Misc. Records

Where to Emigrate and Why - Frederick B. Goddard, Peoples Publ. Co., 1869

CALIFORNIA.

        IN the month of February, 1848, gold was found in one of the streams of an almost unknown region far away to the west, upon the shores of the great Pacific Ocean. Under Almighty direction, this discovery gave the impetus to an emigration thither, which has since sprung upon a wondering world that most marvelous monument to the genius of the age and the enterprise of the American people, now known as the State of California.

        As no other age could have fostered, so no people but this could have compassed such amazing results in the short space of twenty years. Then, a strange, wild, solitary land; now, California sits enthroned in opulence and power, Queen of the Pacific and Pride of the Nation. Behind the "Golden Gate" her metropolis sits regnant, and the oldest nations of the earth pay her peaceful tribute. Vessels from every part of the civilized world furl their sails in her beautiful harbor, mingling their masts and spars to the semblance of a leafless forest.

        Thousands of earnest men have crept up the slopes of her mighty mountains, and torn from cañons and gorges their dormant wealth; sent home for wives and families, and built towns and cities, with churches and schools, and telegraphs, and railroads. Along her rivers and valleys, others have swept away the wild tulé and the vegetation of nature, and touched the fertile acres to the kindlier issues of wheat and corn, until now, throughout her length and breadth, California glows and thrills with the spirit of Progress and the quickening instincts of her splendid future.

        The Pacific Railroad—now rapidly approaching completion —will make San Francisco a commercial center of the world, the Metropolis of a Hemisphere. It will enable her, while with one arm she swoops up the commerce of the Indies and the myriad-peopled nations of the Orient, to stretch the other across the continent and grasp the traffic of the great marts of the Atlantic. California's border lines extend 750 miles in length by 230 in breadth, embracing every description of salubrious climate, from tropical to northern temperate; and her wonderfully fertile soil is equally versatile in its broad range of production. The fame of her mineral resources is world­wide, and her manufacturing facilities rival those of any other State in the Union.

        According to a late semi-official enumeration, the present total population of California is about 550,000, of which about two-thirds are males. Of the entire population one-fifth are children under eighteen years of age. There are in the State 60,000 Chinese, 7,000 Indians, and 5,000 colored, included in the above-named total. According to the " TRIBUNE ALMANAC," the total vote for Governor of the State in September, 1867, was 92,352; but the actual number of voters in the State is about 130,000, of which 55,000 are from the free States, 30,000 from the former slave States, 20,000 Germans, Swedes, Danes, Russians, &c.; 15,000 Irish, 5,000 English, Scotch and Welsh, 5,000 French, Spanish-Americans, Italians, &c.

        As an illustration of California's capacity for wheat-raising, it is officially stated that from January 1st to October 1st of last year (1867), 174 ships sailed from San Francisco with cargoes of wheat―113 of which went to Europe, 31 to Atlantic ports, and 20 to China; and, as showing the profits of stock-raising, it is also officially stated that the sheep-firm of Flint, Bixby & Co., Monterey County, own 75,000 sheep, which feed on a range of 200,000 acres. The firm commenced sheep-raising fifteen years ago, with a capital of $5,000.

        From the very able and interesting Report, for 1867, of Hon. JOSEPH S. WILSON, Commissioner of the General Land Office, we extract the following respecting California :—

LAND.

        Its area is 188,881 square miles, or 120,947,840 acres, of which not less than 89,000,000, including swamp and tulé lands, capable of reclamation, are suited to some kinds of profitable husbandry. Of these over 40,000,000 are fit for the plow, and the remainder present excellent facilities for stock-raising, fruit-growing, and all the other branches of agriculture. This agricultural area exceeds that of Great Britain and Ireland, or the entire peninsula of Italy. The State also contains about 40,000,000 of acres of mineral land, unsurpassed for productiveness. About thirty millions of acres have been surveyed, leaving a residue unsurveyed of ninety millions. Nearly nine millions have been granted to the State by the General Government, under various acts of Congress, for Common Schools, Agricultural Colleges, Public Buildings, and. Internal Improvements.

        Of the forty million acres of arable land, fourteen millions are found in the basin of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, sixteen millions in the coast valleys, and the residue in the region called the "Colorado Desert" in Owen's River valley, and the Klamath basin. When irrigation is practiced on an extensive scale, as it must be within a few years, and the valley of the Colorado is brought under its influence, much of what is now characterized as "desert" will become productive and valuable. The land not fit for the plow, but valuable for grazing, and in a measure for horticultural purposes, especially the grape culture, is to be found on the foot-hills and slopes of the Sierra Nevada and. Coast Range mountains.

CLIMATE, PRODUCTS, ETC.

        The soil and climate of California are eminently adapted to the growth of wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, hops, tobacco, hay, and sorghum; in certain localities, to corn, cotton, the southern sugar­cane; to almost every variety of garden vegetables cultivated east of the Rocky Mountains; to the apple, pear, plum, cherry, apricot, nectarine, quince, fig and grape; and along the southern coast, to the orange, lemon, citron, olive, pomegranate, aloe, filbert, walnut, hard and soft-shell almond, currants, prunes, pineapples, and the plantain, banana, cocoa-nut and indigo. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, figs, grapes, and the hardier fruits, as the apple, peach and pear, succeed well in every portion of the State. There are very few parts of the world where fruit-trees grow so rapidly, bear so early, so regularly, so abundantly, and produce fruit of such size, and where so great a variety can be produced, and of such superior quality, as on the southern coast of California. The pear is more especially the fruit-tree of California. It thrives in all parts of the State; neither tree nor fruit is subject to any form of disease, the fruit being everywhere of delicious flavor and large size. Some trees produce annually forty bushels of pears.

        The varied climate on the Pacific, its freedom from frosts, severe cold, and. furious storms, give it special advantages as a fruit-growing region; and although the trees grow more rapidly and bear much earlier than on the Atlantic, they are not subject to early decay. The fruit-trees of the Missions, many of them thirty and forty years old, are still in excellent condition, and full bearing, not having failed at any season during the past twenty years to produce good crops. Experience has established the fact, that the climate and soil of California are equal to any in the world in their adaptation to grape culture and the manufacture of wine. The yield of the grape has been larger, its freedom from disease greater, than in the most celebrated European vineyards. Three hundred varieties have been already successfully cultivated, including the choice foreign wine-producing grapes; and so diversified are the soil and climate that all wines can be produced here, and even superior in quality to the imported.

        The vine in California is not subject to the oidium or grape disease, frequently so destructive in other countries, nor is it liable to mildew. The vineyards of the State seldom, or never, yield less than one thousand pounds of grapes per acre, and even twenty thousand pounds have been produced. The crops are regular every year, and as there are neither severe frosts, nor hail, rain, or thunder storms, from the budding of the vines until the grape is gathered, they are not liable to the accidents and drawbacks attending them in other places. In Europe, the vine is trained with a stock four feet high, and. supported. by a pole put up every year to which the vine is fastened. In California it stands alone, the labor thus far being nothing compared with that bestowed upon the best European vineyards. The number of vines already set, all of which will be in full bearing in three years, is estimated at nearly thirty millions.

        In 1863, the total number planted in vineyards in the State, was nearly three and a half millions, showing an increase of twenty-five millions in four years. Hock, champagne, port, and claret, constitute the varieties of wine already exported. No doubt is entertained that when the California wine-makers have had the necessary experience, and their wines have attained sufficient age, they will take rank with the very best, and that its manufacture on the Pacific coast is destined to become of vast importance, while series of vineyards, stretching from San Diego to Mount Shasta, will within another quarter of a century add not only beauty, but substantial wealth to the State. Among the fruits cultivated on the southern coast during the present year, have been the orange, lemon, fig, lime, the English walnut, almond, olive, apricot, and nectarine, numbering in the aggregate between 400,000 and 500,000 trees, in a greater or less state of maturity. The cultivation of these and other fruits, is rapidly extending in California, with marked success. *    *    *

        As both the mulberry and the silk-worm are so thrifty, there is no reason to doubt that silk culture will succeed, and that it will become an important interest in the State. Eight hundred thousand cocoons were brought into market in 1865, and six times that number in 1866. Two large silk factories have been established in the State, and silk of very excellent quality is being manufactured.

        The cultivation of the Chinese tea-plant has received attention, but we have no reliable information as to how far successfully, during the last few years.

The wheat product is large and constantly increasing. In favorable seasons fifty and sixty bushels to the acre is no unusual yield. The wheat of certain localities is especially rich in gluten, commanding for its superior quality the highest price in New York. It is also remarkable for its flintiness or dryness, being especially adapted for shipment to tropical countries where the moister flour is soon subject to fermentation.

        The climate of California is favorable to stock-raising, and in many parts this is the leading branch of husbandry. Horses, mules, oxen, beef cattle, cows and sheep, are extensively raised.

        Sheep husbandry is rapidly becoming an important industry. The mild winters permit the sheep to graze throughout the year, it being claimed that sheep bred in California are at two years of age usually as large and heavy as those three years old on the Atlantic coast. Improved breeds have been extensively imported. The slopes of the Coast Range and the Sierra Nevada, form sheep walks hundreds of miles in extent, with abundance of excellent pasture throughout the year. Woolen manufactures already take high rank, and much of the wool raised is manufactured within the State into cloths and blankets.

        TIMBER.—California has an abundance of timber of the finest varieties. The northern part of the coast is well covered with spruce, pine, and red-wood, and the valleys have beautiful groves of oak. The western flank of the Sierra is a long, wide slope, timbered and grassy, with intervals of arable soil, copiously watered by numerous streams. Its length is 500 miles, with a width of 70, from the summit to the termination of the foot-hills in the edge of the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin.

        This wide slope of gentle ascent is covered with timber; first, with the oak, the manzanita, and nut-pine, to half the elevation of the mountain, which is called the oak region, that being the predominating tree; then there are the pines, cypresses, and cedars, the pines being the most numerous, and hence the upper benches of the mountain constitute the pine region.

        In the valleys of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, and on the Coast Mountains south of 35° of latitude, the supply of timber is deficient. The red-wood is found only in California and southern Oregon, growing within 30 miles of the ocean, from latitude 37° north to the mouth of the Umpqua River in the State of Oregon. The wood is straight-grained, free-splitting, durable, soft and light, being of rich, dark-red color. It is one of the most valuable of all varieties of timber. The trees grow in dense forests, often reaching in height 275 feet, with a diameter of from 18 to 19 feet. Many of these furnish 20 saw logs to the tree, each 10 feet long, and an acre of them will frequently make a million feet of sawed lumber. The growth covers an area in the State of about ten thousand square miles. * * *

        The sugar-pine, in the value of its timber and prolific growth, is next to the red-wood, sometimes even equaling it in length and diameter. * * * * Of firs, the Douglas spruce, or red fir, is the most noted, often 300 feet high, with a trunk 10 feet in diameter. * * * * The white oak is a characteristic tree of California, having much resemblance to the oak of England. * * * * Other trees, both deciduous and evergreen, abound in the forests, as the evergreen oak, the evergreen chestnut oak, the buckeye and sycamore.

        The most remarkable tree in California, and the largest in the world, is the Sequoia Gigantea, or mammoth tree, growing with a clear, straight stem, sometimes to the height of 400 feet, with a diameter from 30 to 40 feet in the larger specimens. It is found only on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, in southern California, growing in scattered groves at various points through hundreds of miles. Fifteen or twenty groves are now known, one of which is in Calaveras County, three in Mariposa, one in Tuolumne, and one in Tulare. * * * *

        The State of California, unequaled in the grandeur and extent of its marvelous beauty and unlimited resources, has been rapidly occupied by an appreciating, energetic, and industrious people. The census of 1860 shows an increase of 150 per cent in ten years in the acreage inclosed in farms, while the value of farms and farm implements advanced at least fifteenfold. The live stock enlarged in number at rates ranging from fourfold to two hundredfold, and in value twelvefold. Cereals, beans, peas, and potatoes, expanded from thousands to millions of bushels. The same multiplied results are seen in the values of orchard and garden products.

        The progress of Californian agriculture during this period, so extraordinary even in this age, has been measurably quickened since that time. As an illustration, the yield of wheat in 1860 was over five millions of bushels. Reliable estimates place the yield of the late harvest at twelve millions of this aggregate four millions will be sufficient for home consumption, leaving eight millions for export.

        The manufacturing industry of the State has increased at rates no less remarkable. The number of establishments in 1860 was 8,468, with a capital of $22,051,096, using raw material valued at $27,051,674, the cost of labor being $28,402,287, and the product of the year's operations was valued at $68,253,228, leaving a profit of $12,799,267, or 58 per cent on the capital invested.

        No authoritative returns have been received showing the progress of manufactures since that time. Sufficient, however has been gathered from various sources of public and private information, to show that the advance in this branch of industry has been no less remarkable than the agricultural development.

MINERAL RESOURCES.

        The great and distinguishing feature of California is, however, its unexampled mineral wealth. The first discoveries of gold were made in 1848, when $10,000,000 were taken from the mines, increasing to $40,000,000 in 1849, and upward of $65,000,000 in 1853.

        No returns are made of the quantity taken from the mines, and the mint records are the only official data existing upon the product for any portion of the Pacific coast. Various estimates have been made by mining engineers, bankers, and other intelligent and practical business men in San Francisco, and elsewhere in California, as to the total product of that State since 1848. These estimates vary from eight hundred millions to one billion. From the commencement of 1849 to the close of 1866, upward of seven hundred and eighty-five millions have been manifested at San Francisco for exportation, all of which, with the exception of sixty-five millions, appears to have been the product of California. How large a portion a gold found its way out of the State without being manifested for exportation, is, of course, a matter of conjecture, different authorities estimating it from one hundred to three hundred millions. But either estimate is sufficient to furnish an idea of the immensity of the mineral wealth of the State.

        Silver mines in the State are comparatively inconsiderable, yet quantities of that metal are annually obtained by separating it from gold, with which it is, in small portions, generally united when taken from the mines. The quicksilver mines of California are among the most valuable, and have, since their discovery, materially contributed to the prosperity of the mining interests, not only of California and the adjoining States; but also of Mexico and South America. All the useful metals, such as iron, lead, copper, tin, and zinc, exist in this region. Coal has been discovered in different localities, and marble, gypsum, and valuable building stone, are abundant. Some of the rarer and more valuable minerals, as the agate, topaz, carnelian, and, in unfrequent instances, the diamond, have been found.

        The foreign commerce of California has been immensely enlarged by the opening of direct trade with Asia. This Oriental commerce has been stimulated by the establishment of a line of steam communication with China and Japan, the forerunner of an immense system of navigation centering at San Francisco.

        From that excellent work by TITUS FEY CRONISE, entitled "The Natural Wealth of California," lately published by Messrs. H. H. Bancroft & Co., of San Francisco, we extract the following. Those of our readers who would know more of California and her resources, than we here present, are referred to that work for full and reliable information.

        California's seven hundred miles of length, by about two hundred of width, embraces the same nine degrees of latitude which, on the Atlantic side of the Continent, include the extensive and populous country stretching from Charleston, S. C. to Plymouth, Mass., a region occupied by portions of ten or twelve States. *         *          *          *          *          *          *

        Although this State reaches to the latitude of Plymouth Bay on the north, the climate for its whole length is as mild as that of the regions near the tropics; half the months are rainless; snow and ice are almost strangers, except in the high altitudes; there are fully two hundred cloudless days, every year; roses bloom in the open air of the valleys through all seasons; the grape grows at an altitude of 3,000 feet, with Mediterranean luxuriance; the orange, the fig, and the olive flourish as in their native climes; yet, here is enough variety of climate and soil to include all the products of the northern temperate zone, with those of a semi-tropical character. The great valleys of the interior yield an average of 20 to 35 bushels of wheat per acre; crops of 60 bushels are not uncommon, while as high as 80 bushels have been known on virgin soil, under the most favorable circumstances. The farmer loses less time here than in any other portion of the United States, or in any country of Europe. * *

        California is an extremely rugged country, a large portion of its surface being covered with mountains. The Sierra Nevada, or snowy mountains, which bound the Sacramento Valley on the east, include a series of ranges which, collectively, are seventy miles wide. The general name for the group is derived from the snow, which is rarely absent from the higher peaks in the range. The Coast Range, which bounds it on the west, also consists of a series of chains, aggregating forty miles in width, bordering the State from its northern to its southern boundary.  There is a most remarkable difference in the structure and conformation of the two series. The Sierra Nevada ranges may be traced in consecutive order for an immense distance, while in the Coast Range all is in confusion and disorder. *    * Those portions of this range which skirt the coast in Marin, Sonoma, and Mendocino counties, between latitude 38° and 40° are tolerably well timbered; but south of Bodega Bay and north of Mendocino County, except about Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz, the coast line presents a bleak and sterile appearance. All the valleys in the range which are open to the coast are narrow, and trend nearly east and west. The Salinas, the most extensive of these coast valleys, is nearly ninety miles in length, by eight to fourteen miles in width, a large portion of which is adapted to agricultural purposes—being exceedingly fertile, producing abundance of wild oats and clover, where not under cultivation. The Russian River valley, which also opens to the sea, is also very fertile. Further inland, sheltered from the cool sea breezes by the outer range of mountains, are many tolerably broad and very beautiful valleys, which produce the finest grain, fruit and vegetables raised in this part of the coast. The outer coast valleys are generally separated by steep, barren ridges, while those inland,  are divided by gently sloping hills, somewhat similar to the rolling prairie lands of Illinois, and are susceptible of cultivation over their entire surface. All the coast valleys are tolerably well watered.        *          *          *          *          *          *

        Owing to the peculiarly isolated position of Monte Diablo—standing aloof as it does, from the throng of peaks that rise from the Coast Range, like a patrician separated from plebeians, the beauty of its outline commands the attention of the traveler by land or sea—makes it a landmark not possible to mistake, and causes its summit to be a center from whence may be viewed a wider range of country than can be seen from almost any other point in the State. On the north, east, and southeast, may be seen a large portion of the great valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, with many thriving towns and villages, environed with gardens and farms, while sweeps and slopes of verdure mark the distant plains with hues inimitable by art. In the extreme distance, as a border to this grand panorama, rising range upon range, is seen the Sierra Nevada mountains, stretching along the horizon upward of three hundred miles. In an opposite direction the beautiful valleys of the Coast Range come into view, with all the charming features of prosperous and skilled rural industry, and the broad bay of San Francisco, where are riding at anchor a fleet of ships, from the masts of which the ensigns of nearly all nations may be seen fluttering; while beyond, extending from the waterline to the very summit of the highest hills, is San Francisco City, the home of nearly one-fourth the population of the State. To the right is seen the forts and earthworks that guard the Golden Gate, while beyond, as far as the eye can reach, is the Pacific Ocean, bearing on its bosom numberless vessels, passing to or fro on the peaceful mission of commerce. *          *          *          *          *          *          *

        COUNTIES.—The semi-tropical heat, scant vegetation, and broad arid plains of San Diego and San Bernardino counties, on the south, are as much in contrast with the cold, pine-covered mountain regions of Del Norte County on the north, as the State of Maine is in contrast with Florida. The counties embracing the crests of the Sierra Nevada, which have a climate of almost polar severity, inhabited solely on account of their mineral wealth, can not, with propriety, be classed with those among the foot-hills, which are as important for their agriculture as for their mineral resources; nor can these be classed with those in the Coast Range, or with those in the great central valley.

        This extraordinary diversity of climate and soil, the dividing lines of which are so difficult to define, enables California to produce in perfection the grains, fruits and vegetables peculiar to all countries—the olive, orange, pomegranate, cotton, and tobacco flourishing in close proximity to the potato, wheat, flax, and rye—and insures the growth of the finest wools in districts where the vegetation is of a tropical character.

        SOUTHERN COUNTIES.—San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San. Luis Obispo, and Kern counties, comprise what is generally considered Southern California. Although only six in number, these counties embrace nearly one-third of the territory of the State. They contain about 50,000 square miles, or more than 30,000,000 acres of land, three-fourths of which is adapted to agricultural or grazing purposes—much of it being the very garden of the State, producing the greatest variety of fruits, grain, and vegetables.

        COAST COUNTIES.—Monterey, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Lake, and Mendocino counties, located along the Coast Range, are classed under this head. They embrace only a small portion of the territory of the State, but contain the greater portion of its wealth and population, and are the chief centers of its trade, commerce, and manufactures.

        NORTHERN COUNTIES.—Humboldt, Trinity, Klamath, Del Norte, Siskiyou, Shasta, and Lassen counties, comprise Northern California. They embrace a territory extending from the fortieth to the forty-second parallel of north latitude, and from the one hundred and twentieth to the one hundred and twenty-fifth degree of longitude west.

        MOUNTAIN COUNTIES.—Plumas, Sierra, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Amador, Alpine, Calaveras, Tuolumne, Mariposa, Mono, and Inyo, embracing the main chain of the Sierra Nevada mountains, are considered the mountain counties. They are comparatively small in size, and although containing nearly all the important gold and silver mines in the State, the whole territory of the ten principal mining counties is not as large as that of the pastoral county of San Bernardino.

        VALLEY COUNTIES.—Tehama, Butte, Colusa, Sutter, Yuba, Yolo, Solano, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Fresno, and Tulare counties, located in the great central valleys, between the Sierra Nevada and the coast ranges, are classed as valley counties.

CLIMATE.

        The climate of California is too much varied to be considered as a whole. It might be regarded almost as a heterogeneous mixture of the tropical and the arctic. From the Capital city (Sacramento), under the noonday sun of the summer solstice, with a temperature of from 90° to 100°, exceeding the extreme summer heat of the Atlantic States, you will see the snows glistening on the Sierras at no great distance. And by taking the cars on the trans-continental railroad, a few hours of travel will transport you to an arctic landscape. On the other hand, embarking on the steamer for San Francisco, at two o'clock in the afternoon, and traveling in the opposite direction, before night you are shivering in the cold sea-breeze which sweeps up the bay.

        It is not necessary to journey so far in order to experience the same transition. You have only to cross any of the mountain walls which separate the ocean and bay from the interior, and which dam out the cold ocean atmosphere.

        There are essentially two climates in California, the land climate and the sea climate. The latter derives its low temperature from the ocean, the water of which, along the coast, stands at from 52° to 54° all the year round. The evenness of the ocean temperature is owing to a steady current from the north, which is accompanied also by winds in the same direction during the entire summer season, or rather from April to October, inclusive. Almost daily, during this period, a deluge of cold, damp air, of the same temperature as the ocean over which it has passed, is poured upon the land. It is mostly laden with mist, in dense clouds, which it deposits at the foot-hills and on the slopes of the highlands, or carries a short distance into the interior, where-ever there is a break in the land wall.

        The land climate is as nearly as possible the opposite in every respect. In summer and autumn it is hot and dry. It undergoes various modifications from the configuration of the surface of the earth. Even the mountains, which retain the snow to a late period, present a high temperature in the middle of the day; and the presence of snow on their summits in June is owing to the great mass which has accumulated on them, rather than to cold weather.

        A large district of territory lies between the jurisdiction of the two climates, and subject to their joint influence. It is composed chiefly of valleys surrounding the bay of San Francisco, and penetrating into the interior in every direction. There is no climate in the world more delightful than these valleys enjoy, and no territory more productive. Whilst the ocean prevents the contiguous land from being scorched in summer, it also prevents it from being frozen in winter. Hence, ice and snow are not common in the ocean climate. The difference in temperature is comparatively slight between summer and winter. *          *            *

        The absence of warm weather in the summer months is characteristic of the coast climate, and strikes a stranger forcibly. The most ordinary programme of this climate for the year is as follows, beginning with the rainy season:—The first decided rains are in November or December, when the country, after having been parched with drought, puts on the garb of spring. In January the rains abate and vegetation advances slowly, with occasional slight frosts. February is spring-like, with but little rain. March and April are pleasant and showery, with an occasional hot day. In May the sea-breeze begins, but does not give much annoyance. In June, just as warm weather is about to set in, the sea-breeze comes daily, and keeps down the temperature. It continues through July and August, occasionally holding up for a day or two, and permitting the sun to heat the air to the sweating point. In September the sea-wind moderates, and there is a slight taste of summer, which is prolonged into the next month. The pleasant weather often lingers in the lap of winter, and is interrupted only by the rains of November or December. * *          *

        Though the nights in the interior are not so uniformly cool, yet there are few localities, even in the valleys, where they are too warm for sleeping, even though the day temperature may have reached 100°. This is a remarkable feature of the climate of the Pacific States, and it has an important bearing on the health, vigor, and character of the population. *        *          *

        In speaking of the "rainy season," strangers will not infer that rain is perpetual, or nearly so, during that time. The term is employed only in contrast with the dry season, and it implies the possibility rather than the actual occurrence of rain. In more than half the winters there is not a drop beyond the necessities of agriculture, and even in the seasons of most rain much pleasant weather is interspersed. If the winter be not extraordinary, it is generally regarded as the most pleasant season of the year. In the intervals of rain it is bright, sunny, and calm. It is spring rather than winter. The grass starts as soon as the soil is wet. At Christmas, nature wears her green uniform almost throughout the entire State, and in February and March it is set with floral jewels. The blossoms increase in variety and profusion until April, when they are so abundant in many places as to show distinctly the yellow carpeting on hills five miles distant. *    *

        In the Atlantic States, the storms of approaching winter put a stop to the labors of the farm, and force both man and beast into winter quarters. In California it is just the reverse. The husbandman watches the skies with impatient hope, and as soon as the rains of November or December has softened the soil, every plow is put in requisition. Nothing short of excess or deficiency of rain interferes with winter farming. The planting season continues late, extending from November to April, giving an average of nearly six months for plowing and sowing, during which the weather is not likely to interfere with outdoor work more than in the six spring and summer months of the Eastern States.

        Owing to the absence of rain, harvesting is conducted on a plan which would confuse the ideas of an Atlantic farmer. There are no showers or thunder gusts to throw down the grain, or wet the hay, or impede the reaper. The hay dries in the swath without turning. The grain remains standing in the field awaiting the reaping-machine, it may be, for a month after it is ready to cut. And so it remains when cut, awaiting the thrasher. When thrashed and sacked, the sacks are sometimes piled up in the field a long time before removal. In September or October, the great grain-growing valleys may often be seen dotted over with cords of grain in sacks, as secure from danger by weather as if closely housed.      

        Owing to the absence of severe frosts, the gardens around San Francisco supply fresh vegetables all through the winter. New potatoes often make their appearance in March. In May the potatoes are full-grown, and the largest weigh a pound or more. *

        Many of the interior valleys are subject to malarious fevers, but not generally of a severe type. The various forms of disease which prevail elsewhere are found here, but they present no peculiarities worthy of comment. Insanity, and diseases of the heart and blood-vessels, are frequent, but this is due rather to moral and physical causes than to climatic influence.

        The relation of the climate to pulmonary affections presents its most important aspect. Many persons threatened with lung disease, or but slightly affected by it, have regained their health completely by immigration. But the benefit is to be ascribed to the sea-voyage, and to circumstances incident to change of residence, more than to the curative effect of the climate of the Pacific coast. To individuals in other countries suffering with tubercular disease in its established stages, this country offers no valid prospect of benefit. Consumption is developed in California as it is in most other portions of the temperate zone. The chilly winds of the ocean climate in summer, while they will, in many cases, brace the system against debility, and enable it to resist the invasion of disease, depress the vital forces in other cases beneath the power of resistance. On the other hand, the extreme heat of the interior leads to the same injurious results by its exhausting operation. But there is a wide range of climate between the two extremes, more favorable than any other on the Pacific slope to pulmonary patients, and much more favorable, it may be added, than the climate of the Atlantic States, either in summer or winter. The same may be said of the southern section of the State in general. The winter of California everywhere exhibits great uniformity in its relation to pulmonary invalids, and is decidedly superior to the corresponding season on the Atlantic slope.

LAND, LABOR, AND TRAVEL.

        In general terms, land is very rich and very cheap. Improved farms can always be bought of persons ready for a change, at moderate prices. It may, also, be said that the toils and discomforts of the first year of emigrant life are less by sixty per cent than in the Western Atlantic States. *         *          *          *

        HINTS TO THE IMMIGRANT. - The immigrant will meet with some difficulty in seeking a location for a settlement in California, of which he should be advised. We have only two navigable rivers, and but two railroads completed as yet. Several new railroads are projected, however, aid will probably soon be constructed through a number of fertile valleys. The cost of railway traveling is ten cents a mile, and steamboat fare is generally five cents per mile. On all the stage lines twenty cents per mile is the usual fare, except when an occasional opposition reduces it for a short time. Distances are great between settlements, and the cost of living is tolerably high. To get suitable land at a low price requires considerable travel by stage. On this account the migrant, to save his purse, should take counsel of some trusted friend, and confine his examination to a few localities.

        Farmers in the Atlantic States naturally prefer the neighborhood of a river, or at least of a running brook. We have but two streams worthy the name of rivers, properly so called—the Sacramento and its confluent, the San Joaquin. The lands on their border are almost entirely swamp, or subject to overflow. They breed fevers and mosquitoes, and have few tributaries that are not dry, or nearly so, in summer, and also are subject to wide overflow in winter. As a general rule, the immigrant will find it safer to seek other localities than those near the water-courses.  Almost everywhere in the valleys water is obtained at moderate depths, and. wind-mills can be readily employed. This suffices for the family, the cattle, and the gardens of the farmer. His grain crops do not need summer water, nor do his fruit-trees when once well rooted.

        FARM LABOR.—In no other part of the world do farm laborers receive such liberal wages, or fare so well, as in California. Wherever practicable, labor-saving machinery is introduced, materially lightening, in many cases, the burden of his manual toil. In driving the gang plow, now coming rapidly into use, he performs what was before one of the hardest services of the farm, with very little physical exertion, being comfortably seated and riding along, with no other labor than that required to guide his team and gauge the easily managed machine. The wages of a good farm hand are from twenty-five to thirty dollars per month, the year round, or from fifty to sixty dollars during the harvest season, board and lodging included—the former always good, and the latter, considering the mildness of the climate, generally comfortable. In the principal agricultural districts he is rarely ever pinched with cold, though there is much suffering from the excessive heat that prevails in the interior and southern portions of the State during summer. In the regions adjacent to the coast, however, there is little to complain of from the extremes of climate either way, while the whole country may justly be pronounced extremely healthy.

        RAILROADS.—During the session of the Legislature, ending March 30th, 1868, a large number of franchises for laying down railway tracks in different parts of the State were granted to the various companies applying for the same, the most of whom, it is supposed, will at once proceed with the work of their construction. There are now about three hundred miles of railroad completed and in operation in the State, a very small extent, considering the urgent necessities as well as unexampled. facilities that exist for making these improvements.

        STEAMSHIP LINES.—From the port of San Francisco, there issue three ocean steamship routes to foreign countries, there being more than double that number of important coastwise routes. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company dispatch steamers regularly, four times a month to Panama, and monthly to China. The California, Oregon, and Mexican Steamship Company, dispatch a vessel monthly to the following ports on the coast of Mexico, viz.: Cape St. Lucas, Mazatlan, Guaymas, and La Paz; also, tri-monthly to Portland, Oregon; bi-monthly to Trinidad, Crescent City, and Umpqua River; monthly to Victoria, Alaska, and Sandwich Islands; tri-monthly to Santa Barbara, San Pedro, and San Diego, and weekly to Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Luis Obispo. The North American Steamship Company sends a steamer bi-monthly to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, touching at Manzanillo, the steamers of this company sometimes sailing alternately to San Juan and Panama.

        IMMIGRATION—Every industrial interest is at this time exceedingly prosperous. Farming in all its branches, of grain, fruit, grape, wool, and cattle-growing, has paid munificently for several years past, having, to all appearance, an equally prosperous future before it. Lands of good quality, unless sought after in the immediate vicinity of San Francisco, are cheap and procurable on easy conditions; the opportunities for making money in the mines are still excellent, while labor of nearly every kind is in demand at liberal prices, which the prospective requirements for railroad construction promise to sustain for a long time to come. The various overland routes are also in better condition for travel than ever before, the more central being settled up for a long stretch at each end, with numerous towns and stations at intervals along it, enabling the emigrant to obtain supplies without carrying them, as formerly, all the way through. There will, moreover, be but little to fear from Indian molestations on this route hereafter. To such, then, abroad, as may entertain the idea of an early change of locality, or who may ever have contemplated a removal to California, it may be said that the present is every way an opportune moment for emigration to this State.

        The following we take from the June (1868) Report of the Agricultural Bureau; Hon. HORACE CAPRON, Commissioner:

        The average value of wild or unimproved land in Yuba County is $4 per acre; this land is productive, and will produce, according to our reporter, if fallowed, 60 bushels of wheat to the acre, and 40 to 45 bushels if not fallowed, and other cereals in proportion. In Monterey the price ranges from 50 cents to $2.50 per acre. In Del Norte, $1.25 per acre; chiefly mountainous, and all heavily timbered, mostly with red-wood. In Amador our reporter says the wild lands are worthless. In Tuolumne these lands belong to the United States, and may be taken up by settlers; the valleys have a rich deep alluvial soil, capable of raising almost any crop with irrigation. The hills are volcanic, calcareous, granitic, and slaty, and furnish the best of sites for vineyards, and yield good crops of grain if sown early in the season. Our San Francisco correspondent, speaking for the State, says:‑

        We have so sparse a population, however, that there are vast quantities of good arable land which can be purchased of Government at from $1.25 to $2.50 per acre, while some of the large grant owners are willing to sell good lands, but not very eligibly situated for market, at the same prices. The Central and Western Pacific Railroad Companies also sell land within a few miles of the lines of their roads at from $2.50 to $10 per acre. Almost all of the valley lands of the State may be termed wheat lands, the great majority, with proper plowing, producing from 15 to 40 bushels per acre. Almost any product of the north temperate zone can be raised on the ordinary lands in California. Besides the parties named the State has large quantities of swamp or overflowed lands (which can be reclaimed at moderate expense), and school lands in different sections which can be purchased at from $1 to $2.50 per acre.

        The soil of the valley lands, is universally productive, while the mountain ranges furnish an abundance of timber. A large lumbering business is done in Tuolumne, a ready market being found in the valleys of that county, Stanislaus, and Joaquin, at from $25 to $50 per thousand feet. In Amador the timber is mostly cut, except in the higher eastern portion of the county bordering on the Sierra Nevadas, where remains some of the finest timber in the world, while in Del Norte and other counties the red-wood timber is almost inexhaustible. The mineral wealth of this country is too well known to require detailed mention here.

        Wheat and barley are the staple products of all the valley counties except Los Angeles, El Dorado, and Sonoma. In Los Angeles and El Dorado wine-growing is the great interest; a large quantity of grain, however, is raised in the former county. In Sonoma the wine-growing interest predominates, although grain of all kinds is raised in considerable quantities, that county being the second wheat-growing county. Wheat and wine are considered the most profitable crops to raise.

        The products of the leading crops of the State for 1866 were as follows, in round numbers: Wheat, 14,000,000 bushels ; barley, 11,600,000 bushels; oats, 1,860,000 bushels; hay, 360,000 tons; potatoes, 2,000,000 bushels; peanuts, 182,000 bushels ; beans, 240,000 bushels; butter, 4,500,000 pounds; cheese, 2,100,000 pounds; wine, 1,800,000 gallons; wool, 5,230,000 pounds. Total value about $28,000,000, being several millions in excess of the gold products of the State.

        Santa Clara, Solano, and Yolo are the largest wheat-growing counties, aggregating more than half the crop of the whole State in 1866. In barley, Santa Clara, Monterey and San Joaquin take the lead, producing more than one-third of the entire crop. Santa Clara also leads in hay, cheese and silk; Mendocino in oats; Sonoma in potatoes; Sacramento in hops ; Marin in butter; Santa Barbara and Los Angeles in wool, and the latter county in oranges, lemons, grapes, wine, and brandy.

        A variety of wheats are sown in California, but the white Australian appears to be the favorite, as it makes better flour, is productive, and rarely has any drawbacks in bad seasons; white Chili, Sonora, and Club wheat are also sown in the interior counties. In Del Norte a white winter wheat is grown and preferred by many farmers because it is a winter variety, and also on account of the superior quality of its flour. In this county, winter wheat is sown from September 1 to November 1, and the spring varieties from February 1 to April 15, harvesting about the 10th of August; all grain sown by hand. In Monterey wheat is sown from November to March, according to the amount of rain. Our Tuolumne reporter says " the land should be summer-fallowed, and the grain sowed before the first rains; it may be sowed as late as March, but is liable to injury by the drought; harvest last of May or June." In Yuba they sow from October to February, and harvest from 1st of June to 15th of July. None drilled.

        Our San Francisco correspondent writes :—

        "Seeding on summer fallow and dry-plowed land has been done in September and October, but the experience of our farmers is that wheat sown prior to March in good seasons produces favorable crops. Harvesting of barley commences in the southern part of the State early in May; wheat is generally two weeks later, most of the crop being gathered in June, new wheat coming to market about the 1st of July. Plowing is, on an average, not over four inches deep, some being only three inches, while in exceptional cases the soil is disturbed from six to twelve inches, but such instances are very rare. A practice called 'volunteering' prevails among farmers, which consists of simply harrowing by implement, or, in many cases, brush-harrowing, viz.: dragging limbs of trees over stubble, so that the waste grain of one harvest is made the seed for the next."

        The average yield of wheat is reported at twenty bushels to the acre.

        Wild oats, when cut at the proper time, are said to make the richest hay. When there is sufficient range, horses, cattle, and sheep pasture the entire year, the rainy season not excepted. In the greater portion of the State the natural grasses are turned into hay while standing, the extreme dryness of the climate being the cause. Cattle feed on this dried grass, which is very nutritious until the rains come, which destroy all the nourishment. When the rains come early, in October or in November, the new grasses spring up in a few days, and if they get three or four inches high, frost does not stop their growing, and stock have excellent feed the season through. When the rains come in December, followed immediately by frost, cattle suffer greatly, and large numbers of horses, sheep, and cattle are lost. The crop of natural grasses, when not fed down too much, seeds itself and yields from one to two tons of hay per acre.

        Our Tuolumne reporter says that pasture is good from March to October, but stock will subsist the entire year. Usually the only expense is cost of herdsmen. Several correspondents estimate the cost of pasturing stock at from 50 cents to $2 per head per month—the average $1 per head.

        The fame of California as a fruit-growing State is too widely extended to need lengthy notice in this chapter. The capabilities of the entire valley lands of the State, and also the foot-hills of the mountain range, to produce fruit, are perhaps unsurpassed, if equaled, in any part of the world. All the fruits of the temperate zone flourish well, and such semi-tropical fruits as oranges, figs, limes, citrons, olives, almonds, and pomegranates are produced in great abundance. It is difficult to say which kind of fruit is most profitable, as all pay well until the supply exceeds the local demand. At present it is said that almonds and Madeira nuts pay best, though figs and oranges are quite profitable.

        Our Tuolumne correspondent says that grapevines bear a good crop the third year from the cutting. Vineyards produce from four to five tons of grapes per acre, or from 500 to 700 gallons of wine. Grapes for wine-making sold last season at $30 per ton. The price of wine one year old varies from 40 cents to $1.25 per gallon, according to quality. Apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry, fig, orange and pomegranate come into bearing the third year, and produce good crops. The price the past season for best apples, pears, and peaches, was $40 per ton, plums 5 cts. per pound. Our Yuba correspondent says: " Nearly all the fruits are adapted to our soil and climate. The apple, peach, plum, nectarine, apricot, cherry, quince, pear, fig, pomegranate, orange, lime, lemon, currant, &c., not only do well but excel any thing I ever saw. The grape for wine and raisins is perhaps destined to be one of the fruits most extensively cultivated. The yield is immense and the profit very great. A vineyard of 10 acres will yield a clear profit of $5,000 per annum, and orchards from $250 to $1,000 per acre, according to the kinds of fruit."

        A correspondent in Amador County says that he gathered three crops of apples from the same tree, last year.

        Los Angeles had, in 1866, nearly 2,000 lemon-trees, 9,000 orange-trees, 3,000,000 grape-vines, and made 600,000 gallons of wine, and 20,000 of brandy. Sonoma had over 2,800,000 vines, and made nearly 200,000 gallons of wine and nearly 7,000 gallons of brandy. Santa Clara had 2,000,000 vines. In the State, according to the assessors' reports, there were in 1866, nearly 1,700,000 apple-trees, 480,000 pear-trees, 1,090,000 peach-trees, 234,000 plum-trees, 28,000 almond-trees, 17,000 English walnut-trees, 13,000 olive-trees, 3,000 lemon-trees, 11,000 orange-trees, and nearly 20,000,000 grape-vines.. The numbers of each growing rapidly.

        On the 25th of September, 1867, a letter was addressed to the Mayor of San Francisco by certain citizens of Louisiana, making inquiry respecting the advantages California offered to immigrants, with a view of migrating thither.

        The State Board of Immigration returned the subjoined reply:—

        Query.—" Are the public lands entirely absorbed ?"

        Answer.—No. There are millions of acres yet in the keeping of the Federal Government officers, which can be had for $1 an acre in gold. Only in the neighborhood of the great thorough­fares, the navigable rivers, the fragments of railways yet constructed, the mining camps and the like, has ever the Government surveyor yet erected his theodolite. The whole population of the States of California, Oregon, Nevada, and the Territory of Washington, does not come to a million of souls, and they have more land to live upon than the entire German family of thirty nations and 60,000,000. There are plenty of good spots where small colonies of immigrants may squat upon and await the coming (for years) of the Federal Government surveyor, and when he shall come, the $1 an acre demanded by the Government will have long before been realized out of the land.

        In the San Joaquin valley, 60 miles back from Stockton (a city of about 5,000 inhabitants, and one night's journey by steamer from San Francisco), plenty of land can be got for $1 in gold per acre from the Government office in Stockton. This valley is about 100 miles long, a width varying from 10 to 30 miles, through which streams, navigable for flatboats, flow down to the Sacramento River. The soil is deep and rich, and the bottoms near the water are exceedingly fertile, and able to support abundance of kine. This valley would absorb 100,000 settlers.

        We have received from Mr. Merry, of Red Bluff (a growing town of about 2,000 inhabitants, at the head of navigation on the Sacramento River, and to be reached in two days by steamer from San Francisco, at an expense of from $10 to $12), an elaborate report of the agricultural and business facilities in that section. He says:—

        "The slopes of the Sierra hills and Coast Range, being well watered, afford good pasturage for sheep and horned cattle during the year. The arable land of the country lying along the `bottoms' of the Sacramento River and its tributaries bear grain crops of from 16 to 40 bushels of wheat to the acre. The best lands in the county (Tehama County) are covered by Mexican grants, to which patent titles from the President of the United States have been obtained. These lands can be purchased from present holders for $10 to $15 per acre. They are adapted to the growth of grain, potatoes and beets. All kinds of vegetables and fruit grow in the greatest luxuriance. Sheep-breeding pays well. The flocks in this county number about 100,000 sheep. The quality of wool has a very good name in the San Francisco market, and. brings 20 cents a pound. Butter will pay well for skillful dairymen, and cheese also.

        "For swine there is no better county in the State. Over 4,000 head of grain-fed hogs have been sold out of the county during the past year. A pork and bacon-packing house in this place is doing an extensive business. The establishment of a woolen-mill here would be the best investment of capital extant. Lumber is cheap, firewood plenty, and water-power abundant, going to waste. An iron foundary would pay well here. Money is dear, it brings two per cent, and two and a half per cent per month. Farm laborers get $30 per month and board. Blacksmiths and wagon-makers do well. Some have got rich. Good board can be got for $20 to $25 a month. Cottages can be got for from $8 to $15 a month rent. Town lots for building can be entered at Government prices. Common necessaries from the farms are cheaper than in San Francisco. Imported articles are about 30 per cent higher. As to vine-culture it is the best locality for that industry in the State. Here is the celebrated Bosquejo vine yard, where the Gerke wine is made, which is a fair sample of our vine-lands. Thousands of acres of equally good lands can be had here for $1.25 an acre."

        The section of country referred to by Mr. Merry would absorb and maintain 100,000 persons.

        In the counties south of San Francisco—Monterey, for instance —two days' journey by stage from Francisco, large tracts of the richest land, owned by easy-going people of Spanish descent, can be purchased or rented upon very advantageous terms; purchased for $1 or $2 an acre, or rented on shares for one-fourth of the annual product of the land. The chief and greatest cost is the cost of fencing.

        In many places the old Spanish settlers own tracts of 30,000 to 50,000 acres, unfenced and undivided, over which numberless flocks of sheep and cattle roam, and breed, and die, without control or much care from the proprietors, who live in rude ease, and almost secluded from the outside world. Their slumbers will soon be broken by the hum of busy immigrants, who will come crowding by sea and. land into their fruitful territories. Farther south, toward Los Angeles, the best lands can be purchased from those old-fashioned settlers for $1 an acre, or even less. There is very little timber to be cleared from any of these lands.

        To go upon these lands, several families should form themselves into villages or companies, and go out together on the land and help each other. This cooperative system is sure to make immigrants happy and prosperous. Farming implements can be got here better and cheaper than in England, or in any of the American cities of the Atlantic. Farm horses can be purchased for $20 to $40 apiece; milk cows, $20 to $30 each. The expense of transporting one person from this city to the Government land may be set down at $20. Markets can be found for any quantity of grain, butter, wool, and fruits. The vine is slow in its returns, but quite certain to pay at the end of four or five years, and will yet be the great occupation of Californians. The climate in most parts of California is moderate; in winter there is neither frost nor snow.

        The population of California is about 500,000. About 90,000 of these have votes, and are entered on the great register. Being an American citizen, and residing three months in one locality, gives the privilege of voting for all public officers. The voting is done in one day, by ballot, all over the State, and. there is no property qualification required in the voter or in the public officer. A person born out of the United States must be two years resident in the United States, have sworn fealty to the American Government, and have registered his name on the great register before he can vote.

        There are about 50,000 Chinese, and about 10,000 negroes in the State. Neither of them have any political rights allowed them. They can not vote for any public officer, nor is it likely that they ever will enjoy such privileges. The Chinese are looked upon with much jealousy by the white race. Opposition to them has assumed an organized shape, and there are numerous anti-coolie clubs existing in our city, whose object is to resist and discourage the importation and employment of Chinese labor. About 8,000 Chinamen are employed on the Pacific Railway works; about 20,000 are working in and around the mines, and the remainder are scattered over the State engaged in doing the lowest kind of work about the cities and towns; washing, gardening, dealing in fish and vegetables, &c.

        Question 2.—" Is there a demand for labor ?"

        Answer.—We are anxiously and carefully gathering information from every side, from reliable sources, with the intention of forming a small handbook for the intending immigrant. We are full of the great idea of inviting an extensive immigration from Europe and from the Southern and Eastern States, to the Pacific slope, but we shudder at the thought of misleading any one. It is almost unnecessary to repeat that we have room and work for millions of people in our fields and mines, but the great trouble is to support people while they are finding the work suited to their strength, their habits, and their experience. The idea that fills the minds of many persons in making toward California is, that they shall go a gold-hunting in the mines, make lucky hits, and return at some distant day to their old homes in Europe or the Atlantic States to enjoy their good fortunes. This idea has been the unseen rock that wrecked many an emigrant to this golden land. None should come to the Californian mines but miners.

        On the first discovery of gold in California, and for several years afterward, every kind of laborer went into the mines, and many of them did very well; but of late years the Chinese got in, and swarmed over the "placer" or stream mines, and as they work in well-organized companies, live upon little, they are able to scrape a living from the oft-washed sands in the older washing-grounds of the earlier miners. The principal mining now carried on in California is quartz mining, which is as like coal or iron mining as possible—penetrating the bowels of the earth several hundred feet—men working in gangs, and in "watches" of eight hours each

shift, so that the work never stops, night or day. For this kind of work miners get $4 a day. Their board and lodging in the neighborhood of those quartz mines comes high, about $8 or $10 a week; as a general rule, two and a half days' wages is required to pay for a miner's board and lodging for a week. A great deal of the work on the Pacific Railroad on our side of the Rocky Mountains is performed by Chinamen, under white over­seers. They get about $1 a day for their labor. White men could get that wages and board, but they won't work for it. A dollar a day is the lowest notch which the strong man's labor has touched in any part of California. Common labor, according to skill, ranges up to $1.50 and $2 a day. We are not now talking of skilled mechanical labor, such as carpenters, bricklayers. plasterers, smiths, machinists, foundary men, tailors, shoemakers, and the like. The labor of these sorts brings $3 to $5 a day in all the cities and in all the towns of the Pacific coast. As to clerks and light porters, and those who are always waiting for an easy berth or something to "turn up," there is little encouragement for them. The cities are full of them. This sort of helpless people are the production of an erroneous system of education, which has weaned the boy from labor, and left the man a helpless, pitiable mendicant.

        You are, doubtless, impatient to learn, then, what sort of people are likely to do well here, and we answer, any sort who are thoroughly determined to work—men and women, young and old.

        The lowest wages for labor among us is about twice the wages of New York, and four times the wages obtained in Great Britain, Ireland, or Germany. The price of wheaten flour is about one-half what it is in Liverpool or New York—$8 a barrel of 196 pounds just now. Tea, sugar, and coffee about the same as in England or New York. Clothing and house-rent about double the English rates, and about the same as in New York. All the foregoing rates are in gold.

        Question 3.—" Is mining more profitable than farming ?"

        Answer.—This question is one still more difficult to answer.  Farming has lately acquired a fixed character. The fine qualities of wheat and flour which California yields—the vast quantities of wool, of butter, of fruit and wine, and the high prices these products realize in New York and Liverpool, have latterly decided great numbers of our population to go into farming. One only drawback which farming in California will ever experience, and that will occasionally arise from long seasons of drought.

        The last three years the seasons were very well mixed with rains about the time they were wanted, and sunshine when wanted; and our farmers have had splendid crops and obtained high prices. About four years ago there was a long drought and a cattle famine was experienced. Flour ran up to very high rates, and there was much suffering among the working people. This  passed away, and is forgotten in our present prosperity, but it is well for all emigrants facing to this country, to be made aware of these things.

        We have, in general, about seven months of the year when there does not fall a drop of rain, yet vegetation is nourished by copious dews. Then we have four or five months when it pours down plenteously, and this rain it is that brings us the means to obtain the food that lies intact in the earth, and enables our miners to wash the clay and sand that contains the gold dust.

        The total produce of our gold and silver mines may be set at $50,000,000 to $60,000,000 a year. Our farming and general agricultural products will very soon, if they do not now, foot up to $50,000,000 worth a year. The value of the wheat and flour shipped from California since last harvest comes up to $9,000,000; and as fast as good ships come into the harbor they are engaged to take out wheat and flour, wool, hides, &c. The general demand for all sorts of mechanics in this city, and throughout the State, was never better. The wages, as I have said, range: For Chinamen, $1 a day; common laborers, $2 a day; skilled mechanics, $3 to $4 a day—some of superior skill, $5 a day; female servants, $15 to $25 a month, and board; farm laborers, $30 a month and board. All these prices are gold, and all our dealings here are managed on a gold basis.

        Question 4. " Are there any diseases peculiar to California ?"

        Answer. The climate of California is the most healthful to be found in the world. It is equable all the year round. The thermometer ranges from 50° to 90° throughout the State. We lay from 32° to 42° north latitude. We have neither frost nor snow, except on the high mountains of Sierra Nevada, and some of the mountains in the Coast Range. The only drawback to health is experienced in the neighborhood of the mines, where the water is over strongly impregnated with mineral matter, which generates ague and peculiar fevers; but in the agricultural regions the people live on from year to year, their whole lives, without experiencing a day's sickness, and the children multiply in numbers, and develop in symmetry and beauty beyond those of any race on the face of the globe.

        Next to the employments under the head of "ordinary agriculture" is the vine culture, which is peculiar to California; its vines and wines are now celebrated all over the world. But a few years ago, it was not supposed the vine would flourish anywhere but in the southern region and Los Angeles. Latterly, experiments have demonstrated that it will flourish in the acclivities around the mining camp as well as amid the sheep-walks and pastoral plains and valleys; that whether it is pressed into wine or distilled into brandy, it will reward the labor bestowed upon its cultivation. The California wines begin to make their way in the New York market, and each new year will confer on their quality more richness and more reputation.

        The grape-vines of California, when five years old, yield plenteously; one has only to own a half-dozen acres, well planted with vines of that age, to realize a life-long independence. In a few years from the present time, the wine and silk of California will form some of the leading articles of its export.

        The fruits of California are now so rich and plentiful that the farmers begin to dry, and press, and ship them to the Atlantic cities, from whence, but a very few years ago, we imported dried fruits, flour, &c.         

        The raising of the silk-worm has been commenced in California, and has succeeded. It is proven that the climate is quite as favorable as that of France or Italy for this branch of industry. Arrangements are in progress to start a silk factory. The success of this experiment will lead to national results by and by. We shall soon come to the raising of tobacco, beet-root, and the manufacture of beet and cane sugar, cotton, flax, linen, hemp, and hops, for all of which the soil and climate are admirably fitted. Some cotton has been raised in the southern parts of the State in a desultory way, but the soil awaits the enterprising hands of toiling men, to bring about those great results from the vast and varied material that sleeps neglected in the soil, and hovers over us in the overhanging climate.

        We are building small coasting schooners of 50 to 200 tons. All those craft are well employed in carrying lumber, coal, and the produce of the fields into market, and latterly groups of those small craft have gone fishing for cod in the North Pacific with  great success. The salmon and other fish caught in our waters are certainly the best in the world.

        Our progress in manufacture is infantine and rude. Three or four woolen mills and one cotton factory are all that California can boast of, but these are doing well, and in good time others will start. Our tanneries are numerous in city and country, and their manufactures well liked and in good demand. We should say the business is healthy, with fair profits. Soap and candle factories are experimenting on the native tallow and bees-wax of the country—this is the land of bees and honey.

        They have begun one factory for making boots and shoes, and so far it is prosperous, employing two hundred hands. There is room here for many paper and flour-mills. We have two glass factories, on a small scale, doing well, and any number of iron foundaries, all at full work. There has been a glove factory lately started, and is doing well; also a rude pottery-ware factory. We want half a dozen hat factories, in which the hat from the foundation would be made, trimmed, and finished. We have plenty of printers and an abundance of newspapers. The population of San Francisco is about 120,000. We have 8 morning and evening newspapers, and 12 or 15 weeklies. We have a score of banks, 15 insurance companies, any number of hotels, boarding­houses, and public schools. About half the population are native-born Americans from the Atlantic States; the other half is divided among the Germans, Irish, French, Spanish, Chinese, and negroes. The Jews have two synagogues, the Roman Catholics eight churches, and the Protestants a dozen or so. Take them as a whole, they are the most hospitable and generous crowd of citizens to be found in any seaport round the whole earth. No man nor woman will be suffered to want food here, and no industrious man nor woman need be afraid of casting their destiny in the fertile grazing lands of California.

        We hope these few hints on our new and growing State will be useful. The worst time for traveling through our interior districts are the winter and spring months, when the roads are softened by the rains. Rains usually begin in December and continue down to April.

                                                                                     We remain, respectfully,

                                                                                                                            H. A. COBB, President.

                                                                                                                            THOMAS MOONEY, Vice-President.

                                                                                                                            J. W. McKENZIE, Secretary.

SAN FRANCISCO, October 29, 1867.

        The following letters will prove interesting:‑

                                                                                                                                OFFICE CALIFORNIA IMMIGRATION ASSOCIATION,

                                                                                                                                                                SAN FRANCISCO, September 9, 1868. 

F. B. GODDARD, Esq.:

        MY DEAR SIR: * * There are large bodies of Public Lands yet to be had in this State, in almost every county, for $1.25 per acre, legal tenders. Many Spanish grants are now being subdivided and sold at very low figures. Farmers, mechanics, laborers, are all in demand, and command as follows: Laborers, $60 to $75 per month; good farmers, $30 to $50 per month in gold, and board; mechanics, according to trade, from $3 to $6 per day. Lands are to be had from the Spanish grant holders as low as $1.50 and $2 per acre, up to $5. The central and southern counties of the State offer superior inducements at present to a new population.

        Wheat-growing now is the chief occupation of the farmers. Our crops the last year were very abundant, but wheat commands to­day, in our market, $2 per 100 lbs.

        Climate excellent; farmers plow and sow all winter. Coal, timber, silver, gold, quicksilver, and every mineral, abound. Every variety of crop raised, and every nationality of people here reside.

                                                                    I am, sir, very truly, your ob't servant,

                                                                                                                                                    JOHN MULLEN,

                                                                                                                                        Agent California Immigration Association.

                                                                                                                                                                                        PLACERVILLE, August 10, 1868.

FRED'S B. GODDARD, Esq., New York City:—

        DEAR SIR : * * * About one-fourth of El Dorado County is embraced within the survey of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, and alternate sections belong to the railroad company, who will sell for $2.50 per acre, which can be paid in installments. Government land is sold at $1.25 per acre. The land in question is probably the best in the State for the culture of the grape-vine, fruit-trees, &c., &c. These vineyards become productive in the course of three or four years, and orchards are matured quite as rapidly. There is a belt of country of about thirty miles in width, running east and west, and for several hundred miles running north and south, that is thoroughly adapted to the production of grapes, peach, apple, plum, pear, and fig trees, of all the different varieties. Much of the land spoken of is unsurveyed, a small portion of which has been improved by settlers. In some portions of the country embraced within the boundaries above indicated, the settlers raise very good crops of hay, barley, oats, and wheat, and for about six months in the year it is well adapted to grazing purposes. These vineyards often yield two, three, and four tons to the acre. Of course, much depends upon the care and attention bestowed by those in charge of these vineyards. The fruits produced upon these foot-hills are superior in flavor to those raised in any other portion of the State. Grapes are worth from $20 to $00 per ton, depending upon the kind and quality.

        Price of labor from $25 to $40 per month, and board. Chinese from $20 to $25 per month, or about $30, they boarding themselves. Wages always paid in gold or silver coin (greenbacks not used as circulating medium). The labor supply is not good. German laborers would naturally be most in demand, as they usually are the most peaceable and industrious citizens.

        School facilities throughout El Dorado County are good. We have good teachers and a very fair system.

        The climate is excellent, and can not be surpassed anywhere on the globe. When the mercury in the thermometer stands at 90° and 100° in the shade, the heat does not feel particularly uncomfortable. There have been in some localities in this county more or less miasmatic fevers, fever and ague, &c., although this is now disappearing. To market, Placerville is about twelve miles east of the Sacramento Valley Railroad; length of road, about fifty miles. Religious advantages keep pace with population, like all new countries. People here are not particularly distinguished for their religious enthusiasm; and, while the church edifices are large and commodious, the attendance is not proportionally large. There is room for a development of the religious sentiment throughout the whole of this State.

        The people here are cosmopolitan, and represent every nationality on the globe, but the preponderance is American.

        In conclusion I would say, that what is most needed here is, a class of industrious men and families who are willing to adopt the same system of domestic economy that is practiced in the older States. *     * Wood for fuel is abundant, the soil is generous, and produces all that is necessary to supply every material want of the body, and all who are sober and industrious can, in a very short time, realize and enjoy a home where they can, practically rest "under the shade of their own vine and fig-tree." * * *

                                                                    Respectfully, &c.,

                                                                                                            GEORGE G. BLANCHARD.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Los ANGELES, August 11, 1868.

        DEAR SIR :-* * * The valleys of Los Angeles and San Bernardino are large and fertile, producing cereals equal to those of the northern counties. In this county, grapes, oranges, lemons, limes, and in fact all the semi-tropical fruits, grow to perfection. There is little or no government land south of Monterey, all the land of any intrinsic value being covered by Spanish grants, which are now being subdivided and thrown into market, upon easy terms, at prices varying from three dollars to one hundred dollars per acre, according to locality. Most lands require irrigation for the production of all crops except cereals, and rise or fall in value as they are affected by facilities for irrigation. The climate of Los Angeles County is very mild, being free from extreme heat or cold. In this city it seldom frosts sufficient to do any injury. The soil is more fertile than even the valley of the Mississippi, as I know from personal observation. The valley of this county lies between the Pacific and the Coast Range of mountains. The principal port is San Pedro, twenty miles from this city, to which a railroad is now being constructed. The port is an open roadstead, but storms are so rare upon this coast, that vessels seldom experience any difficulty in landing and receiving freight. The greater part of Arizona is supplied with merchandise through this city, and the trade with Utah and Montana Territories is very large in the winter months. The population of this city is about 10,000, one-third of whom are of the Spanish race and Indians, the other two-thirds of mixed nationalities.

        The city is now improving more rapidly than any commercial city in the State, except San Francisco. The agricultural products of the county this year will amount to more than $2,000,000. The population of the county is about 25,000, and the assessment rolls show an increase of eight hundred tax-payers in the last twelve months. Of the amount received last year for agricultural products, over half a million dollars was for the orange crop alone. There is fine agricultural land in the county not now under cultivation, to support a population of 150,000 souls. Farm labor is most needed, and brings $25 per month mechanics are also in demand. Good schools, both public and private, are numerous; also one college and one female seminary of high grade.

        This city is five hundred miles south of San Francisco, with good ocean steamers and numerous sailing vessels for the accommodation of travel and trade.

The land is mostly untimbered, the foot-hills giving a good supply of fire-wood. Building lumber is shipped from Santa Cruz and Oregon, and sells at $40 per thousand.

                                                                    I am, very respectfully, yours truly,

                                                                                                                A. J. KING.

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.