ships of good repute have been launched from shipyards in San Francisco Bay; during the World War these yards won some distinction for speed in construction, but greatness in this manufacture has not yet been attained. Of machinery for agricultural uses, the anticipations of earlier days have never been realized. Although California inventors and manufacturers have recently achieved notably in design and construction of tractors, not only revolutionizing tillage to a considerable extent but also showing European armies a new way to make war; and although many tools and implements for special uses are largely made in California, nevertheless the appliances for common agricultural uses are furnished by manufacturers in other states. The most distinctively Californian machine is the "combined harvester," which cuts, threshes, cleans and sacks (or pours into a binwagon) as it traverses the field. However, the decrease of grain-growing has set bounds on its service and distinction. California manufacturing was handicapped by the absence of a coal supply until the abundance of fueloil and of hydro-electric power was demonstrated. Formerly there was a discouraging difference in the supply of factory labor and the rate of wages but these factors of general discouragement in manufacturing are disappearing. Prophets in industrial lines are predicting that the advantages of mild climate and its incidental gains both to employers and workmen will tend to advance general manufac turing in accordance with the advance in population and trade which is being realized. At present, however, her open door in manufacturing attainment is in the increase of distinctively rural industries. The totals of values produced by manufacturing in California, according to the United States Census, for the years indicated, are as follows: Value of products... 1914 Value, less cost of raw materials 265,326,233 1919 $1,981,204,781 762,346,183 Selecting from the schedules of 1914 manufactures of distinctively rural character, the rural contribution to the development of California manufacturing becomes apparent, viz.: Thus it appears that 37 per cent of the total value of manufactured commodities of California is rural. The total of $72,800,764 includes the products of seventy-one specified lines of manufacture and includes also $133,021,601 as the value of the products of "all other industries" which are not specified. Those specified include everything from a newspaper to a bottle of medicine and those not specified may be taken to include everything else made by hand or machine for public sale. In such a broad and inclusive total, the percentage of agricultural manufactures is remarkable. It is also notable that of the four highest values assigned to specified industries three are those named first in the tabulation above. The second of these four is petroleum products and they might properly be counted also a rural industry as all the petroleum refineries are in rural districts and such a preponderance of gasoline is released on rural highways and in generating power for agricultural purposes. The greatest of all the manufactures of California is canning and preserving. This consists almost wholly of the canning of fruits and vegetables and the drying of fruits, with a small fraction of the value consisting of dried vegetables. Next in rank is petroleum products. The third is forest products and the fourth is slaughtering and meat-packing. The scope of these and the others in the agricultural schedule is sufficiently indicated by their titles. The progress and attainment of California in slaughtering and meat-packing are shown by the United States Census Bureau as follows: The figures include, of course, not cattle only, but also sheep and swine. In view of the estimate of a product-value of $84,000,000 for 1919, "slaughtering and meat-packing" will advance to a higher place among "manufacturing industries" when the details of the census of 1920 become available. The same is true of all other agricultural manufactures. CHAPTER V AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES, PLANTS AND CROPS OF CALIFORNIA IN variety of crops grown, California leads in this country, due largely to her great area, varied climatic conditions, and range of elevation. In estimating the quantities and values of certain staple crops in the different states for the year 1920, the United States Department of Agriculture ranks California as the fourth state on the basis of production, reaching a "farm value" of $587,600,591, as shown in detail in Appendix G. The farm value is of course less than the value crops bear when they reach wholesale markets and the latter is generally cited in popular valuations of production. In 1921 California was advanced by the same authority to second place among the United States on the aggregate value of leading crops producedbecause while the value of the crops of rival states declined from 60 per cent to 66 per cent, California crops declined but 41 per cent, owing to their unique character. HAY AND FORAGE The first decade of grazing of cattle and sheep by Americans was carried to over-stocking the land and "areas which carried thousands of animals |