is supplied to horses generally, and is supposed to be superior to oats for this purpose.

The introduction of superior horses into the State is fast improving the native stock, and the cross between the imported and native horse has many points of superiority not to be found in either in their original purity.

Mules are not generally used in the State. At an early day the carrying of freight into the mines and over the mountains was done chiefly by pack-trains of mules; but of late years rail and wagon roads have supplanted them. There are but about twenty-eight thousand mules in the State, scattered through each county; Mendocino county having about three thousand-more than double that of any other county in the State. Mules are no more serviceable than horses, and cost generally more than double as much as the ordinary farm-horse. Much of the heavy hauling and of the labor connected with the government service is still done by mules.

Oxen are rarely used, either upon the farm or for general labor, in California; they are considered too slow, and except in the lumber districts are scarcely to be seen. All the ploughing and farm work is done by

horses and mules.

HOGS.-The greater part of the State of California is not well adapted for hogs: it is too dry; but in the tule and low lands they thrive well. Labor and food for hogs are too expensive to make the raising of hogs profitable where they have to be fed by hand. There are six hundred thousand hogs in the State; still the increase has been but little for many years. Considera

ble quantities of bacon and ham are cured in the State; and as the Chinese in the country use no other meat but fresh pork, much of the pork of the State is consumed by these people.

POULTRY-Turkeys, geese, ducks, and hens all thrive well in California, and many a fortune has had its foundation laid in the hen's nest, in the State, in the early days when eggs were from three to ten dollars per dozen, and chickens from two to ten dollars per pair. The aggregate number of turkeys, geese, ducks, and fowls in the State is one million five hundred thousand.

BEES.-Bees do well all over the Pacific coast. In Oregon they make honey from the branches of the fir trees; and in California the mild climate and the abundance of wild flowers enable bees to make honey eight to ten months in the year, and to propagate their species with great rapidity, one hive often producing twenty swarms in a year. The production of honey in California is much greater than in any other part of the United States, and is about five times as much as is produced in the Atlantic States. There are about sixty thousand hives in California, Colusa county having sixteen thousand-more than one-fourth of all the hives in the State: then comes Butte county, with twentyfive hundred hives; next comes Stanislaus county, with about two thousand hives; and Monterey and Los Angeles counties, with about eighteen hundred each. Bees will thrive well in every county in the State.

In the southern section of California great quantities of bees have swarmed in the trunks of hollow trees and become wild. There are great quantities of honey obtained annually from these deserters.

CHAPTER XXV.

Natural advantages-Regularity of climate-Perpetual summerAdvantages for manufacturing-Interest on money-Manufactories-Railroads first in California-Great overland railroad: building and completion of-Government aid in bonds and lands to railroads "The last tie"-Rejoicings at the completion of the great national highway-Ocean, bay, and river navigation-Shipbuilding-Telegraphs, postage, and post-offices-United States branch mint-Circulating medium-Mints on the Pacific coast— Navy-yard-Commerce-Exports of gold and merchandise-Agricultural and mechanical products--Decline in gold-miningShipping of San Francisco-Imports and exports-Effects of the overland railroad.

CALIFORNIA possesses many natural advantages beyond most other States in the Union, which must ultimately be productive of great benefits. The waterpower of the dashing streams of the Sierras alone is greater than the whole water-power of New England; the Coast Range, too, particularly north of San Francisco, as well as many other parts of the State, has vast water-power, only waiting the hand of skilled labor to call it into turning the wheels of an active manufacture which must at some day not far distant form an important branch of the industry of the State; nor are these magnificent water-powers subjected to the pinching frosts of winter, which for so many months in the year bind up the forces of the streams, clog the wheels, and hold in icy embrace the industry of large sections of the Atlantic coast.

The room of the operative need not be heated with air-consuming stoves and ranges, nor the apartments filled with foul air, caused by closed doors and windows, nor the operative himself imprisoned in dark cells or

steam closets to keep the animal forces active. The climate of the entire State is so mild and the temperature so even that the severe colds and diseases engendered by the sudden changes of the weather in the Atlantic States are entirely unknown in California.

Neither chilling northern blasts nor drifting snows drive over bleak and barren fields, pinching animal life into trembling and contracted contortions, nor frosting the windows and whitening the forests. Winter's gray locks are not shaken with terrible menace in the face of the poor, nor is the approach of the new year looked forward to with contemplations of dreaded cold. California at this season asserts her eternal summer by new robes of green, and the window of the cotter, instead of the ice-crystallizations and snow-bank adornments of the Atlantic slope, are festooned and adorned with running vines, ivy, and delicate flowers.

Throughout the State, wherever mechanical skill is exercised and manufactures are carried on, the beneficial effects of a genial climate and rich soil are manifest by the ease, comfort, and increasing prosperity of the mechanic. With all the natural advantages of California for manufacturing, but little advance has been made, except in the actual necessities for every-day consumption and of the commonest articles of domestic The cause of this has been the high rates of wages, the sparse population, and the high rates of interest, want of cheap transportation, and many other causes incident to a new country.

use.

The crushing of quartz, cabinet work, sawing of lumber, casting of iron, and making of flour form the chief

mechanical industry of the State; and, although most of the raw material necessary in a varied manufacturing industry is produced in great abundance in Californiametals, wood, leather, wool, and other articles—yet the State cannot compete in manufactures with the old, settled portions of America, Europe, and Asia; where cheap labor, low interest, and systematized skill offset the natural advantages of the Golden State. In many parts of Europe and Asia, capital for mechanical industry can be obtained at from three to seven per cent. per annum; while in California, short loans, secured by good collateral, payable in sixty and ninety days, bear interest at from one to three per cent. per month. Still, notwithstanding all these drawbacks, California is battling bravely in the field of mechanical industry; and, although her manufactures are confined to a few articles, and within small limits, the efforts in producing woollen goods, cordage, powder, glass, paper, machinery, pottery, castings, shot, lead pipe, refined sugar, furniture, wood-ware, rolling stock, files, salt, fuse, soap, candles, glue, oil, matches, lime, cement, chemicals, boots and shoes, carriages, agricultural implements, saddlery, matting, billiard tables, pianos, brooms, pails, books, clothing, cigars, spirits, ale, and wine form no inconsiderable feature of the prosperity of the State. San Francisco is daily growing into importance in manufacture, and, by degrees, as the price. of labor becomes lower, and the one and a-half and two per cent. per month bankers relax their grip, and money can be obtained at reduced rates of interest, many branches of mechanical industry now struggling for recognition will become extensive and profitable.