Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1864-12-15
California Correspondence.
sAcRAMENro. GAL, Nov. Q, lS6l

uSWs NuCA tlils IthCuts YOU IHuI aura
ham Lincoln has been reelected Presi-
dent of the United States. But / can
not refrain from recording the part
which the Pacific States have taken in
this consummation, in this the most i'm
portant event of the nineteenth century.
At the date of this but partial returns
have been received from this and the
two neighboring states, yet meagre as
they are, they are sufficiently full to
form gratifying opinion of the result.
California will give Union majority of
from 10000 to 25,000-at least 5000
more than she gave for State officers
one year ago. Thus it will be seen how
the Golden State, the land of Broderick,
of Baker, and of civil and religious
liberty in the distant West, has given
the lie to her revilers, and vindieated
her fair name from the aspersions and
the stigmas Of such old political and So
cial jackals as Gwin, Weller, Bigler, and
q score of other renegades of the same
genus, whom | will not awaken from
oblivion by mentioning here.
Oregon has done honor to herself, as
she always does, while Nevada, that ju-
venile State, not yet three weeks old,
wheels into line by the side of her sis
| tiers and astonishes her most sanguine
friends by this her virgin vote. Eleven
| electoral votes for the Union and Lin
coin and johnson will speed across the
continent from the Pacific Slope and re-s
vertebrate back the thunder tones that
we can almost hear to-day, rolling up
from the great states of the valley of
the Mississippi and from the free States
| of the Atlantic.
As the winter of 81 and 81 will ever
be memorable one to California as the
winter of the food so will the past sea-
son be equally so as the year of the
great drouth. Within the last twenty
months the rain which has fallen in the
central and northern parts of the state
has been less than one-fourth the amount
of ordinary years, while in the southern
counties, from Monterey to San Diego
the wet season of 63 and '64 has been
omitted entirely, and now the vast herds
Of horses and cattle that once roamed
over the fertile pastures of San Luis
0bispo, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara,
have perished and their bones lie bleach
| ing upon a barren desert. The losses
sustained by the rancheres of the lower
ceinties of the state surpass the concep-
tion of the eastern farmer, where the
scarcity of rain may sometimes injure,
but never utterly ruin their crops,
Men who in former years have held in
possession tracts of land for miles In ex-
tent, and who numbered their herds by
tens of thousands, now look around to
see their property gone, and themselves
unable to live upon the sterile plains
that are left them. Although there has
been more rain in the region farther
north, yet taking the State together, less
than the usual crops by at least three
fourths have been harvested. Nor does
the difficulty arising from an intensely
dry season end here; the rain that is re-
quired to produce vegetation is also nee
essary in California for the purpose Of
operating the mines, which form no in
considerable item in the resources Of the
State.
As natural consequence, the mining
for more than year past has been con-
fined almost exclusively to the quartz
leads, where steam is substituted for
water, in separating the precious metal
from its baser combinations.
The result of this extreme drouth can
be easily imagined business through
out this State and Nevada-which de-
pends largely upon the productions OF
California-has become stagnated. The
Iaborers who have been thrown out ol
employment, together with the heavy
emigration from the East now form q
surplus population anything but desira-
Bile, in hard times. The rainy season.
not vet set in--is anxiously looked for
and should rains fall copiously between
now and March, the State will survive
her present misfortune and q famine pre-
dicted by many will be averted,
! The State Agricultural Society which
holds its annual Fair in this city, mad
no exhibition this fs.l owing to tn
drouth. In place of it, however, the So
ciety held a State Horse Show, whicl
, took place during the third week of DC
tober. Much attention has been devot
ed to the breeding OF fine horses witail
the past few years. There were som
| splendid displays of the Morgan, Ham
: bletonian Black Hawk and other favor
l lite bloods, as well as the cussomar
!. amount Of trotting; and of course tn
: inevitable "fast time always made a
horse races, was exceedingly rapid
= here. The Society's prize Of two hur
n dred dollars for mile heats, best three
II five, was taken by a horse that crosse
e the plains this season, in 2.38. A te
t. mile race was also made IN somethin
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