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[Extract from Sacramento Daily Union of September 19th, 1867.-Report of Committee as above alluded to.]

To the President and Board of Directors of the State Agricultural Society:

GENTLEMEN: The undersigned, appointed a committee to act as judges in making awards on articles exhibited at the State Fair, in section thirty-three, class one, in the third department, hereby respectfully present their report:

We award to L. Prevost, for best general exhibition of the silk business throughout, from the feeding of the worms to the weaving of silk goods, the first premium of fifty dollars. We award to Joseph Neumann, for best specimen of silk manufactured, not less than five yards, the first premium of twenty dollars; also, to the same party, for best specimen of raw silk, the first premium of ten dollars; also, to the same party, for the best silk cravat, the first premium of ten dollars. We award to Mrs. Muller of Nevada City, for the best pound reeled silk, made in family, the first premium of ten dollars.

We

In closing our report, we will state that from the data given us by the parties exhibiting silks and fabrics made from California silk, and from other sources, we feel it our duty to congratulate the people of California on the evident progress which has been made within the last year. in this State, in these most important branches of domestic industry. are confident that this progress is not ephemeral, but is the result of practical knowledge on the part of culturists and manufacturers, and that a new and profitable source of labor is to be firmly established among our people, to their moral and pecuniary benefit, and that the representations of silk culturists at the State Fair of eighteen hundred and sixty-eight will convince the most skeptical.

HORACE B. DUNN.
W. B. EWER,

Committee.

It is a well known fact that silk factories are necessary to support silk culture, by giving or creating a demand for the raw silk. It is equally as well known that silk culture is necessary to the support of the factories. Each is dependent upon the other. There are hundreds of persons who have commenced in a small way the cultivation of the mulberry trees who have no idea of asking a premium from the State, but simply because they know we have a footing, and they can therefore find a market for their cocoons. The State a few years since offered a premium on hops to the amount of twenty-two hundred dollars, seven hundred and fifty of which has been taken, and the result is, that California has already become one of the most noted States in the Union for her hop culture; and the capital now engaged in production of hops pays annually to the State more money in taxes than the State offered in premiums. At the same time the State offered a premium for raw and manufactured cotton, and the result is that a mill came to the State from Oregon, and is now constantly employed making up on raw material and furnishing millions. of socks annually for our State.

The State also offered ten thousand three hundred and fifty dollars for various kinds of woolen goods, eight thousand nine hundred and fifty of which has already been taken, and as a result we have already four woollen mills in the State, manufacturing one-third of our entire wool product, and paying in the aggregate, according to my estimation, an

annual revenue to the State equal to four times the premiums paid. Many other branches of industry have been encouraged in the same way with equally beneficial results.

So it will be with silk culture and silk manufacture. So soon as the first million of cocoon will be sent to market, those raising them will obtain a full price for the production of their labor; and as soon as it becomes known that there can be a silk factory kept in operation in the consumption of California silk cocoons-thus creating a constant demand for them, the producers thus supplying the factory, and the factory creating the demand for the raw material-thousands who cannot now be induced even to listen to the subject will be anxious to invest their money in silk culture and manufacture, and the State will, as in the cases above cited, be receiving an annual revenue of more than she will ever be called on for in the payment of premiums now offered or likely to be offered for silk culture and manufacture. And I may truly add, that the silk industry will in a very few years become the first and most profitable industry of the State.

Again: How much longer shall we consent to remain the chief support of some of the most dangerous monarchies of Europe by remaining the chief consumers of their staple product. We should not forget that each silk dress worn by our wives or daughters pays a tribute of from eight to ten dollars to some enemy of democratic institutions. Is this not taxation? Indirect, it is true, but none the less taxation. The impost duty on all clean silk manufactured goods is sixty per cent. Now suppose that our importation of such goods into California be only three million dollars per annum in value; our indirect tax paid on the same would be one million three hundred thousand. But our real importation is from five million to six million dollars, and consequently our impost taxes are nearly double the above figures. Now, how shall we get rid of this enormous indirect tax? The answer very plainly is, stimulate the cultivation and manufacture of silk. What is a few thousand dollars paid out of the State Treasury, with a certainty that it will be returned with compound interest in a few years, compared to the payment annually of this enormous indirect tax-with a certain prospect that it must increase? Which is the better policy for us as a State, to continue to support the population of foreign countries by buying and consuming the product of their labor, or, by the increase of our own industries, to induce them to migrate here and thus add to our population and wealth? Thousands of skilled laborers in the different branches of the silk business in the old world are now laying their plans to come to California, having learned through their friends here that this was a good country for their business, and that silk culture and manufacturing were already commenced here. Your memorialist has already received applications for employment from some sixty to one hundred of such who bave already arrived on this account.

Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in the year seventeen hundred and sixty-three, ordered the planting of mulberry trees in his kingdom and himself had erected a factory in the city of Potsdam for the purpose of manufacturing silk, which is still in operation at the present time and affords employment for about eight hundred people, and since the time of the erection of this factory many factories have been erected in the Prussian Kingdom; and to take it at the least calculation, there is in this kingdom alone, over two hundred thousand people constantly employed in making silks.

Nicholas the First, Emperor of Russia, in the year eighteen hundred

and forty, imported operatives from France and Germany and started for them a silk factory in the city of St. Petersburg, which is in a flourishing condition at the present time and gives employment to at least two thousand persons. He also had another factory erected in Poland, and went so far as by proclamation to exempt all his subjects from military duty who were willing to learn the art of silk weaving. The his tory of France, Italy and England in regard to this enterprise has been already explained in my prospectus. And furthermore, I invite your attention to what the Eastern States have accomplished towards the encouragement of silk culture and manufacture.

I am informed on reliable information, that at the time of the "multicaulis speculation," some States gave as much as six dollars per pound for sewing silk as a premium.

And now, in conclusion, I sincerely and earnestly pray that your honorable body will take this matter under advisement and place such a premium on silk manufacturing as to induce capital to come forward and assist in this valuable and most important enterprise. All of which is most respectfully submitted,

JOSEPH NEUMANN.

Pioneer Silk Manufacturer of the Pacific Coast.

REPORT

OF THE

JOINT COMMITTEE

ON THE

STATE PRISON.

D. W. GELWICKS.........STATE PRINTER.

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