THE TRUTH ABOUT CALIFORNIA 



The evolutionary process of the last twenty years has 

 wrought out some very valuable lessons for the future of 

 California. It has demonstrated that irrigation is es- 

 sential to the highest standard of civilization. The cen- 

 sus of 1890 revealed the fact that two-thirds of the gain 

 in rural population stood to the credit of eight counties 

 where irrigation prevailed. The counties which rely 

 upon rainfall had about reached a stand-still or scored a 

 loss. The people have always been divided on the ques- 

 tion as to whether irrigation is necessary. Those who 

 oppose urge that it breeds malaria and injures the qual- 

 ity of the fruit. Those who favor insist that it is essen- 

 tial to the most scientific agriculture, and to the main- 

 tenance of dense population. The last twenty years 

 have answered the question forever. The answer con- 

 sists of a comparison between the South and the North. 

 The one was born of the irrigation canal ; the other of 

 the mining-camp and the wheat-ranch. The one is char- 

 acterized by a high civilization ; the other by a low one. 



With a population estimated by Governor Budd, in 

 1896, at less than one million and a quarter, California 

 has a territory nearly as large as that of France. It is 

 inferior to France neither in climate, soil, natural re- 

 sources, nor sea-coast, and its capacity for sustaining a 

 dense population is fully as great as that of the Eu- 

 ropean republic. The latter supports more than thirty- 

 eight millions. If, then, the comparatively few inhabi- 

 tants of the California of to - day are not equally 

 prosperous, it is because they have failed to make the 

 best use of their opportunities. With the same rate of 

 increase in the next century as in that of the immediate 

 past, the United States will contain in 1996 a total pop- 



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