Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/781

Rh elevated, or too dry for cultivation under any circumstances. A considerable portion of the Great Valley will not yield sufficiently to pay for cultivation, unless a thorough system of irrigation should be adopted. Extensive districts produce valuable crops when the season has been wet enough ; and an excess of rain which is injurious in one part of the State is of great benefit in another. The number of acres of &quot; improved land &quot; in the state, as given by the census of 1870, was 6,218,133 ; but Mr Hittell, in the third edition of his Resources of California, published in 1867, estimates the amount of cultivated land at only 1,000,000 acres. The same authority says, &quot; Not more than one acre in ten could now be tilled profitably.&quot; Allowing the census returns to be correct, the proportion of improved land would be about one-eighteenth of the whole. Owing to the peculiarities of the climate, and especially its mildness in winter, and the dryness of the summer, the whole system of cultivation is very different in California from what it is iu the Mississippi Valley and the Eastern States. If the season is favourable, that is, if rain falls in abundance by November, so that the ground becomes soft enough to plough, then sowing is begun at once, and the best crops are raised when the &quot; latter rains,&quot; as they are usually called, which fall in March and April, are tolerably abundant, and yet not so much so as to cause inundations. June and July are the harvest months, and the grain can remain out of doors during the whole summer without injury, or until it can be conveniently carried away, barns being little used. Almost everything, except ploughing, in connection with agricultural work, is done on a large scale, with the help of machinery ; and the profitable farms are usually of great size, comprising many thousand acres. According to the census of 1870, the amount of the prin cipal productions of the soil was in that year as follows: wheat, 16,676,702 bushels; barley, 8,780,490 bushels; wool, 11,391,743 lb; potatoes, 2,049,227 bushels; wine, 1,814,656 gallons; butter, 7,969,744 Ib. Barley is the most certain crop raised, and wheat and wool are the most important for exportation. The Californian wheat is of the finest quality, and is largely shipped to foreign countries. In 1873, according to the statistics of the San Francisco Commercial Herald, the shipments of wheat and flour were as follows : to Great Britain, of flour, 245,708 barrels, and of wheat, 9,152,303 quintals; to China, flour, 125,891 barrels ; to Central America, flour, 42,835 barrels ; to Japan, flour, 9566 barrels; to Panama, flour, 12,777 barrels ; to Australia, wheat, 22,400, bushels ; with other smaller amounts to numerous ports in and about the Pacific. The total shipments for the years 1871-1873 were as follows : Flour, barrels. Wheat, quintals Barley, quintals. 1871 232,094 1,311,679 12,371 1872 247,088 6,071,383 176,153 1873 479,417 9,175,960 260,890 Fruit is an item of great importance in the agriculture of California, the quantity raised being very large, and the quality excellent. The pear, plum, apricot, and grape are especially good ; and large quantities would be sent to the Eastern States if the distance were not such as to make it difficult and expensive to transport this bulky and perish able commodity. A large amount of capital has been invested iu the manufacture of wine. As early as 1861 a million of gallons were made in that year, and in 1870 the product was estimated at 2,500,000 gallons. The principal wine-producing districts are in the vicinity of Sonoma, north of the Bay of San Francisco, and in the region about Los Angeles. The value of the exports of wine has not increased much in the last three or four years ; in 1873 it was 8356,373. The quantity of wine which might be produced in California, if there were a market for it, would 705 be very large ; but the quality is not ail that could be desired, although the persons engaged in this business are sanguine in the belief that, with time and experience, the difficulties will be overcome, and their products be largely in demand in the Eastern States where at present there is scarcely any sale for them. California is a country particularly adapted to raising sheep, and the wool interest is a very important one. The winters are so mild that shelter for the flocks is not required, and they have no other food than that which they pick up for themselves on the lower plains in winter, and in the higher mountain valleys in the summer. The summit valleys of the Sierra are literally alive with sheep during the months of July, August, and September, count less herds being driven there from the parched-up plains at the base of the range. In 1873, according to the Com mercial Herald, about 30,000,000 Ib of wool were exported from San Francisco, and 3 000 000 Ib consumed in the home manufactories. Manufactures. The value of the manufactures of Cali fornia is given, in the census report of 1870, at 866,594 536 the increase having been rapid within the past ten years ; previous to 1860 almost every manufactured article used in the State was imported from the East or from Europe. The great distance of the Pacific coast from the manufac turing districts of the world offers a heavy premium for the establishment of various industries, especially for those which furnish bulky and inexpensive products, such as wooden wares, agricultural implements, machinery, coarse articles of clothing, and vehicles. The drawbacks are, the high price of labour, where the Chinese cannot be employed ; the absence of good coal, and the scarcity of other fuel ; the distance of the water-power from the principal markets, and its high cost at all points, which is due to the necessity of building long canals, dams, and other appliances for storing and utilizing the water ; and the absence of those woods which are most needed for the innumerable uses to which this material is put in manufacturing. There aro certain articles, however, which have to be made in Cali fornia, because the people of other countries find it difficult to ascertain exactly what is needed to meet the require ments of the Pacific coast. Thus, mining machinery is a very important article of Californian manufacture, and many improvements have been made in this department, called out by the peculiar wants of this State and of Nevada. The manufacture of heavy woollen goods, especially blankets, is an item of importance, there being three large establish ments of this kind in San Francisco. Leather is tanned in considerable quantity in the coast counties, and the exports of this article amounted in value, in 1872, to the sum of $258,692. Boots and shoes are manufactured in large quantity for home consumption and from native leather. Population. The population of California is concen trated in and around San Francisco ; and it becomes rapidly less dense as one recedes from the centre. The extreme northern and southern counties are very thinly inhabited. The central part of the State, embraced between the parallels of 36 20 and 40 including only one-third of its whole area, contained in 1865 over ninety-five per cent, of the population. A region of 4000 square miles adjacent to the Bay of San Francisco includes probably half of the entire number of inhabitants in the State, San Francisco alone, by the last census, having 38 per cent, of the whole. The reasons of this concentration around the bay are not diffi cult to find ; the climate is more agreeable and healthier, and the valleys which open out to its waters are the most delightful and most fertile portions of the state. The desire of concentration is strongly felt in a region where the country is so thinly settled, and where the facilities IV. 8g