"It is soon ascertained that the soil will produce abundantly without manure; that flocks and herds sustain themselves through the winter without being fed at the farm-yard, and, consequently, no labor is necessary to provide forage for them; that ditches are easily dug, which present very good barriers for the protection of crops, until live fences can be planted, and have time to grow. Forest trees may be planted with little labor, and in very few years attain a sufficient size for building and fencing purposes. Time may be usefully employed in sowing various grain and root crops during the wet or winter season. There is no weather cold enough to destroy root crops, and, therefore, it is not necessary to gather them. They can be used or sold from the field where they grow. The labor, therefore, required in most of the old States to fell the forests, clear the land of rubbish, and prepare it for seed, may here be applied to other objects.
"All these things, together with the _perfect security of all crops in harvest time, from injury by wet weather_, are probably sufficient to meet any expense which may be incurred in irrigation, or caused, for a time, by a scanty supply of timber.
"In the northern part of the territory, above latitude 39°, and on the hills which rise from the great plain of the Sacramento and San Joaquin to the foot of the Sierra Nevada, the forests of timber are beautiful and extensive, and would, if brought into use, be sufficiently productive to supply the wants of the southern and western portions of the State."
It is not to be expected that the labor and attention necessary for the improvement of the soil will be given to that object, so long as the continued discovery of gold and other metals promise an easy road to wealth. Many who were prosperously engaged in agricultural employments, in the most fertile regions, have abandoned it, lured by the golden bait, and shouldered the pick and shovel to try their luck or perseverance at gold digging. The gardens and the vineyards of Los Angeles have been deserted for the barren hills and ravines where the precious dust abounds. In this state of things, California must become an extensive market for the products of the Atlantic States of the Union.