436 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
Domestic herbiverous animals live and increase without 
shelter, and without cultivated food. They reach their full 
growth a year earlier than inthe Eastern states. The absence 
of extreme cold gives them a more rapid growth, and exemp- 
tion from many diseases. Sheep produce more wool, are 
healthier, increase more rapidly, and are kept at far less cost 
in California than in any American state east of the Rocky 
Mountains. Bees increase more rapidly, and make more 
honey than there is any record of their doing elsewhere. 
Thunder and rain storms kill a large proportion of the silk- 
worms in Italy, France, Turkey, and Chins every year; in the 
valleys of California we never have any lightning, and no rain 
during the season when the silk-worms feed. 
The wages of labor in California are higher than in any 
other part of the world. Mechanics’ wages are generally from 
two dollars and fifty cents to four dollars per day ; common 
laborers, from one dollar and seventy-five cents to two dollars 
and fifty cents per day; farm laborers, and men and maid ser- 
vants, from twenty dollars to thirty dollars per month. Our 
imports and exports of treasure are larger in proportion to our 
population than those of any other state. Our chief city is 
favorably situated for commerce, and its harbor always con- 
tains vessels of the largest size from every sea. It has an un- 
doubted supremacy in the commerce of the north Pacific. We 
have no paper money, and no current coin less than a dime. 
The inhabitants of the state, numbering nearly four hundred 
thousand, represent in their nativities every American state, 
and every continent, and every country of Europe, and many 
of the countries of Asia and Africa. Our population is unsur 
passed in intelligence, experience in travelling, and skill in the 
arts. Our society is liberal in tone, and free in intercourse. 
With many drawbacks, which have been set forth clearly 
and unreservedly, California is still the richest part of the civ- 
ilized world. It possesses most of the luxuries of Europe, and 
many of the advantages which the valley of the Ohio had forty 
years ago. It offers an open career to talents. In the few 
