Resources of California
California constitutes an empire by itself. Her territory
extends over ten degrees of latitude, and includes valleys by
the sea and mountains reaching to the eternal snows. Over her
immense area a kindly nature has bestowed every physical feature
desirable by man, and a climate varying only by altitudes.
Within this we find every resource of honor, pleasure and
wealth. To call attention to all, or describe them, would fill a
cumbersome volume. The great area of the State, much of which is
but slightly explored, offers many difficulties for a thorough
examination, and naturally invites speculation. We expect our
State to become great and wealthy, with a population of teeming
millions, drawing from the soil the treasures Nature has stored
for their use, adapting every means that is furnished to add to
their comfort and convenience, and sending forth a thousand arms
of commerce to every quarter of the globe. Believing in the
exhaustless native wealth of California, it is a pleasure to
discuss the theme. The natural resources of a country consist in
its soil, its mines, its forests and its fisheries, and the
industrial resources in capabilities for manufactures and
adaptability to commerce. The first form the basis of the latter
as well as of all wealth. The savage subsists from the
spontaneous growths of the soil, and as man advances in
civilization so do the productions of agriculture. The farmer
supplies the manufacturer, who prepares food and clothing. These
alone support society and maintain a commerce in its earliest
stages. A further advanced state of enlightenment seeks below
the surface of the earth, and mines are developed. Those are the
most important of the resources of a country, and from them a
nation rises to wealth and power. The soil and the mines of
England have made her the richest country of the earth, and
enabled her to become the most extensive manufacturing and
commercial nation of the world. Let us examine into the
resources of California, and see if she possesses the elements
to support a large population and enable her to rise to future
greatness.
Agriculture
The culture of the soil in California was not until recently
regarded as an important resource. The golden grains from the
placers and veins of the Sierra, gave the only incentive to
industry, while the broad valleys, sered and sun-cracked by the
heats and droughts of summer, were dreaded as inhospitable and
irreclaimable deserts. American farmers were accustomed to the
frequent showers and verdant fields of summer, and the belief
was entertained that summer rains were indispensable. Gradually
the prejudice has been overcome, and now the golden grains from
the fields exceed in value those from the mines. The future is
very bright, and production is without range or limit. The
extent of arable soil is immense, and the geniality of the
climate fosters all vegetable and animal life. Estimates by
enthusiasts, once thought extravagant, are proving within bounds
as development follows experiment. The soil is generally deep
and lasting, and if supplied with water responds to every
demand. Neither is the productive soil confined to the valleys
and plains, for wherever the climate permits, and water is
afforded, roots, fruits or cereals grow luxuriantly. The rank
tule succumbs to the wheat field, and the repulsive chaparral
gives way to the vineyard. Cotton and tobacco know no north nor
south, and recent trials show that both are here grown and cured
in greater perfection than elsewhere in the United States.
Tropical fruits grow in luxuriance side by side with the hardy
apple of the north, and the camel of the African desert grazes
and brings forth its young in the same field with the cashmere
goat from the heights of Himalaya. Within the range are nearly
all plants and all useful animals. The fruits have grown to such
perfection that the fame of the State has become world-wide, and
so favorable is it for the rearing of stock that animals brought
to it from other countries here add new developments and come to
greater perfection. The diseases to which horses, cattle, sheep,
dogs and other animals are subject in other countries are almost
unknown on the Pacific Coast.
The agricultural field we have shown to comprise an area of
36,000 square miles, or 23,040,000 acres of arable land, and a
grazing range of 41,500 square miles, or 26,560,000 acres, or a
total of 49,600,000 acres; and this is to be largely increased
by the subjection of the forests and the reclamation of the
desert. The grazing lands, where capable of being irrigated, are
generally susceptible of cultivation, and under such conditions
the total area should be described as arable.
Fifty million acres of tillable and grazing land is less than
the usual estimate, but the twenty-five million comprised in the
southeastern section of the State, from the dividing ridge of
the Sierra to the Colorado, we have classed as desert, which has
been generally ranked as fitted for some purposes of culture or
pasture. Small areas may be rendered fertile, and beds of marl
and salt, and veins of lead, gold, silver and copper are known
to exist; but the barrenness is so general that to class its
many millions of acres as agricultural or grazing, would be but
a deceptive array of figures.
The swamp and overflowed lands have attracted increased
attention in the last few years. Such lands as require
protection from overflow to be successfully cultivated, were
granted the State by the General Government. The area of these
is not well defined, but is estimated at from three to five
thousand square miles. The most important sections are within
the deltas of the great rivers, and are beds of peat, formed by
the deposit of silt and the growth of rank vegetation. Such a
soil is of incomparable fertility and inexhaustible resource.
They are reclaimed by the construction of embankments, or
levees, to prevent overflows, and when thus protected, two, and
sometimes three crops of grain are grown annually, yielding
often sixty bushels of wheat to the acre. A field of eleven
acres, on Sherman Island, in 1874, yielded 90 bushels per acre.
Fruit and forest trees grow as well, and with the warm climate
and moist soil there can be no limit to the range of production.
The trade winds entering by the Golden Gate sweep gently over
the delta during the summer, tempering the climate most
pleasantly. When this broad sea of waving tule is fully
reclaimed to cultivation in the products best adapted to the
soil, it will pour forth a wealth unprecedented in agriculture,
and furnish pleasant homos for as dense a population as crowd
the rich lands of Holland or Belgium. Ex-Surveyor-General Bost
estimates the total area of the swamp and overflowed land
belonging to the State, at three million acres, every acre of
which would produce fifty bushels of wheat at each cropping, or
other products in proportion.
These, as well as other arable and grazing lands of California,
are generally owned in large tracts. Anterior to the acquisition
of the country by the United States, large grants to individuals
had been made, aggregating some six million acres, in bodies of
from throe to forty square leagues in extent, covering the most
choice sections of valley and grazing lands near the coast.
Subsequently, large purchases have been made of Government land,
several persons owning over two hundred thousand acres each, and
the Assessor's reports show one hundred and twenty-two farms
exceeding twenty thousand acres each, one hundred and
fifty-eight exceeding ten thousand acres, and generally showing
that large farms is the rule. Nevertheless, there are still
large areas unoccupied, much being desirable land. The prices of
land so vary, according to location, soil and character of
title, that no satisfactory report can be given. In some
localities, it is obtained at the Government rate of $1.25 an
acre, from some of the large Mexican grants at even less, and
from that rate to $100 per acre for farming land near the large
towns. Of the large amount claimed or owned by private
individuals, there were, according to the Report of the State
Surveyor-General for the year 1873, only 4,843,532 acres
enclosed, and but 2,477,012 under cultivation. Of these
1,739,608 were cultivated in wheat, producing 26,089,667
bushels.
The lands granted to the different railroad companies as
subsidies in aid of construction comprise several thousand
square miles, of which large quantities have been sold at prices
averaging about five dollars per acre. These lands are sold on a
credit of five years; a payment of twenty per cent, being made
at the time of purchase, with interest on all sums remaining
unpaid. The railroad companies claim the policy of selling their
agricultural lands at low rates, on easy terms and in limited
quantities to those who will cultivate the soil and who will own
the land they cultivate.
From the amount and quality of land presented as agricultural, a
faint estimate can be made of the population the State will
sustain. With reclamation of the low lands and irrigation of the
dry, we have shown the products exceed that of almost any known
country. Add to these the manufacturing facilities afforded by
the rapidly falling streams of the mountains or by the abundance
of cheap coal found and developing, and to these add the wealth
of minerals never known before, and then the grandest forests
humanity ever beheld, and none can conceive the wealth that may
be produced or the myriads of people that may be maintained.
California Gazetteer |
AHGP California
Source: Pacific Coast Business Directory for 1876-78, Compiled
by Henry G. Langley, San Francisco, 1875
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