Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-06-30

Now the States Chief Business
Especial Crrespondence.I
NEW YORK, June 25--As traversed the
Sacramento valley from the foot Of Shasta,
to the south, was much impressed with the
changes which have taken place in the indus
tries of California The evidences of such
changes are seen on every hand The whole
Industrial aspect Of tho country has been
several times transformed.
| At the first the old American Californians,
as distinguished from the Spanish Mexican
| Californians, were diggers of gold That is
what they crossed the plains and the noun
tains for. They poured into these regions as
adventures, and hourished as miners; that
| Is, they fourished at intervals. learned the
history of many of these old mining heroes
1t is sometimes most pathetic One of the
| lines of De Foe, believe, runs In this wise;
Full thirteen times have been rich and poor.
| This statement of the case will hardly do
| justice to the career of many an old Forty
miner / have heard from what consider
| good authority that more than one half Of
| the brave fellows who rushed from the older
states to yonder gold diggings in the summer
and fall OF IS49 are now in INDECENT circum-
stances, and that many of them are the recip-
tents of public aid and support. am sorry
TO hear it have not seen one Of the old fel-
| lows in all this journey without kind Of
warming of the heart for him and his career
| They were a Brave band, and, with all their
recklessness and prodigality and wasteful
finging away of their gold dust in folly and
hazard, they deserve to enjoy full share Of
that wealth which their hard hands grabbed
| from the sands Of the rivers and the debris OF
the mountains. To every Forty winner whose
worthy hand ] had the pleasure of shaking
| in the Golden Gate-golden to him, l hope,
| in memory-I send cordial greeting.
So, then, the first industry in California
was the mining of gold Every other enter
prise at the beginning was second TO this.
| The early communities arranged themselves
with respect to the supply and distribution
of gold Gold made Sacramento, and gold
converted the Spanish Yerba Buena into
| San Francisco. Little Or nothing else was
| thought of as it respected the possible indus
| tries in the El Dorado. was told by those
who saw the California valleys in that day
| that no one would have imagined them sus-
| ceptible of reclamation from the wild do
mipion of nature. As for the mountains
they have not yet been reclaimed, and hope
| will never be. They say that the lowlands
| in the times of the mining fever were COW
| cred with such rank growths out of the fecund
bosom of tine earth as could not be paraleled
or imagined A gentleman told me at Pas
sendena that be saw that valley when It was
| covered with growth Of weeds so high that
a brigade of cavalry would have been swal-
| lowed up in the brake Thus mining was
everything; and the evening and the morn
| fng were the first day.
But in course of time a change swept over
the industrial landscape. 1t was found that
| another source of wealth, as golden as that of
the hills, existed in the soil As the valleys
were cleared OF their weeds rich grasses took
their place, the succulence of which invited
all them that chew the cud to fill themselves
| with the juices and fibers of this tender vege-
| table life So came the cattle, and so came
the sheep, Their name was legion--herds
here and herds there and herds everywhere
They multiplied to thousands They lay like
shadows on the distant plain. They yielded
all manner of profit to the rancheros, who
scarcely knew their own for multitude. So
came the heyday of cattle raising in the val
ley lands Of California 1t was one OF the
greatest of harvests, but, like many other of
the rich things which crown the industry
and enterprise of man, it endured but for a
season Not, indeed, that the resources upon
| which it was founded failed: not that the
products of the herd, yielding some sixty,
| some hundred fold, were less valuable than
when the new industry was in its prime, but
the epoch passed by natural evolution into a
new phase of industrial life. And the even
| ing and the morning were the second day.
A third form of enterprise now made its
appearance, promising, If possible, still
greater rewards Ii appears at the present
day, through our clear backsight Of the situ-
alton, that the great fertility of the soil of
these valleys would have been one Of the
| most patent facts, even 10 the first inhab
| itants; but such was not the case. Adven-
turers ran pell nell over the riches under
foot to find the more glittering, but not more
palpable, wealth of the hills Long before
the beginning of the decline Of the great
stock interests of California the third phase
of industry had appeared in the cultivation
of the soil The old Californians were at
first dependent upon importation for almost
everything which they consumed They pro
duced nothing, and purchased everything
The things eaten were foreign product
Even the meats, with the exception Of game,
which then abounded, were brought from
foreign markets But, with the beating
about of enterprise, the people came at length
to discover the wealth of the soil, and here
began the third great era Of the industrial
life of the Pacific coast It was farming on
a large scale 1t is needless to say how great
was the yield in this form of industry. The
leading products were wheat and barley and
oats, and all the cereals came in the train.
Then it was that fields, the vastness of which
made the eye Of the beholder ache with the
distance of their further borders, spread out
on every hand The agricultural resources
of the state became enormous, end It was
not long until foreign and distant markets
felt the impact of new tides, which had their
rise in the granaries and mills of California