreds of thousands of dollars per an- 

 num, and their statesmen frankly admit that money could not be 

 more profitably expended. It can also be shown by statistics 

 that those States which have expended most money in the en- 

 couragement of these departments of industry are now the wealthi- 

 est and most powerful, and their people the least in want. I would 

 respectfully recommend that a law be passed appropriating money 

 for the purchase of land for a propagating and an experimental 

 garden, and creating the office of director to supervise the garden; 

 and also the appropriation of a sum to purchase, from year to 

 year, seeds, vines, etc. ; and for other necessary expenses in main- 

 taining said garden. In this connection, I would respectfully 

 draw your attention to the fact that, by late treaties with Japan 

 and China, an opportunity is presented to us to penetrate into 

 those countries, which have been secluded for centuries. It is 

 well known that many fruits and plants are raised there which 

 might be of great advantage if introduced into this State. A 

 thorough examination of those countries would probably bring to 

 light some products which have not been thought of here. To 

 leave such inquiries to private enterprise would be a tardy mode 

 of realizing the object. I doubt if half a century would accom- 



