Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-01
FIFTY YEARS OF PROGRESS
WHAT HALF A CENTURY HAS DONE
FOR CALIFORNIA.
Something About the States Marvel
GUS Fruit Farms-ExceptfOnal
Agricultural Richness.



| Arthur l. Street in Ansees Magazine.
Half century comes to an end on the
| 9th of September Of the current year since
! California, taken from the lap of Mexican
Incidence and tossed into the arms of Amer
| lean Adventures was delivered at the
| bosom of Columbia, an infant state, with
gold nuggets in her fists and ships of COM
| merce at her feet. The story of these fifty
| years, considered even without the enthusi-
| asm which the contemplation of unusual
| things stimulates. is one of those remark
| able dramas of human history that can
happen only In such country as America.
| Beginning in an environment Of Latin lazi-
ness and religious conten tment, plunged
suddenly into whirl of money-gettfng,
with all the attendant unconventionalitiss.
vices and opportunities. separated by 2,Ooo
| miles from the then farthest western settle
mentS Of the country, and with no resources
| other than her own, the golden state has
| had long and noteworthy struggle to build
| herself up into the full glory of statehood
| which she now unQuesuonapiy peslns 10
possess.
For more than ten years after the first
| rush Of immigrants, California did almost
| nothing but tear the earth to pieces to lind
| gold. With 1850 square miles of territory
| to wander over, with no use for the land
other than to make 1t yield nuggets and
| dust, the prospeC tors went at the work on a
| scale whose vastness has since stamped It
! self on all the doings Of the community.
Inventing gigantic hydraulic dredges, they
| dug holes in the banks of streams and
washed away the sides of mountains reck-
lessly and without regard to the future
Within nine years from the tirlf Marshall
picked up the first shining piece or ore In
| the tail race of Suffers mill, $4o6Oo,oOo mad
been contributed to the worlds supply OF
| gold; and market values and prices every
where beginning to be dffected. IQe
sense of bigness at home and bigness abroad
mingled itself with the sense of the ease.
| good-fellowship and the comparative IRE
| sponsibility which characterized the life OF
| the time.
Slight Beneft to Individuals.
! Yet, although such was the great richness
| and the breadth of things when considered
| in a lump, and although such was Cali
| fornia's initial contribution to the worlds
| history, the benefit to the individual was
| slight With 100000 men in the state, nine
tenths Of whom were engaged In actual
mining, 1t was estimated that the average
| remuneration to the miner was only s6oo
per year-a very meager morsel or reward
for men who had struggled across the des-
erts or roughed 1t 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 evil
dences Of the power Of their Inventions ana
the heedlessness of their quest for gold
Huge hills stand to the. present day washed
half away or ripped and followed to the
depth Of hundreds of feet until their natural
shape is as much distorted as II volcano
or an earthquake had been at work among
them.
Men who could not find work in the plac-
ers or whose claims petered out so that
only Cinnamon could find profit in working
them, turned to the old standby OF 1arm-
in the territory to be Exploit
ed 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 presence OF the
idea Of large fields. Instead OF occupying
and filling forty to 160 acres, as was done
in the eastern states. the Californians
thought themselves poor when they could
not have above 400 acres. AS lately as in
1870 there were in the state over 1900
farms Of 1000 acres each, while the average
farm comprised over AGO acres Ranches
Of 10. 600 or 10000 acres are still common.
Big farms suggested big implements Cali
fornia invented and contributed to the
farming business of the world the multiple
gangplow and the combined harvester and
thresher, which subsequently aided the Da-
kotas and other northwestern states in the
great production Of wheat by which st.
Paul and Minneapolis, and afterward the
phenomenal city Of Duluth. were made
thrifty and notable.
Farming Fruitful as Mining.
To the amazement Of all who experiment.
ed, or to those who looked on with the
sheer Of the cynic at the experimenters, the
farming proved as fruitful the mining.
BY merely scratching the surface the wheat
growers obtained yield of seventy to 100
bushels to the acre, and at an expense IN
cultivation, through the use of the gang
plow, as light 40 cents per acre. Vege-
tables grew the year round, fat and happy,
running their weight and size to such I'M
usual figures as fifty pounds for cabbage
and 200 pounds for squash. Muscatel
grapes produced five to sixteen tons to the
acre. The wool clip averaged seven pounds
per animal, against an average OF four
pounds for the United States.
This exceptional agricultural richness was
made known abroad only less rapidly than
the publication of the states mineral rich
ness. Thus California began her farming
as she had begun her mining-in unusual
way, on a large scale and with strong
pull public attention Ranchfng, includ-
ing stock raising, became popular. 1t was
taken up an investment by individuals
who had made money in the mines, and
was traded In as mining properties were
traded in. Efforts were made to promote
immigration. and a habit Of self-advertising
in manner BETTING the states prolific
resources fixed itself upon the people, This
habit developed in 1888 into the phenomenal
boom in Los Angeles and southern Cali
fornia.
Possibly because no one loves so 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 them
selves with vineyards Of wine-making
grapes These the new settlers seized upon, |
and found them to contain the same great
possibilities Of the soil when it was stirred
for wheat. and Of the rocks when they were
washed for gold Shrewd men foresaw oc-
cupation and wealth in wineries. and en-
tered at once upon the study and practice
of wine culture. In the thirty or forty years |
which have since elapsed California has adj
vanced to the position OF one Of the greatest |
wine and brandy-producing countries In the |
world. Since 1867 the total vintage has been
1888, 129, 600 gallons, and the average annual |
vintage at the close Of the past year was |
10000, 600 gallons. The largest vineyard In |
the world consisting Of 1900 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
Cultivation Of Oranges.
With striking unanimity the people of Cal |
ifornia turned to the agricultural, horticul- |
tural and climatic advantages of the state. |
In the southern portion the inhabitants en-
tered extensively Into ths growing Of