96 THE CALIFORNIA 



eties this year have shown their appreciation of the im- 

 portance of that culture for California, by giving me 

 the highest prizes, gold medals, etc., and I feel very 

 grateful to them for having so well appreciated and re- 

 warded my efforts. In 1860, when I raised silk for the 

 first time, I sent silk and silk cocoons to every Fair all 

 over the State, and though they gave premiums and 

 diplomas for things of no importance, they did not award 

 any premium to the first California 7 raised silk. So, you 

 see, I was not encouraged at the first start. I say that I 

 was not encouraged by the societies generally ; but there 

 was one that did encourage me the San Joaquin Valley 

 Agricultural Society, whose name will be recorded in 

 big letters in the history of silk in California. That 

 Society gave me a diploma for the first silk produced 

 in this State. The officers and members of that Society 

 understood their mission, and I remember it. 



We cannot too much encourage our friends to go into 

 this branch of industry, which is bound to surpass in 

 value, for exportation, all other California products 

 taken together. They can enter into it with more cer- 

 tainty of success than in mining operations, because 

 they have no opposition or failure to fear. The regu- 

 larity of our fine, dry summers, without rain, storms, or 

 electricity, which are the enemies of silk culture, insures 

 regular, good crops every year. The beauty of this 

 new industry for California is, that it cannot be over- 

 done. I say it is the only business in which we need 

 not fear opposition or failure, because if it were possible 

 to plant the whole State next year with full grown mul 



