INTUODUC T ION clxxi 



*FRUITS, VEGETABLES, AND WOOL OF CALIFORNIA. 



Our orange and lemon crops are becoming of great importance, coming into market or ripening 

 when those raised in the tropics are exhausted. The trees of each of these grow as large as they do 

 in the tropics; the fruit is as good and as sweet, but the rind thicker. We produce the sugar-cane of 

 Louisiana, and it yields profitably ; the Chinese sugar-cane does well, but neither these nor the cotton- 

 plant have been cultivated on sufficiently large a scale to enable me to arrive at a conclusion as to their 

 real merits as staple products in this region. A convention of stock-raisers, composed of intelligent 

 gentlemen, met in San Francisco last year. They inform us, from their best source of information, 

 that we have now in the State three millions of horned cattle, a number far beyond the wants of con 

 sumption ; and there being no market open to us beyond the limits of the State, this branch of industry 

 has become profitless and ruinous. The same will apply to horses. We have vast quantities of inferior 

 stock which have become a nuisance, and which only serve to destroy pasture that might be profitably 

 employed for the maintenance of the Merino sheep. 



The capacity of this State for maintaining a large population in proportion to our entire superfice, is 

 not as great as our number of square miles would suggest. There is but a comparative small proportion 

 that can be cultivated. This is not owing to any want of fertility, but to the absence of rains in the 

 summer, and the scarcity of water for irrigation on a large scale. Our commercial position on the con 

 tinent, our vast mineral resources, and our unsurpassed climate will always guarantee to California a 

 respectably numerous, but we need never hope for a dense population, such as will swarm the great 

 northwest, &quot; where every rood of land will maintain its man.&quot; 



Much will be done to extend the present area of cultivation in the State by means of artesian 

 water, damming in the winter to prison the water of mountain streams for summer irrigation, and by 

 improved modes of deep ploughing and subsoiling, which will enable the field to absorb and retain 

 the winter rains. 



Vegetables of all kinds arc produced in great abundance, and the aid of manures is seldom resorted 

 to. In size and yield they surpass those of the older States, but some contend they are deficient in flavor. 

 This, I think, a mistake, and may be partially accounted for by early and pleasing impressions of home. 



Our wool clip will claim, in order of importance, the second rank as a product, adding largely to 

 the material wealth of the State and nation at large, giving to large numbers pleasing and profitable 

 employment, and adding much to our carrying trade. From a few thousand coarse-wooled and inferior 

 Mexican sheep, our flocks will now number three millions of improved stock, yielding this year a clip 

 approximating to 12,000,000 pounds ; and, at the close of the present decade, it will not be unreasonable 

 to expect that California will produce an amount equal to the entire product of this staple in the United 

 States in 18GO say 60,000,000 pounds. We are happy to see that your wise and patriotic suggestions 

 in relation to the protection that our wool-growing interests should have and receive are being acted 

 on by Congress. The same rule should apply to the wine-growing interest, and specific, not ad 

 valorem, duties should be the rule, so as to prevent fraud both on the producer and the government. 



* Communicated by Ex-Governor Downey. 



