St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-11-10
FIFTY YEARS OF CALIFORNIA.
a Drama That Ce1ld Happen Only n
AAerica-HeF Farms ~ Rich
~ Her Mines.

u UR0m0 I0oI OOUlO AoDD~1 OsAS =
Aneriea-Her Farns n Rich
~ Her Mines.
Half q century came to an end on
the 9th of September of the current
year since California, taken from the
zap of Mexican incidence and tossed
into the arms Of American adventur-
ers, was delivered at the bosom Of
Columbia, an infart state, with gold
nuggets in her fists and ships of COM
merce at her feet. The story Of these
50 wears. considered even without the
enthusiasm which the contemplation
of unusual things stimulates, is one
of those remarkable dramas OF human
history that can happen only in such
a country as America, writes Arthur
I. Street, in Ainslee's.
For more than ten years after the
first rush of immigrants, California
did almost nothing but tear the earth
to pieces to find gold. With $4,000
square miles of territory to wander
over, with no use for the land other
than to make it yield nuggets and
dust, the prospectors went at the
work on a scale whose vastness has
since stamped itself on all the doings
of the community. Inventing gigan-
tic hydraulic dredges, they dug holes
in the banks of streams and washed
away the sides of mountains. reck-
lessly and without regard to the fu-
ture. Within nine years from the
time Marshall picked up the first
shining piece of ore in the tail-race
of Suffers mill, s456. .OOO, 900 had been
to the worlds supply OF
gold; and market values and prices
were beginning to be at
fected.. The sense of bigness at home
and bigness abroad mingled itself with
the sense of the ease. good-fellowship
and the comparative responsibility
which characterized the life of the
time.
Yet, although such was the great
richness and the breadth of things
when considered in a lump. and al
though such was California's initial
to the worlds history,
the benefit to the individual was
slight. With 100000 men in the state,
Of whom were engaged
in actual mining, it was estimated
that the average remuneration to the
miner was only $500 per year-a very
meager morsel Of reward for men who
had struggled across the deserts or
it around the Horn and over
the isthmus in the hope of becoming
rich. As the first decade closed the
miners worked back to the seashore
and the cities, leaving the foothills
Scared with the ruin they had
wrought, yawning with the evidences
of the power of their inventions and
the heedlessness of their quest for
gold.
Men who could not find work in the
placers, or whose claims petered out
so that only Chinaman could find
profit in working them, turned to the
old standby of farming. Here again
the territory to be exploited was wide
and unoccupied. Most of the richest
land was held in Spanish grants of
great acreage, and the new farmers
were brought at once into the pres
ence of the idea of large fields. In
stead of occupying and tilling 40 to
16O acres, as was done in the eastern
states, the Californians thought them
selves poor when they could not have
above 400 acres. AS lately as in 1870
there were in the state over 5000
farms OF 1000 acres each, while the
average farm comprised over 460
acres. Ranches of 10000 or 10000
acres are still common. Big farms
suggested big implements. California
invented and contributed to the farm
ing business of the world the multiple
and the combined harvester
and thresher, which subsequently
aided the Dakotas and other north
western states in the great produc-
ton of wheat by which st. Paul and
and afterward the phe-
city of Duluth, were made
thrifty and notable.
To the amazement Of all who ex-
or to those who looked on
with the sneer Of the cynic at the ex-
the farming proved as
fruitful as the mining. By merely
the surface the wheat
growers obtained q yield Of 70 to 100
bushels to the acre, and at an expense
in cultivation, through the use of the
as light as 40 cents per
acre. Vegetables grew the year round,
fat and happy, running their weight
and size to such unusual figures as so
pounds for a cabbage and 200 pounds
for a squash. Muscatel grapes pro-
duced to 16 tons to the acre. The
wool clip averaged pounds per ami
NAL, against an average of 4 pounds
for the United States.
Possibly because no one loves 30
well or knows SO well as a happy
cleric of the old type what good wine
is, the padres of the Spanish missions
had surrounded themselves with vine
yards of wine-making grapes. These
the new settlers seized upon and
found them to contain the same great
of the soil when it was
stirred for wheat, and Of the rocks
when they were washed for gold.
Shrewd men foresaw occupation and
wealth in wineries and entered at
once upon the study and practive q
wine culture. In the 30 or 40 years
which have since elapsed California
has advanced to the position of one
of the greatest wine and brandy-pro-
ducing countries of the world. Since
1867 the total vintage has been $685.
129 600 gallons, and the average an
nual vintage at the close of the past
year was 80. .OO0. 900 gallons. The larg-
est vineyard in the world, consisting
of 1000 acres, is to be found within
the state. European royalty now
drinks California wines, in many in
stances preferring them to the older
and more famous brands of France
and Of the Rhine.
Flowers Tell Married State.
The married and unmarried women
Of the United States OF Colombia,
South America. are designated by the
manner in which they wear flowers
in their hair, the senoras wearing
xho,c IN tho r;Uhf side and the geuOr-