If this account be accurate, the soil of California will yield a rich reward to the agriculturist, and become a strong attraction to permanent settlers, who are willing to trust to the more certain returns for labor spent in tilling it. It is agriculture, undoubtedly, which must give stability to the increase of the country, and, whatever may be the value of the gold mines, furnish California with her substantial wealth. Few cities or towns ever had a permanent prosperity which had not a neighboring country fit for agricultural purposes.
The quantity and quality of the present productions of California, other than her mineral wealth, is an important subject for inquiry. Previous to the discovery of the gold, the exportable products consisted almost exclusively of hides and tallow; the inhabitants paying more attention to the raising of horses and cattle than to the cultivation of the soil. The reason is found in the general characteristic of the Californians--indolence. Horses were raised to gratify their passion for riding; and cattle, because they afforded a subsistence at a very small cost of labor. As to what are, and what, by the character of the soil and climate, might be, the products of California, and how the wants of the people are to be supplied, we quote Mr. King's remarks:
"Beef cattle, delivered on the navigable waters of the Bay of San Francisco, are now worth from $20 to $30 per head; horses, formerly worth from $5 to $10, are now valued at $60 to $150. The destruction of cattle for their hides and tallow has now entirely ceased, in consequence of the demand for beef. This demand, will, of course, increase with the population; and it would seem that, in a very few years, there will be none to supply the market.
"If we estimate the number of cattle now in California at 500,000 head, which is believed to be about the number, and the population at 120,000 for the year 1850--a low estimate--and suppose it to increase one hundred thousand per annum, there will be in the Territory or State, in 1854, five hundred and twenty thousand people.
"If we adopt the estimate of those well acquainted with the demand, of half a beef, on an average, to each inhabitant, it appears there will be a consumption, in 1850, of 60,000 head; in 1851, of 110,000; in 1852, of 160,000; in 1853, of 210,000; in 1854, of 260,000--making an aggregate of 800,000, which would absorb all the present stock, with its natural increase.