Page:The Overland Monthly, volume 1, issue 1.djvu/95

 which we cannot admit, he has had ample opportunity for excision. It is to be regretted the more, since the greater part of his volume is catholic enough for the interest and appetite of all readers. The severest criticism we can make is, that his talent is worthy of a larger audience than his taste has selected.

An octavo volume of seven hundred pages devoted to the resources of California, and issued just when thousands at home and abroad are eager to obtain new facts and to read old ones, could not fail of attracting attention. Typographically the book is well done—so well that no injustice would be done if it were placed first on the list of books which have been produced on this coast.

It was impossible to write a book of this kind without drawing largely on the labors of others. Facts were wanted, and they must be taken wherever found. Sometimes they are taken without any acknowledgment, or indication of the sources from which they have been derived. Something would have been gained by citing authorities for statements made, and by a reference to authors, who, as pioneers, have done honorable service in collecting and publishing facts bearing on the material wealth of the State.

In a work which covers so much ground and includes so great a variety of topics, absolute freedom from errors was hardly to be expected. No single writer had at his command, or within reach, all the information sought. Important discoveries are made from week to week, and new facts are daily brought to light. Remote and almost inaccessible parts of the State suddenly become centres of great interest, requiring personal visits and a careful discrimination of what is mere rumor and what is sober fact.

Some of the topics, as the flora and fauna, were evidently committed to scientific writers, and in these departments there is a conciseness and accuracy of statement which meets the test of all just criticism. In other chapters there is a redundancy of statement or a recitation of unimportant facts, which serve to swell the volume without adding to its value. And yet we apprehend that this book is by far the most complete summary of facts ever given to the public concerning the resources of this State. It is the aggregating of all the local knowledge which was within reach. We are not disposed to find fault with here and there a little rubbish, when so many treasures are laid at our feet. We cannot say that in some instances a faultless taste is evinced by unduly "writing up" certain enterprises, with a preponderance of names and small facts; though it is possible that personal vanity may have been gratified thereby. All discriminating authorship must have a limit which does not so much as suggest that the pocket is of more consequence than literary reputation.

On the whole, our local pride is gratified. The book is a monument of patient industry. We are not disappointed at meeting here and there a minor imperfection; but are rather surprised that so much has been done and done so well. What a suggestive record is this of the undeveloped wealth of the State! The germ of the great Commonwealth is outlined, and an inventory is taken of its marvelous resources. We quote a paragraph from the introductory chapter:

"Yet for a community never exceeding from 400,0co to 500,000, all told, scattered over an area large enough to support 30,000,000, and beginning twenty years ago with but a handful of Caucasians, California has accomplished a great deal. If its gold product has fallen from $65,000,000 per annum to $25,000,000, its agricultural products have increased to an amount equal to half the largest gold yield ever known. The wheat crop alone for 1867 was worth nearly as much as the gold, and the surplus of this staple freighted two hundred and twenty-three ships, and reached a value of $13,000,000; while the total exports of home products, including about fifty different articles for which the State was formerly dependent on other lands, was about $17,000,000. The vintage of 1867 exceeded 3,500,000 gallons of wine and 400,000 gallons of brandy; the number of vines now growing in the State being about 25,000,000. The wool clip was 9,500,000 pounds, showing a gain of more than thirty per cent. over 1866. Silk, tobacco, hops, flax and cotton may now be ranked among the minor products that promise to be sources of profit. A silk factory and a sugar beet factory are two of the new industries being established. The manufac-