C_n = C deg. + c_n + (C' - C deg.)n/10 (3)

where c_n is the correction already given in the table.

If the corrections are required to the thousandth of a degree, it is

necessary to tabulate the results of the calibration at much more

frequent intervals than 2 deg., since the correction, even of a good

thermometer, may change by as much as 20 or 30 thousandths in 2 deg.

To save the labour and difficulty of calibrating with shorter threads,

the corrections at intermediate points are usually calculated by a

formula of interpolation. This leaves much to be desired, as the

section of a tube often changes very suddenly and capriciously. It is

probable that the graphic method gives equally good results with less

labour.

_Slide-Wire._--The calibration of an electrical slide-wire into parts

of equal resistance is precisely analogous to that of a capillary tube

into parts of equal volume. The Carey Foster method, employing short

steps of equal resistance, effected by transferring a suitable small

resistance from one side of the slide-wire to the other, is exactly

analogous to the Gay Lussac method, and suffers from the same defect

of the accumulation of small errors unless steps of several different

lengths are used. The calibration of a slide-wire, however, is much

less troublesome than that of a thermometer tube for several reasons.

It is easy to obtain a wire uniform to one part in 500 or even less,

and the section is not liable to capricious variations. In all work of

precision the slide-wire is supplemented by auxiliary resistances by

which the scale may be indefinitely extended. In accurate electrical

thermometry, for example, the slide-wire itself would correspond to

only 1 deg., or less, of the whole scale, which is less than a single

step in the calibration of a mercury thermometer, so that an accuracy

of a thousandth of a degree can generally be obtained without any

calibration of the slide-wire. In the rare cases in which it is

necessary to employ a long slide-wire, such as the cylinder

potentiometer of Latimer Clark, the calibration is best effected by

comparison with a standard, such as a Thomson-Varley slide-box.

_Graphic Representation of Results._--The results of a calibration are

often best represented by means of a correction curve, such as that

illustrated in the diagram, which is plotted to represent the

corrections found in Table III. The abscissa of such a curve is the

reading of the instrument to be corrected. The ordinate is the

correction to be added to the observed reading to reduce to a uniform

scale. The corrections are plotted in the figure in terms of the whole

section, taking the correction to be zero at the beginning and end. As a

matter of fact the corrections at these points in terms of the

fundamental interval were found to be -29 and -9 thousandths

respectively. The correction curve is transformed to give corrections in

terms of the fundamental interval by ruling a straight line joining the

points +29 and +9 respectively, and reckoning the ordinates from this

line instead of from the base-line. Or the curve may be replotted with

the new ordinates thus obtained. In drawing the curve from the

corrections obtained at the points of calibration, the exact form of the

curve is to some extent a matter of taste, but the curve should

generally be drawn as smoothly as possible on the assumption that the

changes are gradual and continuous.

The ruling of the straight line across the curve to express the

corrections in terms of the fundamental interval, corresponds to the

first part of the process of calibration mentioned above under the term

"Standardization." It effects the reduction of the readings to a common

standard, and may be neglected if relative values only are required. A

precisely analogous correction occurs in the case of electrical

instruments. A potentiometer, for instance, if correctly graduated or

calibrated in parts of equal resistance, will give correct relative

values of any differences of potential within its range if connected to

a constant cell to supply the steady current through the slide-wire. But

to determine at any time the actual value of its readings in volts, it

is necessary to standardize it, or determine its scale-value or

reduction-factor, by comparison with a standard cell.

[Illustration: CALIBRATION CURVE.]

A very neat use of the calibration curve has been made by Professor

W.A. Rogers in the automatic correction of screws of dividing machines

or lathes. It is possible by the process of grinding, as applied by

Rowland, to make a screw which is practically perfect in point of

uniformity, but even in this case errors may be introduced by the

method of mounting. In the production of divided scales, and more

particularly in the case of optical gratings, it is most important

that the errors should be as small as possible, and should be

automatically corrected during the process of ruling. With this object

a scale is ruled on the machine, and the errors of the uncorrected

screw are determined by calibrating the scale. A metal template may

then be cut out in the form of the calibration-correction curve on a

suitable scale. A lever projecting from the nut which feeds the

carriage or the slide-rest is made to follow the contour of the

template, and to apply the appropriate correction at each point of the

travel, by turning the nut through a small angle on the screw. A small

periodic error of the screw, recurring regularly at each revolution,

may be similarly corrected by means of a suitable cam or eccentric

revolving with the screw and actuating the template. This kind of

error is important in optical gratings, but is difficult to determine

and correct.

_Calibration by Comparison with a Standard._--The commonest and most

generally useful process of calibration is the direct comparison of the

instrument with a standard over the whole range of its scale. It is

necessary that the standard itself should have been already calibrated,

or else that the law of its indications should be known. A continuous

current ammeter, for instance, can be calibrated, so far as the relative

values of its readings are concerned, by comparison with a tangent

galvanometer, since it is known that the current in this instrument is

proportional to the tangent of the angle of deflection. Similarly an

alternating current ammeter can be calibrated by comparison with an

electrodynamometer, the reading of which varies as the square of the

current. But in either case it is neccessary, in order to obtain the

readings in amperes, to standardize the instrument for some particular

value of the current by comparison with a voltameter, or in some

equivalent manner. Whenever possible, ammeters and voltmeters are

calibrated by comparison of their readings with those of a

potentiometer, the calibration of which can be reduced to the comparison

and adjustment of resistances, which is the most accurate of electrical

measurements. The commoner kinds of mercury thermometers are generally

calibrated and graduated by comparison with a standard. In many cases

this is the most convenient or even the only possible method. A mercury

thermometer of limited scale reading between 250 deg. and 400 deg. C.,

with gas under high pressure to prevent the separation of the mercury

column, cannot be calibrated on itself, or by comparison with a mercury

standard possessing a fundamental interval, on account of difficulties

of stem exposure and scale. The only practical method is to compare its

readings every few degrees with those of a platinum thermometer under

the conditions for which it is to be used. This method has the

advantage of combining all the corrections for fundamental interval,

&c., with the calibration correction in a single curve, except the

correction for variation of zero which must be tested occasionally at

some point of the scale.

AUTHORITIES.--Mercurial Thermometers: Guillaume, _Thermometrie de

Precision_ (Paris, 1889), gives several examples and references to

original memoirs. The best examples of comparison and testing of

standards are generally to be found in publications of Standards

Offices, such as those of the Bureau International des Poids et

Mesures at Paris. Dial Resistance-Box: Griffiths, _Phil. Trans._ A,

1893; Platinum Thermometry-Box: J.A. Harker and P. Chappuis, _Phil.

Trans._ A, 1900; Thomson-Varley Potentiometer and Binary Scale Box:

Callendar and Barnes, _Phil. Trans._ A, 1901. (H. L. C.)

CALICO, a general name given to plain cotton cloth. The word was spelt

in various forms, including "calicut," which shows its derivation from

the Indian city of Calicut or Kolikod, a seaport in the presidency of

Madras, and one of the chief ports of intercourse with Europe in the

16th century, where cotton cloths were made. The name seems to have been

applied to all kinds of cotton cloths imported from the East. In England

it is now applied particularly to grey or bleached cotton cloth used for

domestic purposes, and, generally, to any fairly heavy cotton cloth

without a pattern. In the United States there is a special application

to printed cloth "of a coarser quality than muslin." In England "printed

calico" is a comprehensive term.

CALICUT, a city of British India, in the Malabar district of Madras; on

the coast, 6 m. N. of Beypur. In 1901 the population was 76,981, showing

an increase of 14% in the decade. The weaving of cotton, for which the

place was at one time so famous that its name became identified with its

_calico_, is no longer of any importance. Calicut is of considerable

antiquity; and about the 7th century it had its population largely

increased by the immigration of the Moplahs, a fanatical race of

Mahommedans from Arabia, who entered enthusiastically into commercial

life. The Portuguese traveller Pero de Covilham (q.v.) visited Calicut

in 1487 and described its possibilities for European trade; and in May

1498 Vasco da Gama, the first European navigator to reach India, arrived

at Calicut. At that time it was a very flourishing city, and contained

several stately buildings, among which was especially mentioned a

Brahminical temple, not inferior to the largest monastery in Portugal.

Vasco da Gama tried to establish a factory, but he met with persistent

hostility from the local chief (_zamorin_), and a similar attempt made

by Cabral two years later ended in the destruction of the factory by the

Moplahs. In revenge the Portuguese bombarded the town, but no further

attempt was made for some years to establish a trading settlement there.

In 1509 the marshal Don Fernando Coutinho made an unsuccessful attack on

the city; and in the following year it was again assailed by Albuquerque

with 3000 troops. On this occasion the palace was plundered and the town

burnt; but the Portuguese were finally repulsed, and fled to their ships

after heavy loss. In the following year they concluded a peace with the

zamorin and were allowed to build a fortified factory on the north bank

of the Kallayi river, which was however again, and finally, abandoned in

1525. In 1615 the town was visited by an English expedition under

Captain Keeling, who concluded a treaty with the zamorin; but it was not

until 1664 that an English trading settlement was established by the

East India Company. The French settlement, which still exists, was

founded in 1698. The town was taken in 1765 by Hyder Ali, who expelled

all the merchants and factors, and destroyed the cocoa-nut trees,

sandal-wood and pepper vines, that the country reduced to ruin might

present no temptation to the cupidity of Europeans. In 1782 the troops

of Hyder were driven from Calicut by the British; but in 1788 it was

taken and destroyed by his son Tippoo, who carried off the inhabitants

to Beypur and treated them with great cruelty. In the latter part of

1790 the country was occupied by the British; and under the treaty

concluded in 1792, whereby Tippoo was deprived of half his dominions,

Calicut fell to the British. After this event the inhabitants returned

and rebuilt the town, which in 1800 consisted of 5000 houses.

As the administrative headquarters of the district, Calicut maintains

its historical importance. It is served by the Madras railway, and is

the chief seaport on the Malabar coast, and the principal exports are

coffee, timber and coco-nut products. There are factories for

coffee-cleaning, employing several hundred hands; for coir-pressing and

timber-cutting. The town has a cotton-mill, a saw-mill, and tile, coffee

and oil works. A detachment of European troops is generally stationed

here to overawe the fanatical Moplahs.

CALIFORNIA, one of the Pacific Coast states of the United States of

America, physically one of the most remarkable, economically one of the

more independent, and in history and social life one of the most

interesting of the Union. It is bounded N. by Oregon, E. by Nevada and

Arizona, from which last it is separated by the Colorado river, and S.

by the Mexican province of Lower California. The length of its medial

line N. and S. is about 780 m., its breadth varies from 150 to 350 m.,

and its total area is 158,207 sq. m., of which 2205 are water surface.

In size it ranks second among the states of the Union. The coast is bold

and rugged and with very few good harbours; San Diego and San Francisco

bays being exceptions. The coast line is more than 1000 m. long. There

are eight coast islands, all of inconsiderable size, and none of them as

yet in any way important.

_Physiography._--The physiography of the state is simple; its main

features are few and bold: a mountain fringe along the ocean, another

mountain system along the east border, between them--closed in at both

ends by their junction--a splendid valley of imperial extent, and

outside all this a great area of barren, arid lands, belonging partly to

the Great Basin and partly to the Open Basin region.

Along the Pacific, and some 20-40 m. in width, runs the mass of the

Coast Range, made up of numerous indistinct chains--most of which have

localized individual names--that are broken down into innumerable ridges

and spurs, and small valleys drained by short streams of rapid fall. The

range is cut by numerous fault lines, some of which betray evidence of

recent activity; it is probable that movements along these faults cause

the earthquake tremors to which the region is subject, all of which seem

to be tectonic. The altitudes of the Coast Range vary from about 2000 to

8000 ft.; in the neighbourhood of San Francisco Bay the culminating

peaks are about 4000 ft. in height (Mount Diablo, 3856 ft.; Mount St

Helena, 4343 ft.), and to the north and south the elevation of the

ranges increases. In the east part of the state is the magnificent

Sierra Nevada, a great block of the earth's crust, faulted along its

eastern side and tilted up so as to have a gentle back slope to the west

and a steep fault escarpment facing east, the finest mountain system of

the United States. The Sierra proper, from Lassen's Peak to Tehachapi

Pass in Kern county, is about 430 m. long (from Mt. Shasta in Siskiyou

county to Mt. San Jacinto in Riverside county, more than 600 m.). It

narrows to the north and the altitude declines in the same direction.

Far higher and grander than the Coast Range, the Sierra is much less

complicated, being indeed essentially one chain of great simplicity of

structure. It is only here and there that a double line of principal

summits exists. The slope is everywhere long and gradual on the west,

averaging about 200 ft. to the mile. Precipitous gorges or canyons often

from 2000 to 5000 ft. in depth become a more and more marked feature of

the range as one proceeds northward; over great portions of it they

average probably not more than 20 m. apart. Where the volcanic

formations were spread uniformly over the flanks of the mountains, the

contrast between the canyons and the plain-like region of gentle slope

in which they have been excavated is especially marked and

characteristic. The eastern slope is very precipitous, due to a great

fault which drops the rocks of the Great Basin region abruptly downward

several thousand feet. Rare passes cross the chain, opening at the foot

of the mountains on the east and the west high on their flanks,

7000-10,000 ft. above the sea. Between 36 deg. 20' and 38 deg. the

lowest gap of any kind is above 9000 ft., and the average height of

those actually used is probably not less than 11,000 ft. The Kearsarge,

most used of all, is still higher. Very few in the entire Sierra are

passable by vehicles. Some forty peaks are catalogued between 5000 and

8000 ft., and there are eleven above 14,000. The highest portion of the

system is between the parallels of 36 deg. 30' and 37 deg. 30'; here the

passes are about 12,000 ft. in elevation, and the peaks range from

13,000 ft. upward, Mount Whitney, 14,502 ft., being the highest summit

of the United States, excluding Alaska. From this peak northward there

is a gradual decline, until at the point where the Central Pacific

crosses in lat. 39 deg. 20' the elevation is only 7000 ft.

Of the mountain scenery the granite pinnacles and domes of the highest

Sierra opposite Owen's Lake, where there is a drop eastward into the

valley of about 10,000 ft. in 10 m.; the snowy volcanic cone of Mt

Shasta, rising 10,000 ft. above the adjacent plains; and the lovely

valleys of the Coast Range, and the south fork of the King river--all

these have their charms; but most beautiful of all is the unique scenery

of the Yosemite Valley (q.v.). Much of the ruggedness and beauty of the

mountains is due to the erosive action of many alpine glaciers that once

existed on the higher summits, and which have left behind their

evidences in valleys and amphitheatres with towering walls, polished

rock-expanses, glacial lakes and meadows and tumbling waterfalls.

Remnants of these glaciers are still to be seen,--as notably on Mt.

Shasta,--though shrunk to small dimensions. Glacial action may be

studied well as far south as 36 deg. The canyons are largely the work of

rivers, modified by glaciers that ran through them after the rivers had

formed them. All of the Sierra lakes and ponds are of glacial origin and

there are some thousands of them. The lower lake line is about 8000 ft.;

it is lower to the north than to the south, owing to the different

climate, and the different period of glacial retrogression. Of these

lakes some are fresh, and some--as those of the north-east

counties--alkali. The finest of all is Tahoe, 6225 ft. above the sea,

lying between the true Sierras and the Basin Ranges, with peaks on

several sides rising 4000-5000 ft. above it. It is 1500 ft. deep and its

waters are of extraordinary purity (containing only three grains of

solid matter to the gallon). Clear Lake, in the Coast Range, is another

beautiful sheet of water. It is estimated by John Muir that on an

average "perhaps more than a mile" of degradation took place in the last

glacial period; but with regard to the whole subject of glacial action

in California as in other fields, there is considerable difference of

opinion. The same authority counted 65 small residual glaciers between

36 deg. 30' and 39 deg.; two-thirds of them lie between 37 deg. and 38

deg., on some of the highest peaks in the district of the San Joaquin,

Merced, Tuolumne and Owen's rivers. They do not descend, on an average,

below 11,000 ft.; the largest of all, on Mt. Shasta, descends to 9500

ft. above the sea.

Volcanic action has likewise left abundant traces, especially in the

northern half of the range, whereas the evidences of glacial action are

most perfect (though not most abundant) in the south. Lava covers most

of the northern half of the range, and there are many craters and

ash-cones, some recent and of perfect form. Of these the most remarkable

is Mt. Shasta. In Owen's Valley is a fine group of extinct or dormant

volcanoes.

Among the other indications of great geological disturbances on the

Pacific Coast may also be mentioned the earthquakes to which California

like the rest of the coast is liable. From 1850 to 1887 almost 800 were

catalogued by Professor E.H. Holden for California, Oregon and

Washington. They occur in all seasons, scores of slight tremors being

recorded every year by the Weather Bureau; but they are of no

importance, and even of these the number affecting any particular

locality is small. From 1769 to 1887 there were 10 "destructive" and 24

other "extremely severe" shocks according to the Rossi Forel

nomenclatural scale of intensity. In 1812 great destruction was wrought

by an earthquake that affected all the southern part of the state; in

1865 the region about San Francisco was violently disturbed; in 1872 the

whole Sierra and the state of Nevada were violently shaken; and in 1906

San Francisco (q.v.) was in large part destroyed by a shock that caused

great damage elsewhere in the state.

North of 40 deg. N. lat. the Coast Range and Sierra systems unite,

forming a country extremely rough. The eastern half of this area is

covered chiefly with volcanic plains, very dry and barren, lying between

precipitous, although not very lofty, ranges; the western half is

magnificently timbered, and toward the coast excessively wet. Between 35

deg. and 36 deg. N. lat. the Sierra at its southern end turns westward

toward the coast as the Tehachapi Range. The valley is thus closed to

the north and south, and is surrounded by a mountain wall, which is

broken down in but a single place, the gap behind the Golden Gate at San

Francisco. Through this passes the entire drainage of the interior. The

length of the valley is about 450 m., its breadth averages about 40 m.

if the lower foothills be included, so that the entire area is about

18,000 sq. m. The drainage basin measured from the water-partings of the

enclosing mountains is some three times as great. From the mouth of the

Sacramento to Redding, at the northern head of the valley, the rise is

552 ft. in 192 m., and from the mouth of the San Joaquin southward to

Kern lake it is 282 ft. in 260 m.

Two great rivers drain this central basin,--the San Joaquin, whose

valley comprises more than three-fifths of the entire basin, and the

Sacramento, whose valley comprises the remainder. The San Joaquin is a

very crooked stream flowing through a low mud-plain, with tule banks;

the Sacramento is much less meandering, and its immediate basin, which

is of sandy loam, is higher and more attractive than that of the San

Joaquin. The eastward flanks of the Coast Range are very scantily

forested, and they furnish not a single stream permanent enough to reach

either the Sacramento or San Joaquin throughout the dry season. On the

eastern side of both rivers are various important tributaries, fed by

the more abundant rains and melting snows of the western flank of the

Sierra; but these streams also shrink greatly in the dry season. The

Feather, emptying into the Sacramento river about 20 m. N. of the city

of Sacramento, is the most important tributary of the Sacramento river.

A striking feature of the Sacramento system is that for 200 m. north of

the Feather it does not receive a single tributary of any importance,

though walled in by high mountains. Another peculiar and very general

feature of the drainage system of the state is the presence of numerous

so-called river "sinks," where the waters disappear, either directly by

evaporation or (as in Death Valley) after flowing for a time beneath the

surface. These "sinks" are therefore not the true sinks of limestone

regions. The popular name is applied to Owen's lake, at the end of

Owen's river; to Mono lake, into which flow various streams rising in

the Sierra between Mount Dana and Castle Peak; and to Death Valley,

which contains the "sink" of the Amargosa river, and evidently was once

an extensive lake, although now only a mud-flat in ordinary winters, and

a dry, alkaline, desert plain in summer. All these lakes, and the other

mountain lakes before referred to, show by the terraces about them that

the water stood during the glacial period much higher than it does now.

Tulare lake, which with Buena Vista lake and Kern lake receives the

drainage of the southern Sierra, shows extreme local variations of

shore-line, and is generally believed to have shrunk extremely since

1850, though of this no adequate proof yet exists. In 1900 it was about

200 sq. m. in area. In wet seasons it overflows its banks and becomes

greatly extended in area, discharging its surplus waters into the San

Joaquin; but in dry seasons the evaporation is so great that there is no

such discharge. The drainage of Lassen, Siskiyou and Modoc counties has

no outlet to the sea and is collected in a number of great alkaline

lakes.

Finally along the sea below Pt. Conception are fertile coastal plains of

considerable extent, separated from the interior deserts by various

mountain ranges from 5000 to 7000 ft. high, and with peaks much higher

(San Bernardino, 11,600; San Jacinto, 10,800; San Antonio, 10,140).

Unlike the northern Sierra, the ranges of Southern California are broken

down in a number of places. It is over these passes--Soledad, 2822 ft.,

Cajon, San Gorgonio, 2560 ft.--that the railways cross to the coast.

That part of California which lies to the south and east of the southern

inosculation of the Coast Range and the Sierra comprises an area of

fully 50,000 sq. m., and belongs to the Basin Range region. For the most

part it is excessively dry and barren. The Mohave desert--embracing

Kern, Los Angeles and San Bernardino, as also a large part of San Diego,

Imperial and Riverside counties--belong to the "Great Basin," while a

narrow strip along the Colorado river is in the "Open Basin Region."

They have no drainage to the sea, save fitfully for slight areas through

the Colorado river. The Mohave desert is about 2000 ft. above the sea in

general altitude. The southern part of the Great Basin region is vaguely

designated the Colorado desert. In San Diego, Imperial and Riverside

counties a number of creeks or so-called rivers, with beds that are

normally dry, flow centrally toward the desert of Salton Sink or "Sea";

this is the lowest part of a large area that is depressed below the

level of the sea,--at Salton 263 ft., and 287 ft. at the lowest point.

In 1900 the Colorado river (q.v.) was tapped south of the Mexican

boundary for water wherewith to irrigate land in the Imperial Valley

along the Southern Pacific railway, adjoining Salton Sea. The river

enlarged the canal, and finding a steeper gradient than that to its

mouth, was diverted into the Colorado desert, flooding Salton Sea;[1]

and when the break in this river was closed for the second time in

February 1907, though much of its water still escaped through minor

channels and by seepage, a lake more than 400 sq. m. in area was left. A

permanent 60 ft. masonry dam was completed in July 1907. The region to

the east of the Sierra, likewise in the Great Basin province, between

the crest of that range and the Nevada boundary, is very mountainous.

Owen's river runs through it from north to south for some 180 m. Near

Owen's lake the scenery is extremely grand. The valley here is very

narrow, and on either side the mountains rise from 7000 to 10,000 ft.

above the lake and river. The Inyo range, on the east, is quite bare of

timber, and its summits are only occasionally whitened with snow for a

few days during the winter, as almost all precipitation is cut off by

the higher ranges to the westward. Still further to the east some 40 m.

from the lake is Death Valley (including Lost or Mesquite Valley)--the

name a reminder of the fate of a party of "forty-niners" who perished

here, by thirst or by starvation and exposure. Death Valley, some 50 m.

long and on an average 20-25 m. broad from the crests of the inclosing

mountain ranges (or 5-10 m. at their base), constitutes an independent

drainage basin. It is below sea level (about 276 ft. according to recent

surveys), and altogether is one of the most remarkable physical features

of California. The mountains about it are high and bare and brilliant

with varied colours. The Amargosa river, entering the valley from

Nevada, disappears in the salty basin. Enormous quantities of borax,

already exploited, and of nitrate of soda, are known to be present in

the surrounding country, the former as almost pure borate of lime in

Tertiary lake sediments.

The physiography of the state is the evident determinant of its climate,

fauna and flora. California has the highest land and the lowest land of

the United States, the greatest variety of temperature and rainfall, and

of products of the soil.

[Illustration: Map of CALIFORNIA and NEVADA]

_Climate._--The climate is very different from that of the Atlantic

coast; and indeed very different from that of any part of the country

save that bordering California. Amid great variations of local weather

there are some peculiar features that obtain all over the state. In the

first place, the climate of the entire Pacific Coast is milder and more

uniform in temperature than that of the states in corresponding latitude

east of the mountains. Thus we have to go north as far as Sitka in 57

deg. N. lat. to find the same mean yearly temperature as that of

Halifax, Nova Scotia, in latitude 44 deg. 39'. And going south along the

coast, we find the mean temperature of San Diego 6 deg. or 7 deg. less

than that of Vicksburg, Miss., or Charleston, S.C. The quantity of total

annual heat supply at Puget Sound exceeds that at Philadelphia,

Pittsburg, Cleveland or Omaha, all more than 500 m. farther south;

Cape Flattery, exposed the year round to cold ocean fogs, receives more

heat than Eastport, Maine, which is 3 deg. farther south and has a

warmer summer. In the second place, the means of winter and summer are

much nearer the mean of the year in California than in the east. This

condition of things is not so marked as one goes inward from the coast;

yet everywhere save in the high mountains the winters are comparatively

mild. In the third place, the division of the year into two seasons--a

wet one and a dry (and extremely dusty) one--marks this portion of the

Pacific Coast in the most decided manner, and this natural climatic area

coincides almost exactly in its extension with that of California; being

truly characteristic neither of Lower California nor of the greater part

of Oregon, though more so of Nevada and Arizona. And finally, in the

fourth place, except on the coast the disagreeableness of the heat of

summer is greatly lessened by the dryness of the air and the consequent

rapidity of evaporation. Among the peculiarities of Californian climate

it is not one of the least striking that as one leaves the Sacramento or

San Joaquin plains and travels into the mountains it becomes warmer, at

least for the first 2000 or 3000 ft. of ascent.

Along both the Coast Range and the Sierra considerable rainfall is

certain, although, owing to the slight snow accumulations of the former,

its streams are decidedly variable. A heavy rain-belt, with a normal

fall of more than 40 in., covers all the northern half of the Sierra and

the north-west counties; shading off from this is the region of 10-20

in. fall, which covers all the rest of the state save Inyo, Kern and San

Bernardino counties, Imperial county and the eastern portion of

Riverside county; the precipitation of this belt is from 0 to 10 in. In

excessively dry years the limits of this last division may include all

of the state below Fresno and the entire Central Valley as well. In the

mountains the precipitation increases with the altitude; above 6000 or

7000 ft. it is almost wholly in the form of snow; and this snow, melting

in summer, is of immense importance to the state, supplying water once

for placer mining and now for irrigation. The north-west counties are

extremely wet; many localities here have normal rainfalls of 60-70 in.

and even higher annually, while in extreme seasons as much as 125 in.

falls. Along the entire Pacific Coast, but particularly N. of San

Francisco, there is a night fog from May to September. It extends but a

few miles inland, but within this belt is virtually a prolongation of

the rainy season and has a marked effect on vegetation. Below San

Francisco the precipitation decreases along the coast, until at San

Diego it is only about 10 in. The south-east counties are the driest

portions of the United States. At Ogilby, Volcano, Indio and other

stations on the Southern Pacific line the normal annual precipitation is

from 1.5 to 2.5 in.; and there are localities near Owen's lake, even on

its very edge, that are almost dry. For days in succession when it

storms along the Southern California coasts and dense rain clouds blow

landwards to the mountains, leaving snow or rain on their summits, it

has been observed that within a few miles beyond the ridge the contact

of the desert air dissipates the remaining moisture of the clouds into

light misty masses, like a steam escape in cold air. The extreme heat of

the south-east is tempered by the extremely low humidity characteristic

of the Great Basin, which in the interior of the two southernmost

counties is very low. The humidity of places such as Fresno, Sacramento

and Red Bluff in the valley varies from 48 to 58. Many places in

northern, southern, central, mountain and southern coastal California

normally have more than 200 perfectly clear days in a year; and many in

the mountains and in the south, even on the coast, have more than 250.

The extreme variability in the amount of rainfall is remarkable.[2] The

effects of a season of drought on the dry portions of the state need not

be adverted to; and as there is no rain or snow of any consequence on

the mountains during summer, a succession of dry seasons may almost bare

the ranges of the accumulated stock of previous winter snows, thus

making worse what is already bad.

The Colorado desert (together with the lower Gila Valley of Arizona) is

the hottest part of the United States. Along the line of the Southern

Pacific the yearly extreme is frequently from 124 deg. to 129 deg. F.

(i.e. in the shade, which is almost if not quite the greatest heat ever

actually recorded in any part of the world). At the other extreme,

temperatures of -20 deg. to -36 deg. are recorded yearly on the Central

(Southern) Pacific line near Lake Tahoe. The normal annual means of the

coldest localities of the state are from 37 deg. to 44 deg. F.; the

monthly means from 20 deg. to 65 deg. F. The normal annual means on

Indio, Mammoth Tanks, Salton and Volcano Springs are from 73.9 deg. to

78.4 F.; the monthly means from 52.8 deg. to 101.3 deg. (frequently 95

deg. to 98 deg.). The normal trend of the annual isotherms of the state

is very simple: a low line of about 40 deg. circles the angle in the

Nevada boundary line; 50 deg. normally follows the northern Sierra

across the Oregon border; lines of higher temperature enclose the Great

Valley; and lines of still higher temperature--usually 60 deg. to 70

deg., in hotter years 60 deg. to 75 deg.--run transversely across the

southern quarter of the state.

Another weather factor is the winds, which are extremely regular in

their movements. There are brisk diurnal sea-breezes, and seasonal

trades and counter-trades. Along the coast an on-shore breeze blows

every summer day; in the evening it is replaced by a night-fog, and the

cooler air draws down the mountain sides in opposition to its movement

during the day. In the upper air a dry off-shore wind from the Rocky

Mountain plateau prevails throughout the summer; and in winter an

on-shore rain wind. The last is the counter-trade, the all-year wind of

Alaska and Oregon; it prevails in winter even off Southern California.

There is the widest and most startling variety of local climates. At

Truckee, for example, lying about 5800 ft. above the sea near Lake

Tahoe, the lowest temperature of the year may be -25 deg. F. or colder,

when 70 m. westward at Rocklin, which lies in the foothills about 250

ft. above the sea, the mercury does not fall below 28 deg. Snow never

falls at Rocklin, but falls in large quantity at Truckee; ice is the

crop of the one, oranges of the other, at the same time. There are

points in Southern California where one may actually look from sea to

desert and from snow to orange groves. Distance from the ocean,

situation with reference to the mountain ranges, and altitude are all

important determinants of these climatic differences; but of these the

last seems to be most important. At any rate it may be said that

generally speaking the maximum, minimum and mean temperatures of points

of approximately equal altitude are respectively but slightly different

in northern or southern California.[3]

Death Valley surpasses for combined heat and aridity any meteorological

stations on earth where regular observations are taken, although for

extremes of heat it is exceeded by places in the Colorado desert. The

minimum daily temperature in summer is rarely below 70 deg. F. and often

above 90 deg. F. (in the shade), while the maximum may for days in

succession be as high as 120 deg. F. A record of 6 months (1891) showed

an average daily relative humidity of 30.6 in the morning and 15.6 in

the evening, and the humidity sometimes falls to 5. Yet the surrounding

country is not devoid of vegetation. The hills are very fertile when

irrigated, and the wet season develops a variety of perennial herbs,

shrubs and annuals.

_Fauna._--California embraces areas of every life-zone of North America:

of the boreal, the Hudsonian and Canadian subzones; of the transition,

the humid Pacific subzone; of the upper austral, the arid or upper

Sonoran subzone; of the lower austral, the arid or lower Sonoran; of the

tropical, the "dilute arid" subzone. As will be inferred from the above

account of temperature, summer is longer in the north, and localities

in the Valley have more hours of heat than do those of south California.

Hence that climatic characteristic of the entire Pacific Coast--already

referred to and which is of extreme importance in determining the

life-zones of California--the great amount of total annual heat supply

at comparatively high latitudes. A low summer temperature enables

northern species to push far southward, while the high heat total of the

year enables southern species to push far north. The resultant

intermingling of forms is very marked and characteristic of the Pacific

Coast states. The distribution of life-zones is primarily a matter of

altitude and corresponds to that of the isotherms. The mountain goat and

mountain sheep live in the Sierran upper-land, though long ago well-nigh

exterminated. The Douglas red squirrel is ubiquitous in the Sierran

forests and their most conspicuous inhabitant. White-tailed deer and

especially black-tails are found on the high Sierra; the mule deer, too,

although its habitat is now mainly east of the range, on the plateau, is

also met with. Grizzly, black, cinnamon and brown bears are all

Californian species once common and to-day rare. When Americans began to

rule in California elk and antelope herded in great numbers in the Great

Valley; the former may to-day sometimes be seen, possibly, in the

northern forests, and the latter occasionally cross into the state from

Nevada. The sage-hen is abundant on the eastern flank of the Sierra.

Grouse, quail, crows and woodpeckers (_Melanerpes formicivorus_) furnish

species characteristic of the state. There are various species of

ground-squirrels and gophers, which are very abundant. Noteworthy in the

animal life of the lower Sonoran and tropic region are a variety of

snakes and lizards, desert rats and mice; and, among birds, the cactus

wren, desert thrasher, desert sparrow, Texas night-hawk, mocking-bird

and ground cuckoo or road runner (_Geococcyx Californianus_). The

California vulture, the largest flying bird in North America and fully

as large as the Andean condor, is not limited to California but is

fairly common there. In the zoology and botany of California as of the

rest of the Pacific Coast, the distinctions between the upper austral

and humid transition zones are largely obliterated; and as one passes

southward into the arid lands, life forms of both these zones

intermingle with those of the arid transition.

Fish are abundant. The United States fish commission, and an active

state commission established in 1869, have done much to preserve and

increase this source of food. In 1904 the yield of the fisheries of the

three Pacific Coast states was 168,600,000 lbs., valued at

$6,681,000,--nearly half that of the New England states, more than

one-third that of the Middle Atlantic states and more than that of the

South Atlantic and Gulf states combined. Of the total, California

yielded between a quarter and a third. A third of her fish comes from

the Sacramento river. Some 230--more or less--marine food fishes are to

be found in the market at San Francisco. The exports of fish from that

port from 1892-1899 were valued at from $2,000,000 to $2,500,000

annually. Native oysters are small and of peculiar flavour; eastern

varieties also are fattened, but not bred in California waters. Shrimp

are abundant; the shrimp fishers are Chinese and four-fifths of the

catch is exported to China. Sturgeon were once the cheapest fish after

salmon; to-day, despite all efforts to increase the supply, they are the

dearest. Salmon, once threatened with extinction, have been saved,

maintained in good supply, and indeed have probably regained their

pristine abundance. Shad and striped bass are both very abundant and

cheap. Black bass, flounders, terrapin, sea-turtles, perch, turbot, sole

and catfish are also common. Great herds of seals once lay like

toll-gatherers off the Golden Gate and other bays of the coast, taking a

large share of the salmon and other fish; but they are no longer common.

The sea-lions sometimes raid the rivers for 100 m. inland. They have

greatly increased since hunting them for their hides and oil ceased to

be profitable, and thousands sometimes gather on the Farallones, off the

Golden Gate.

_Flora._--Inclusiveness of range in the distribution of vegetable life

is perhaps more suggestive than the distribution of animal species. The

variation is from dwarf mountain pine to giant cactus and dates. The

humid transition belt is the habitat of California's magnificent

forests. Nut pine, juniper and true sage-brush (_Artemisia tridentata_)

characterize the upper Sonoran,--although the latter grows equally in

the transition zone. Cereals, orchard fruits and alfalfa are of primary

importance in the upper and of secondary importance in the lower

Sonoran. In the arid portions of this and the tropic areas the

indigenous plants are creosote, mesquite and alfileria bushes, desert

acacias, paloverdes, alkali-heath, salt grass, agaves, yuccas

(especially the Spanish-bayonet and Joshua tree) and cactuses. Among

exotics the Australian saltbush spreads successfully over the worst

alkali land. The introduction of other exotics into these zones,--made

humid by irrigation, which converts them, the one into true

austro-riparian the other into true humid tropical,--has revolutionized

the agricultural, and indeed the whole, economy of California. At the

two ends of Cajon Pass, only four or five kilometres apart, are the two

utterly distinct floras of the Mohave desert and the San Bernardino

valley. Despite the presence of the pass, plants do not spread, so great

is the difference of climatic conditions. On the desert the same plant

will vary in different years from 4 in. to 10 ft. in height when equally

mature, according to the rainfall and other conditions of growth. Many

mature plants are not taller than 0.4 to 0.8 in. The tree yucca often

attains a height of 20 to 25 ft., and a diameter of 1.5 ft. About 600

species of plants were catalogued in desert California in 1891 by a

government botanical party. The flora of the coast islands of California

is very interesting. On Santa Cruz Professor Joseph Le Conte found 248

species, nearly all of which are distinctively Californian, 48 being

peculiar to the surrounding islands and 28 peculiar to Southern

California. Various other things indicate a separation of the islands

from the mainland in quaternary times; since which, owing to the later

southward movement on the continent of northern forms in glacial times,

there has been a struggle for existence on the mainland from which the

islands have largely escaped.

_Forests._--The forests and agricultural crops of the state demand

particular notice. In 1900 the woodland was estimated by the United

States census at 22% of the state's area, and the total stand at 200,000

million ft. of timber. The variety of forest trees is not great, but

some of the California trees are unique, and the forests of the state

are, with those of Oregon and Washington, perhaps the most magnificent

of the world. At least the coniferous forests which make up nine-tenths

of California's woodland surpass all others known in number of species

and in the size and beauty of the trees. Forty-six species occur,

namely, 32 species of pitch trees (18 pines), 12 species of the

cypresses and their allies (2 sequoia), and 2 species of yews or their

allies. Peculiar to California are the two species of sequoia

(q.v.),--the redwood (_S. sempervirens_), and the big-tree (_S.

gigantea_), remnants of an earlier age when they were common in other

parts of the world. The redwood grows only in a narrow strip on the

Coast Range from Southern Oregon (where there are not more than 1000

acres) down nearly to the Golden Gate, in a habitat of heavy rains and

heavy fogs. They cover an area of about 2000 sq. m. almost unmixed with

other species. One fine grove stands S. of San Francisco near Santa

Cruz. These noble trees attain very often a height of more than 300 ft.,

frequently of 350 and even more, and a butt diameter of more than 15 to

20 ft., with clean, straight fluted trunks rising 200 ft. below the

lowest branches. They grow in a very dense timber stand; single acres

have yielded 1,500,000 ft. B.M. of lumber, and single trees have cut as

high as 100,000 ft. The total stand in 1900 was estimated by the United

States census as 75,000,000,000 ft., and the ordinary stand per acre

varies from 25,000 to 150,000 ft., averaging probably 60,000 ft. The

redwood is being rapidly used for lumber. There is nowhere any

considerable young growth from seed, although this mode of reproduction

is not (as often stated) unknown; the tree will reproduce itself more

than once from the stump (hence its name). In thirty years a tree has

been known to grow to a height of 80 ft. and a diameter of 16 in. The

wood contains no pitch and much water, and in a green condition will not

burn. To this fact it owes its immunity from the forest fires which

wreak frightful havoc among the surrounding forests. As the redwood is

limited to the Coast Range, so the big tree is limited wholly to the

Sierra Nevada. Unlike the redwood the big tree occurs in scattered

groves (ten in all) among other species. Its habitat extends some 200

m., from latitude 36 deg. to 39 deg., nowhere descending much below an

altitude of 5000 ft., nor rising above 8000 ft. The most northerly grove

and the nearest to San Francisco is the Calaveras Grove near Stockton;

the Mariposa Grove just south of the Yosemite National Park, is a state

reservation and easily accessible to tourists. The noblest groves are

near Visalia, and are held as a national park. The average height is

about 275 ft., and the diameter near the ground 20 ft.; various

individuals stand over 300 ft., and a diameter of 25 ft. is not rare.

One tree measures 35.7 ft. inside the bark 4 ft. above the ground, 10

ft. at 200 ft. above the ground, and is 325 ft. tall. Specimens have

been cut down that were estimated to be 1300 and even 2200 years old;

many trees standing are presumably 2500 years old. It is the opinion of

John Muir that the big tree would normally live 5000 years or more; that

the California groves are still in their prime; that, contrary to

general ideas, the big tree was never more widely distributed than now,

at least not within the past 8000 or 10,000 years; that it is not a

decaying species, but that on the contrary "no tree of all the forest is

more enduringly established in concord with climate and soil," growing

like the mountain pine even on granite, and in little danger save from

the greed of the lumberman; but other excellent authorities consider it

as hardly holding its own, especially in the north. Three main wood

belts cover the flanks of the Sierra: the lower or main pine belt, the

silver fir belt, and the upper pine belt. The sugar pine, the yellow or

silver pine and the Douglas spruce (considerably smaller than in Oregon

and Washington), are rivals in stature and nobility, all attaining 200

ft. or more when full grown; and the incense cedar reaches a height of

150 ft. In this belt and the following one of firs the big tree also

grows. The white silver fir (_abies concolor_) and the silver or red fir

(_ab. magnifica_), standing 200 to 250 ft., make up almost wholly the

main forest belt from 5000 to 9000 ft. for some 450 m. Above the firs

come the tamarack, constituting the bulk of the lower Alpine forest; the

hardy long-lived mountain pine; the red cedar or juniper, growing even

on the baldest rocks; the beautiful hemlock spruce; the still higher

white pine, nut pine, needle pine; and finally, at 10,000 to 12,000 ft.,

the dwarf pine, which grows in a tangle on the earth over which one

walks, and may not show for a century's growth more than a foot of

height or an inch of girth. The Nevada slope of the mountains below 7500

ft. is covered with the nut pine down to the sage plains. Its nuts are

gathered in enormous amounts by the Indians for food; and it is

estimated that the yearly harvest of these nuts exceeds in bulk that of

all the cereals of California (John Muir). On the Sierra the underbrush

is characterized by the pungent manzanita, the California buckeye and

the chamiso; the last two growing equally abundantly on the Coast Range.

The chamiso and the manzanita, with a variety of shrubby oaks and thorny

plants, often grow together in a dense and sometimes quite impenetrable

undergrowth, forming what is known as "chaparral"; if the chamiso occurs

alone the thicket is a "chamisal." The elm, the hickory, the beech, the

chestnut, and many others of the most characteristic and useful trees of

the eastern states were originally entirely wanting in California. Oaks

are abundant; they are especially characteristic of the Great Valley,

where they grow in magnificent groves. Up to 1910 national forest

reserves amounted to 27,968,510 acres. In 1909 Congress created a

national forest to include the big tree groves in Calaveras and Tuolumne

counties. One of the noblest redwood areas (that of Santa Cruz county)

is a state reservation (created in 1901). Even within reservations

almost all the merchantable timber is owned by private individuals. In

addition to native trees many others--especially ornamental

species--have been successfully introduced from various parts of the

world.

_Soil._--Sand and loams in great variety, grading from mere sand to

adobe, make up the soils of the state. The plains of the north-east

counties are volcanic, and those of the south-east sandy. It is

impossible to say with accuracy what part of the state may properly be

classed as tillable. The total farm acreage in 1900 was 28,828,951

acres, of which 41.5% were improved; since 1880 the absolute amount of

improved land has remained practically constant, despite the

extraordinary progress of the state in these years. Much land is too

rough, too elevated or too arid ever to be made agriculturally

available; but irrigation, and the work of the state and national

agricultural bureaus in introducing new plants and promoting scientific

farming, have accomplished much that once seemed impossible. The

peculiarities of the climate, especially its division into two seasons,

make Californian (and Southern Arizona) agriculture very different from

that of the rest of the country. During the winter no shelter is

necessary for live-stock, nor, during summer, for the grains that are

harvested in June and July, and may lie for weeks or months in the

field. The mild, wet winter is the season of planting and growth, and so

throughout the year there is a succession of crops. The dangers of

drought in the long dry seasons particularly increase the uncertainties

of agriculture in regions naturally arid. Irrigation was introduced in

Southern California before 1780, but its use was desultory and its

spread slow till after 1850. In 1900 almost 1,500,000 acres were

irrigated--an increase of 46% since 1890. About half of this total was

in San Joaquin Valley. California has the greatest area of irrigated

land of any state in the Union, and offers the most complete utilization

of resources. In the south artesian wells, and in the Great Valley the

rivers of the Sierra slope, are the main source of water-supply. On

nearly all lands irrigated some crops will grow in ordinary seasons

without irrigation, but it is this that makes possible selection of

crops; practically indispensable for all field and orchard culture in

the south, save for a few moist coastal areas, it everywhere increases

the yield of all crops and is practised generally all over the state. Of

the acreage devoted to alfalfa in 1899, 76.2% was irrigated; of that

devoted to subtropical fruits, 71.7%. Small fruits, orchard fruits,

hay, garden products and grains are decreasingly dependent on

irrigation; wheat, which was once California's great staple, is (for

good, but not for best results) comparatively independent of it,--hence

its early predominance in Californian agriculture, due to this success

on arid lands since taken over for more remunerative irrigated crops.

_Agriculture._--The spread of irrigation and of intensive cultivation,

and the increase of small farms during the last quarter of the 19th

century, have made California what it is to-day. Agriculture had its

beginning in wheat-raising on great ranches, from 50,000 even to several

hundred thousand acres in extent. A few of these, particularly in the

Great Valley, are still worked, but only a few. The average size of

farms in 1850 (when the large Mexican grants were almost the only farms,

and these unbroken) was 4466 acres; in 1860 it was 466.4, and in 1900

only 397.4 acres. Stock ranches, tobacco plantations, and hay and grain

farms, average from 800 to 530 acres, and counteract the tendency of

dairy farms, beet plantations, orchards, vegetable gardens and nurseries

to lower the size of the farm unit still further. The renting of large

holdings prevails to a greater extent than in any other state except

Texas. From 1880 to 1900 the number of farms above 500 and below 1000

acres doubled; half of the total in 1900 were smaller than 100 acres.

The most remunerative and most characteristic farming to-day is

diversified and intensive and on small holdings. The essential character

of California's economic life has been determined by the successive

predominance of grass, gold, grain and fruits. Omitting the second it

may be truly said that the order of agricultural development has been

mainly one of blind experiment or fortuitous circumstances. Staple

products have changed with increasing knowledge of climatic conditions,

of life-zones and of the fitness of crops; first hides and tallow, then

wool, wheat, grapes (which in the early eighteen-nineties were the

leading fruit), deciduous orchard fruits, and semi-tropical citrus

fruits successively. Prunes were introduced in 1854, but their

possibilities were only slightly appreciated for some thirty years. Of

various other crops much the same is true. Of late years progress has

been very intelligent; in earlier years it was gained through a

multitude of experiments and failures, and great pecuniary loss, and

progress was a testimonial chiefly to courage and perseverance. The

possibilities of the lower Sonoran and tropical areas are still

imperfectly known. Nature has been niggard of rain but lavish in soil

and sun. Irrigation has shown that with water, arid and barren plains,

veritable deserts may be made to bloom with immense wealth of

semi-tropical fruits; and irrigation in the tropical area along the

Colorado river, which is so arid that it naturally bears only desert

vegetation, has made it a true humid-tropical region like Southern

Florida, growing true tropical fruits.

In 1900 California ranked eleventh among the states in total value of

farm property ($796,527,955) and in 1899 fourteenth in the value of farm

products ($131,690,606). The growth of the former from 1890 to 1900 was

only 2.5%, one of the smallest increases among all the states.

The pastoral period extended from 1769 to 1848. The live-stock industry

was introduced by the Franciscans and flourished exceedingly. In 1834,

when the missions had already passed their best days, there were some

486,000 cattle, horses, mules and asses on the ranges, and 325,000 small

animals, principally sheep. Throughout the pre-American period

stock-raising was the leading industry; it built up the prosperity of

the missions, largely supported the government and almost exclusively

sustained foreign commerce. Hides and tallow were the sum and substance

of Californian economy. Horses were slaughtered wholesale at times to

make way for cattle on the ranges. There was almost no dairying; olive

oil took the place of butter, and wine of milk, at the missions; and in

general indeed the Mexicans were content with water. In the development

of the state under the American regime the live-stock industry has been

subordinate. A fearful drought in 1862-1864 greatly depressed it, and

especially discouraged cattle ranching. Sheep then became of primary

importance, until the increase of the flocks threatened ranges and

forests with destruction. As late as 1876 there were some 7,000,000

sheep, in 1900 only 2,581,000, and in 1906 only 1,750,000. In the total

value of all live stock (5,402,297 head) in 1900 ($65,000,000) the rank

of the state was 15th in the Union, and in value of dairy products in

1899 (12.84 million dollars) 12th. The live-stock industry showed a

tendency to decline after 1890, and the dairy industry also, despite

various things--notably irrigation and alfalfa culture--that have

favoured them.

Cereals replaced hides and tallow in importance after 1848. Wheat was

long California's greatest crop. Its production steadily increased till

about 1884, the production in 1880, the banner year, being more than 54

million bushels (32,537,360 centals). Since 1884 its production has

markedly fallen off; in 1905 the wheat crop was 17,542,013 bushels, and

in 1906, 26,883,662 bushels (valued at $20,162,746). There has been a

general parallelism between the amount of rain and the amount of wheat

produced; but as yet irrigation is little used for this crop. In the

eighth decade of the 19th century, the value of the wheat product had

come to exceed that of the annual output of gold. Barley has always been

very important. The acreage given to it in 1899 was one-fourth the total

cereal acreage, and San Francisco in 1902-1904 was the shipping point of

the larger part of American exported barley, of (roughly) three-quarters

in 1902, seven-eighths in 1903 and four-fifths in 1904. In 1906

California produced 38,760,000 bushels of barley, valued at $20,930,400.

The great increase in the acreage of barley, which was 22.5% of the

country's barley acreage in 1906, and 24.2% in 1905, is one reason for

the decreased production of wheat. The level nature of the great grain

farms of the valley led to the utilization of machinery of remarkable

character. Combined harvesters (which enter a field of standing grain

and leave this grain piled in sacks ready for shipment), steam

gang-ploughs, and other farm machinery are of truly extraordinary size

and efficiency. In 1899 cereals represented more than a third of the

total crop acreage and crop product ($93,641,334) of the state. Wheat

and other cereals are in part cut for hay, and the hay crop of 1906 was

1,133,465 tons, valued at $12,751,481. California is one of the leading

hop-producing states of the Union, the average annual production since

1901 being more than 10,000,000 lb. The product of sugar beets increased

between 1888 and 1902 from 1910 to 73,761 tons (according to the state

board of trade), and in 1909 (according to the department of

agriculture) it was 882,084 tons, from which 254,544,000 lb of sugar was

manufactured. In this industry California in 1909 ranked second to

Colorado. Truck gardening for export is an assured industry, especially

in the north. Great quantities of vegetables, fresh and canned, are

shipped yearly, and the same is true on a far larger scale of fruit.

Vegetable exports more than doubled between 1894 and 1903. In 1899 hay

and grain represented slightly more than a third of the farm acreage and

capital and also of the value of all farm products; live-stock and dairy

farms represented slightly more than half the acreage, and slightly

under 30% of the capital and produce; fruit farms absorbed 6.2% of the

acreage and 27% of the capital, and returned 22.5% of the value of

farm produce.

_Fruit-growing._--Horticulture is now the principal industry, and in

this field California has no rival in the United States, although

ranking after Florida in the growth of some tropical or semi-tropical

fruits,--pineapples, guava, limes, pomeloes or grape-fruit and Japanese

persimmons. In 1899 California's output of fruit was more than a fifth

of that of the whole Union. The supremacy of the state is established in

the growth of oranges, lemons, citrons, olives, figs, almonds, Persian

(or English) walnuts, plums and prunes, grapes and raisins, nectarines,

apricots and pomegranates; it also leads in pears, and peaches, but here

its primacy is not so assured. Southern California by no means

monopolizes the warm-zone fruits. Oranges, lemons and walnuts come

chiefly from that section, but citrus fruits grow splendidly in the

Sierra foothills of the Sacramento Valley, and indeed ripen earlier

there than in the southern district. Almonds, as well as peaches, pears,

plums, cherries and apricots, come mainly from the north. Over half of

the prune crop comes from Santa Clara county, and the bulk of the raisin

output from Fresno county. Olives thrive as far north as the head of the

Great Valley, growing in all the valleys and foothills up to 1500 or

2000 ft. They were introduced by the Franciscans (as were various other

subtropical fruits, pears and grapes), but their scientific betterment

and commercial importance date from about 1885. They grow very

abundantly and of the finest quality; for many years poor methods of

preparation prejudiced the market against the Californian product, but

this has ceased to be the case. The modern orange industry practically

began with the introduction into Southern California in 1873 of two

seedless orange trees from Brazil; from their stock have been developed

by budding millions of trees bearing a seedless fruit known as the

"Washington navel," which now holds first rank in American markets;

other varieties, mainly seedlings, are of great but secondary

importance. Shipments continue the year round. There has been more than

one horticultural excitement in California, but especially in orange

culture, which was for a time almost as epidemic a fever as gold seeking

once was. By reason of the co-operative effort demanded for the large

problems of irrigation, packing and marketing, the citrus industry has

done much for the permanent development of the state, and its

extraordinary growth made it, towards the close of the 19th century, the

most striking and most potent single influence in the growth of

agriculture. State legislation has advanced the fruit interest in all

possible ways. Between 1872 and 1903 exports of canned fruits increased

from 91 to 94,205 short tons; between 1880 and 1903 the increase of

dried fruit exports was from 295 to 149,531 tons; of fresh deciduous

fruits, from 2590 to 101,199; of raisins, from 400 to 39,963; of citrus

fruits, from 458 to 299,623; of wines and brandies between 1891 and

1903, from 47,651 to 97,332 tons. Of the shipments in 1903 some 44%

were from Southern California,--i.e. from the seven southernmost

counties.

Grape culture has a great future in California. Vines were first

introduced by the Franciscans in 1771 from Spain, and until after 1860

"Mission" grapes were practically the only stock in California.

Afterwards many hundreds of European varieties were introduced with

great success. "The state has such a variety of soil, slope, elevation,

temperature and climatic conditions as to reproduce, somewhere within

its borders, any wine now manufactured" (United States Census, 1900);

but experience has not as yet divided the state into districts of

specialized produce, nor determined just how far indigenous American

vines may profitably be used, either as base or graftings, with European

varieties. Grapes are grown very largely over the state. Raisins do well

as far north as Yolo county, but do best in Madera, Fresno, Kings,

Tulare and San Diego counties. The product is more than sufficient for

the markets of the United States. Dry wine grapes do best in the

counties around San Francisco Bay, on unirrigated lands; while sweet

wine stocks do best in Yolo, San Joaquin and the counties of the raisin

grape, and on irrigated lands. In 1900 California produced about

three-fifths in value ($3,937,871) and in 1905 the same proportion

($6,688,620) of the wine output of the United States. The value of

product more than sextupled from 1880 to 1900. In quantity the product

was more than four times the combined product of all other states. The

better California wines are largely sold under French labels. Brandies

are an important product. They are made chiefly from grapes, and are

used to fortify wines. It was officially estimated that in the spring of

1904 there were some 227,000 acres of vineyards in the state, of which

exactly five-tenths were in wine grapes and four-tenths in raisin

grapes.

_Gold._--Between the pastoral period and the era of wheat was the golden

epoch of Californian history. The existence of gold had long been

suspected, and possibly known, in California before 1848, and there had

been desultory washings in parts where there was very little to reward

prospectors. The first perfectly authenticated discovery was made near

Los Angeles in 1842. The discovery of real historical importance was

made in January 1848 (the 24th is the correct date) at John A. Sutter's

mill, on the south fork of the American river near Coloma, by a workman,

James W. Marshall (1810-1885). His monument now marks the spot. From

1848 to the 1st of January 1903, according to the state mining bureau,

California produced $1,379,275,408 in gold. There were two periods of

intense excitement. The first ended in 1854, at which time there was a

decided reaction throughout the United States in regard to mining

matters. The Californian discoveries had given rise to a general search

for metalliferous deposits in the Atlantic states, and this bad been

followed by wild speculations. At the time of their greatest

productiveness, from 1850 to 1853, the highest yield of the washings was

probably not less than $65,000,000 a year; according to the state mining

bureau the average production from 1851-1854 was $73,570,087

($81,294,270 in 1852, the banner year), and from 1850-1861 $55,882,861,

never falling below $50,000,000. The estimates of other competent

authorities differ considerably, and generally are somewhat less

generous than these figures.

At first the diggings were chiefly along the rivers. These were

"flumed,"--that is, the water was diverted by wooden flumes from the

natural channel and the sand and gravel in the bed were washed. All the

"gulches" or ravines leading down into the canyons were also worked

over, with or without water. These were the richest "placers," but in

them the gold was very unequally distributed. Those who first got

possession of the rich bars on the American, Yuba, Feather, Stanislaus

and the other smaller streams in the heart of the gold region, made

sometimes from $1000 to $5000 a day; but after one rich spot was worked

out it might be days or weeks before another was found. In 1848 $500-700

a day was not unusual luck; but, on the other hand, the income of the

great majority of miners was certainly far less than that of men who

seriously devoted themselves to trade or even to common labour. Many

extraordinary nuggets were found, varying from $1000 to $20,000 in

value. The economic stimulus given by such times may be imagined. For

several years gold-dust was a regular circulating medium in the cities

as well as in the mining districts of the state. An ounce of dust in

1848 frequently went for $4 instead of $17; for a number of years

traders in dust were sure of a margin of several dollars, as for example

in private coinage, mints for which were common by 1851. From the record

of actual exports and a comparison of the most authoritative estimates

of total production, it may be said that from 1848 to 1856 the yield was

almost certainly not less than $450,000,000, and that about 1870 the

billion dollar mark had been passed. Just at this time came the highest

point and the sudden fall of the second great mining fever of the state.

This was a stock speculation based on the remarkable output

($300,000,000 in 20 years) of the silver "bonanzas" of the Comstock lode

at Virginia City, Nevada, which were opened and financed by San

Francisco capitalists. The craze pervaded all classes. Shares that at

first represented so many dollars per foot in a tangible mine were

multiplied and remultiplied until they came to represent paper

thicknesses or almost nothing, yet still their prices mounted upward. In

April 1872 came the revulsion; there was a shrinkage of $60,000,000 in

ten days; then in 1873 a tremendous advance, and in 1875 a final and

disastrous collapse; in ten years thereafter the stock of the Comstock

lode shrank from $3,000,000 to $2,000,000. This Comstock fever belongs

to Californian rather than to Nevadan history, and is one of the most

extraordinary in mining annals.

First the "rocker," then the "tom," the "flume," and the hydraulic

stream were the tools of the miner. Into the "rocker" and the "tom" the

miner shovelled dirt, rocking it as he poured in water, catching the

gold on riffles set across the bottom of his box; thus imitating in a

wooden box the work of nature in the rivers. The "flume" enabled him to

dry the bed of a stream while he worked over its gravels. The hydraulic

stream came into use as early as 1852 (or 1853) when prospecting of the

higher ground made it certain that the "deep" or "high" gravels--i.e.

the detrital deposits of tertiary age--contained gold, though in too

small quantities to be profitably worked in the ordinary way. The

hydraulic process received an immense development through successive

improvements of method and machinery. In this method tremendous blasts

of powder, sometimes twenty-five or even fifty tons, were used to loosen

the gravel, which was then acted on by the jet of water thrown from the

"pipes." To give an idea of the force of the agent thus employed it may

be stated that when an eight-inch nozzle is used under a heavy head,

more than 3000 ft. may be discharged in a minute with a velocity of 150

ft. per second. The water as it thus issues from the nozzle feels to the

touch like metal, and the strongest man cannot sensibly affect it with a

crowbar. A gravel bank acted on by such tremendous force crumbled

rapidly, and the disintegrated material could be run readily through

sluices to the "dumps." Hydraulic mining is no longer practised on the

scale of early days. The results were wonderful but disastrous, for the

"dumps" were usually river-beds. From 1870-1879 the bed of Bear river

was raised in places in its lower course 97 ft. by the detritus wash of

the hydraulic mines, and that of Sleepy Hollow Creek 136 ft. The total

filling up to that time on the streams in this vicinity had been from

100 to 250 ft., and many thousand acres of fine farming land were buried

under gravel,--some 16,000 on the lower Yuba alone. For many years the

mining interests were supreme, and agriculture, even after it had become

of great importance, was invariably worsted when the two clashed; but in

1884 the long and bitter "anti-debris" or "anti-slickins" fight ended in

favour of the farmers. In 1893 the United States government created a

California Debris Commission, which has acted in unison with the state

authorities. Permits for hydraulic mining are granted by the commission

only when all gravel is satisfactorily impounded and no harm is done to

the streams; and the improvement of these, which was impossible so long

as limits were not set to hydraulic mining, can now be effectively

advanced. Quartz mining began as early as 1851. In 1908 about

five-eighths of the gold output was from such mines. Quartz veins are

very often as good at a depth of 3000 ft. as at the surface. A

remarkable feature of recent years (especially since 1900) is gold

"dredging." Thousands of acres even of orchard, vineyard and farming

land have been thus treated in recent years. Gold was being produced in

1906 in more than thirty counties. The annual output since 1875 has been

about $15,000,000 to $17,000,000; in 1905, according to the Mines

Report, it was $18,898,545. Colorado now excels California as a gold

producer.

_Mineral Products._--California produces more than forty mineral

substances that are of commercial significance. Gold, petroleum, copper,

borax and its products, clays, quicksilver and silver lead, in order of

importance, representing some four-fifths of the total. From 1894 to

1902 the aggregate production increased from 20.2 to 35.1 million

dollars; in 1908 it was $65,137,636. Metallic products long represented

three-fourths of the total, but the feature of recent years has been the

rising importance of hydrocarbons and gases, and of structural

materials, and indeed of non-metallic products generally. The production

of crude petroleum has grown very rapidly since about 1895. Oil is found

from north to south over some 600 m., but especially in Southern

California. The high cost of coal, which has always been a hindrance to

the development of manufactures, makes the petroleum deposits of

peculiar value. Their total output increased from 4,250,000 to

44,854,737 barrels between 1900 and 1908, and the value of the product

in 1908 was $23,433,502. The Kern river field is the most important in

the state and one of the greatest in the world. Those of Coalinga, Santa

Maria and Lompoc, and Los Angeles are next in importance. Both in 1900

and in 1905 California ranked fifth among the states of the United

States in the petroleum refining industry. Copper has risen in

importance in very recent years; it is mined mainly in Shasta county;

the value of the state's total product in 1908 was $5,232,986. Gold

mining still centres in the mountainous counties north of Tuolumne. This

is the region of quartz mining. In borax (of which California's output

in 1904 was 45,647 tons) and structural materials San Bernardino has a

long lead. More than nine-tenths of the borax product of the country

comes from about Death Valley. San Bernardino marbles have a very high

repute. California was the fourth state of the Union in 1908 in the

production of granite. It furnishes about two-fifths of the quicksilver

of the world. This has been mined since 1824; the output was greatest

from 1875-1883, when it averaged about 43,000,000 pounds. The New

Almaden mine (opened in 1824) in Santa Clara county produced from 1850

to 1896 some 73,000,000 pounds. The centre of production is north and

south of San Francisco Bay. Californian coal is almost wholly inferior

brown lignite, together with a small quantity of bituminous coals of

poor quality; the state does not produce a tenth part of the coal it

consumes. Of growing importance are the gems found in California: a few

diamonds in Butte county; rock crystal in Calaveras county; and

tourmalines, kunzite, the rare pink beryl and bright blue topazes in San

Diego county. Chrysoprase, mined near Porterville and near Visalia

(Tulare county), is used partly for gems, but more largely (like the

vesuvianite found near Exeter, in the same county) for mosaic work; and

there are ledges of fine rose quartz in the Coahuila mountains of

Riverside county and near Lemon Cove, Tulare county.

A vivid realization of the industrial revolution in the state is to be

gained from the reflection that in 1875 California was pre-eminent only

for gold and sheep; that the aggregate mineral output thirty years later

was more than a third greater than then, and that nevertheless the value

of farm produce at the opening of the 20th century exceeded by more than

$100,000,000 the value of mineral produce, and exceeded by $50,000,000

the most generous estimate of the largest annual gold output in the

annals of the state.

_Manufactures._--Previous to 1860 almost every manufactured article used

in the state was imported from the east or from Europe. Dairy products,

for example, for whose production good facilities always existed, were

long greatly neglected, and not for two decades at least after 1848 was

the state independent in this respect. The high cost of coal, the

speculative attractions of mining, and the high wages of labour,

handicapped the development of manufactures in early years. The first

continued to be a drag on such industries, until after 1895 the

increasing use of crude petroleum obviated the difficulty. Several

remarkable electric power and lighting plants utilize the water power of

the mountains.[4] Geographic isolation has somewhat fostered state

industries. The value of gross manufactured products increased 41.9%

from 1890 to 1900. In the latter year California ranked 12th among the

states in the gross value of all manufactures ($302,874,761); the

per-capita value of manufactured and agricultural products being

$293,--$89 of the latter, $204 of the former. Of the wage-earners 61%

were engaged in manufacturing. Fourteen industries represented from 41%

to 45% of the employees, wages, capital and product of the aggregate

manufacturers of the state. The leading ones in order of importance and

the value of product in millions of dollars were: the manufacture of

railway, foundry, and machine shop products (19.6 million dollars),

lumber and timber industries (18.57), sugar and molasses refining

(15.91), beef slaughtering (15.72), canning and preserving (13.08),

flour and grist milling (13.10), the manufacture of malt, vinous and

distilled liquors (9.26), leather industries (7.40), printing and

publishing (6.86). In the second, third and fifth of these industries

the state ranked respectively fifth, fourth and first in the Union.[5]

The canning and preserving of fruits and vegetables is in the main an

industry of the northern and central counties. In 1890 the state board

of forestry estimated that the redwood forests were in danger of

exhaustion by 1930. The redwood is a general utility lumber second only

to the common white pine, and the drain on the woods has been continuous

since 1850. The wood has a fine, straight and even grain; and though

light and soft, is firm and extremely durable, lying, it is

authoritatively asserted, for centuries in the forest without

appreciable decay. It takes a beautiful polish. The colour varies from

cedar colour to mahogany. A small southern belt in San Mateo, Santa

Clara and Santa Cruz counties is not being commercially exploited. The

annual lumber cut from 1898-1903 averaged more than 663,348,000 ft.; of

the 852,638,000 ft. cut in 1903, 465,460,000 were of redwood, and

264,890,000 of yellow pine; fir and sugar pines contributing another

104,600,000, and spruce and cedar 17,670,000 ft. In 1900 California

ranked 16th among the states in value of product ($13,764,647, out of a

total of $566,852,984). The total cut was under 1/2 of 1% of the

estimated stand. In Humboldt county, in the redwood belt near Eureka,

are probably the most modern and remarkable lumber mills of the world.

In 1900 it was estimated that lumbermen controlled somewhat less than a

fifth of the timber of the state, and the same part of the redwood.

After 1890 important shipyards were established near San Francisco. The

most important naval station of the United States on the Pacific coast

is at Mare Island at the northern end of San Francisco Bay, and the

private Union Iron Works, on the peninsula near San Francisco, is one of

the largest shipyards of the country. In 1905 more than one-half of the

factory product was the output of four cities: San Francisco

($137,788,233), Los Angeles ($34,814,475), Sacramento ($10,319,416) and

Fresno ($9,849,001); next ranked Oakland, Stockton, and San Jose.

The transportation facilities in California increased rapidly after

1870. The building of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific lines are

among the romances of American railway history. They joined tracks near

Ogden, Utah, in May 1869. The New Orleans line of the Southern Pacific

was opened in January 1883; the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe completed

its line to San Diego in 1885, and to San Francisco Bay in 1900. The San

Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake, with trans-continental connexions at the

eastern terminus, was chartered in 1901 and fully opened in March 1903.

Railway mileage increased 137.3% from 1870 to 1880, and 154.6% from

1880 to 1900. At the close of 1908 the total mileage was 7039.36 m.,

practically all of which is either owned or controlled by the two great

trans-continental systems of the Southern Pacific and the Atchison,

Topeka & Santa Fe. From 1869 to 1875 registered mail exchanges were

opened with China, Japan, Hawaii and Australia. There are now frequent

mail connexions from San Francisco with Hawaii, Australasia, and eastern

Asia, as well as with American ports north and south. The commerce of

San Francisco amounts to some $80,000,000 or $90,000,000 yearly, about

equally divided between imports and exports, until after 1905--in 1907

the imports were valued at $54,207,011, and the exports at $30,378,355

(less than any year since 1896). San Diego has a very good harbour, and

the harbours of San Pedro (Los Angeles) and Eureka are fairly good and

of growing importance. Grains, lumber, fish, fruits and fruit products,

petroleum, vegetables and sugar are the leading items in the commerce of

San Francisco. Other ports are of very secondary importance. Navigation

on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers was very important in early

days, but is to-day of relatively slight importance in comparison with

railway traffic.

_Population._--The population of California increased in successive

decades from 1850 to 1910 respectively by 310.3, 47.3, 54.3, 40.3, 22.4

and 60.1%. (The percentage of increase in 1900-1910 was exceeded in

Washington, Oklahoma, Idaho, Nevada, North Dakota and Oregon.) In 1910

the total population was 2,377,549, or 15.2 per sq. m. In 1900 there were

116 incorporated towns and cities; and of the total population 43.3%

was urban,--i.e. resident in cities (11 in number) of 8000 or more

inhabitants. These 11 cities were: San Francisco (pop. 342,782), Los

Angeles (102,479), Oakland (66,960), Alameda (16,464), Berkeley

(13,214),--the last three being suburbs of San Francisco, and the last

the seat of the state university,--Sacramento, the state capital

(29,282), San Jose (21,500), San Diego (17,700), Stockton (17,506),

Fresno (12,470), and Pasadena (9117). Eight other cities had populations

of more than 5000--Riverside City (7973), Vallejo (7965), Eureka (7327),

Santa Rosa (6673), Santa Barbara (6587), San Bernardino (6156), Santa

Cruz (5659), and Pomona (5526).

Of the entire population in 1900 persons of foreign birth or parentage

(one or both parents being foreign) constituted 54.2 and those of native

birth were 75.3%. Of the latter six-tenths were born in California. The

foreign element included 45,753 Chinese (a falling off of 25,313 since

1890), and 10,151 Japanese (an increase of 9004 in the same decade).

Twenty-two foreign countries contributed over 1000 residents each, the

leading ones being the United Kingdom (91,638), Germany (72,449), Canada

(29,618; 27,408 being English Canadians), Italy (22,777), Sweden

(14,549), France (12,256), Portugal (12,068), Switzerland (10,974),

Japan, Denmark, and Mexico, in the order named. Persons of negro descent

numbered 11,045. Almost all the Indians of the state are taxed as

citizens. In 1906 of 611,464 members of religious denominations 354,408

were Roman Catholics, 64,528 Methodist Episcopalians, 37,682

Presbyterians, 26,390 Congregationalists, 24,801 Baptists, 21,317

Protestant Episcopalians, 11,371 Lutherans, and 9,110 members of

Eastern Orthodox churches. A peculiar feature in the population

statistics of California is the predominance of males, which in 1900 was

156,009; the Asiatic element accounts for a third of this number. Since

1885 the eight counties south of the Tehachapi Range, which are known

collectively and specifically as Southern California have greatly

advanced in population. In 1880 their population was 7.3, in 1890 17.2,

and in 1900 20.1% of the total population of the state. The initial

impulse to this increase was the beginning of the "fruit epoch" in these

counties, combined with a railway "rate-war" following the completion to

the coast in 1885 of the Santa Fe, and an extraordinary land boom

prevailing from 1886 to 1888. The conjuncture of circumstances, and the

immigration it induced, were unusual. The growth of the South, as of the

rest of the state, has been continuous and steady.

The Indians were prominent in early Californian history, but their

progress toward their present insignificance began far back in the

Spanish period. It proceeded much more rapidly after the restraining

influence of the missions was removed, leaving them free to revert to

savagery; and the downward progress of the race was fearfully

accelerated during the mining period, when they were abused, depraved,

and in large numbers killed. There have been no Indian wars in

California's annals, but many butcheries. The natives have declined

exceedingly in number since 1830, in 1900 numbering 15,377. They have

always been mild-tempered, low, and unintelligent, and are to-day a poor

and miserable race. They are all called "Digger Indians"

indiscriminately, although divided by a multiplicity of tongues.

_Government and Institutions._--In the matter of constitution-making

California has been conservative, having had only two between 1849 and

1910. The first was framed by a convention at Monterey in 1849, and

ratified by the people and proclaimed by the United States military

governor in the same year. The present constitution, framed by a

convention in 1878-1879, came into full effect in 1880, and was

subsequently amended. It was the work of the labour party, passed at a

time of high discontent, and goes at great length into the details of

government, as was demanded by the state of public opinion. The

qualifications required for the suffrage are in no way different from

those common throughout the Union, except that by a constitutional

amendment of 1894 it is necessary for a voter to be able to read the

state constitution and write his name. As compared with the earlier

constitution it showed many radical advances toward popular control, the

power of the legislature being everywhere curtailed. The power of

legislation was taken from it by specific inhibition in thirty-one

subjects before within its power; its control of the public domain, its

powers in taxation, and its use of the state credit were carefully

safe-guarded. "Lobbying" was made a felony; provisions were inserted

against lotteries and stock-exchange gambling, to tax and control common

carriers and great corporations, and to regulate telegraph, telephone,

storage and wharfage charges. The powers of the executive department

were also somewhat curtailed. For the judiciary, provisions were made

for expediting trials and decisions. Notable was the innovation that

agreement by three-fourths of a jury should be sufficient in civil cases

and that a jury might be waived in minor criminal cases, a provision

which of course was based on experience under the Mexican law. All these

changes in the organic law reflect bitter experience after 1850; and,

read with the history of those years as a commentary, few American

constitutions are more instructive. The constitution of 1879 corresponds

very closely to the ordinary state constitution of to-day. The

incorporation of banks issuing circulating notes is forbidden. Marriage

is not only declared a civil contract, but the laws expressly recognize

that the mere consent of the parties is adequate to constitute a binding

marriage. The union of whites with persons of African descent is

forbidden. Felons twice convicted may not be pardoned except on the

recommendation of a majority of the judges of the supreme court. Judges

and state executive officers are elected for terms longer than is usual

in the different states (supreme judges 12 years, executive officers 4

years). These few provisions are mentioned, not as of particular

importance in themselves, but as exceptions of some moment to the usual

type of state Constitutions (see UNITED STATES). The Australian ballot

was introduced in 1891. In local government there are no deviations from

the usual types that demand notice. In the matter of liquor-laws there

is local option, and a considerable proportion of the towns and smaller

cities, particularly in the south, adopt prohibition. In most of the

rest high licence is more or less strictly enforced.

The total assessed valuation of property grew from $666,399,985 in 1880

to $1,217,648,683 in 1900 and $1,879,728,763 in 1907. In 1904, when the

U.S. Census Report showed California to be the twenty-first state of the

Union in population but the sixth in wealth, the total estimated true

value of all property was $4,115,491,106, of which $2,664,472,025 was

the value of real property and improvements thereon. The per capita

wealth of the state was then reported as $2582.32, being exceeded only

by the three sparsely settled states of Montana, Wyoming and Nevada. In

1898 California had the largest savings-bank deposit per depositor

($637.75) of any state in the Union; the _per caput_ deposit was $110 in

1902, and about one person in seven was a depositor. The state bonded

debt in 1907 amounted to three and a half million dollars, of which all

but $767,529.03 was represented by bonds purchased by the state and held

for the school and university funds; for the common school fund on the

1st of July 1907 there were held bonds for $4,890,950, and $800,000 in

cash available for investment; for the university fund there were held

$751,000 in state bonds, and a large amount in other securities. The

total bonded county indebtedness was $4,879,600 in 1906 (not including

that of San Francisco, a consolidated city and county, which was

$4,568,600). A homestead, entered upon record and limited to a value of

$5000 if held by the head of a family and to a value of $1000 if held by

one not the head of a family, is exempt from liability for debts, except

for a mortgage, a lien before it was claimed as a homestead or a lien

afterward for improvements. A homestead held by a married man cannot be

mortgaged without consent of his wife.

Under an act approved on the 25th of March 1903 a state board of

charities and corrections,--consisting of six members, not more than

three being of the same political party, appointed by the governor, with

the advice and consent of the senate, and holding office for twelve

years, two retiring at the end of each quadrennium,--investigates,

examines, and makes "reports upon the charitable, correctional and penal

institutions of the state," excepting the Veterans' Home at Yountville,

Napa county, and the Woman's Relief Corps Home at Evergreen, Santa Clara

county. There are state prisons with convicts working under the public

account system, at San Quentin, Marin county, and Folsom, Sacramento

county. The Preston (Sonoma county) School of Industry, for older boys,

and the Whittier (Los Angeles county) State School, for girls and for

boys under sixteen, are the state reformatories, each having good

industrial and manual training departments. There are state hospitals

for the insane at Agnew, Santa Clara county; at Stockton, San Joaquin

county; at Napa, Napa county; at Patton, San Bernardino county; and,

with a colony of tubercular patients, at Ukiah, Mendocino county. In

1906 the ratio of insane confined to institutions, to the total

population, was 1 to every 270. Also under state control are the home

for care and training of feeble-minded children, at Eldridge, Sonoma

county; the institution for the deaf and the blind at Berkeley, and the

home of mechanical trades for the adult blind at Oakland. A Juvenile

Court Law was enacted in 1903 and modified in 1905.

The educational system of California is one of the best in the country.

The state board of education is composed of the governor of the state,

who is its president; the superintendent of public instruction, who is

its secretary; the presidents of the five normal schools and of the

University of California, and the professor of pedagogy in the

university. Sessions are long in primary schools, and attendance was

made compulsory in 1874 (and must not be less than two-thirds of all

school days). The state controlled the actual preparation and sale of

text-books for the common schools from 1885 to 1903, when the Perry

amendment to the constitution (ratified by popular vote in 1884) was

declared to mean that such text-books must be manufactured within the

state, but that the texts need not be prepared in California. The

experiment of state-prepared text-books was expensive, and its effect

was bad on the public school system, as such text-books were almost

without exception poorly written and poorly printed. After 1903

copyrights were leased by the state. Secondary schools are closely

affiliated with, and closely inspected by, the state university. All

schools are generously supported, salaries are unusually good, and

pension funds in all cities are authorized by state laws. The value of

school property in 1900 was $19,135,722, and the expenditure for the

public schools $6,195,000; in 1906 the value of school property was

$29,013,150, and the expenditure for public schools $10,815,857. The

average school attendance for all minors of school age (5-20 years) was

59.9%; of those native-born 61.5, of those foreign-born 34.6; of

coloured children, including Asiatics and Indians, 35.8, and of white,

60.8%. In 1900, 6.2% of the males of voting age, and 2.4% of the

native-born males of voting age, were illiterate (could not write). Some

3% of the total population could not speak English; Chinese and

Japanese constituting almost half of the number, foreign-born whites

somewhat less, and Indians and native-born whites of foreign parentage

together less than a tenth of the total. Of the higher educational

institutions of the state the most important are the state university at

Berkeley and Leland Stanford Jr. University at Palo Alto. The former is

supported with very great liberality by the state; and the latter, the

endowment of which is private (the state, however, exempting it from

taxation), is one of the richest educational institutions of America. In

1906 there were also five state normal schools (at Chico, Los Angeles,

San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose), and a considerable number of

denominational colleges. There is also a state polytechnic school at San

Luis Obispo (1903).

_History._--The name "California" was taken from Ordonez de Montalvo's

romance of chivalry _Las Sergas de Esplandian_ (Madrid, 1510), in which

is told of black Amazons ruling an island of this name "to the right of

the Indies, very near the quarter of the terrestrial paradise." The name

was given to the unknown north-west before 1540. It does not show that

the namers were prophets or wise judges, for the Spaniards really knew

California not at all for more than two centuries, and then only as a

genial but rather barren land; but it shows that the _conquistadores_

mixed poetry with business and illustrates the glamour thrown about the

"Northern Mystery." Necessarily the name had for a long time no definite

geographical meaning. The lower Colorado river was discovered in 1540,

but the explorers did not penetrate California; in 1542-1543 Juan

Rodriguez Cabrillo explored at least the southern coast; in 1579 Sir

Francis Drake repaired his ships in some Californian port (almost

certainly not San Francisco Bay), and named the land New Albion; two

Philippine ships visited the coast in 1584 and 1595, and in 1602 and

1603 Sebastian Vizcaino discovered the sites of San Diego and Monterey.

There was apparently no increase of knowledge thereafter for 150 years.

Most of this time California was generally supposed to be an island or a

group of islands. Jesuit missionaries entered Lower California as early

as 1697, maintaining themselves there until Charles III.'s expulsion in

1767 of all Jesuits from his dominions; but not until Russian

explorations in Alaska from 1745-1765 did the Spanish government show

interest in Upper California. Because of these explorations, and also

the long-felt need of a refitting point on the California coast for the

galleons from Manila, San Diego was occupied in 1769 and Monterey in

1770 as a result of urgent orders from Charles III. San Francisco Bay

was discovered in the former year. Meanwhile the Jesuit property in the

Peninsula had been turned over to Franciscan monks, but in 1772 the

Dominicans took over the missions, and the Franciscans not unwillingly

withdrew to Upper California, where they were to thrive remarkably for

some fifty years.

The rule of the missions.

This is the mission period--or from an economic standpoint, the

pastoral period--of Californian history. In all, twenty-one missions

were established between 1769 and 1823. The leader in this movement was

a really remarkable man, Miguel Jose Serra (known as Junipero Serra,

1713-1784), a friar of very great ability, purest piety, and tireless

zeal. He possessed great influence in Mexico and Madrid. "The theory of

the mission system," says H.H. Bancroft, "was to make the savages work

out their own salvation and that of the priests also." The last phrase

scarcely does justice to the truly humane and devout intentions of the

missionaries; but in truth the mission system was a complete failure

save in the accumulation of material wealth. Economically the missions

were the blood and life of the province. At them the neophytes worked up

wool, tanned hides, prepared tallow, cultivated hemp and wheat, raised a

few oranges, made soap, some iron and leather articles, mission

furniture, and a very little wine and olive oil. Such as it was, this

was about the only manufacturing or handicraft in California. Besides,

the hides and tallow yielded by the great herds of cattle at the

missions were the support of foreign trade and did much toward paying

the expenses of the government. The Franciscans had no sympathy for

profane knowledge, even among the Mexicans,--sometimes publicly burning

quantities of books of a scientific or miscellaneous nature; and the

reading of Fenelon's _Telemaque_ brought excommunication on a layman. As

for the intellectual development of the neophytes the mission system

accomplished nothing; save the care of their souls they received no

instruction, they were virtually slaves, and were trained into a fatal

dependence, so that once coercion was removed they relapsed at once into

barbarism. It cannot be said, however, that Anglo-Americans have done

much better for them.

The political upheavals in Spain and Mexico following 1808 made little

stir in this far-off province. Joseph was never recognized, and

allegiance was sworn to Ferdinand (1809). When revolution broke out in

Mexico (1811), California remained loyal, suffering much by the

cessation of supplies from Mexico, the resulting deficits falling as an

added burden upon the missions. The occupation of Monterey for a few

hours by a Buenos Aires privateer (1818) was the only incident of actual

war that California saw in all these years; and it, in truth, was a

ridiculous episode, fit introduction to the bloodless play-wars, soon to

be inaugurated in Californian politics. In 1820 the Spanish constitution

was duly sworn to in California, and in 1822 allegiance was given to

Mexico. Under the Mexican Federal constitution of 1824 Upper California,

first alone (it was made a distinct province in 1804) and then with

Lower California, received representation in the Mexican congress.

The following years before American occupation may be divided into two

periods of quite distinct interest. From about 1840 to 1848 foreign

relations are the centre of interest. From 1824 to 1840 there is a

complicated and not uninteresting movement of local politics and a

preparation for the future,--the missions fall, republicanism grows, the

sentiment of local patriotism becomes a political force, there is a

succession of sectional controversies and personal struggles among

provincial chiefs, an increase of foreign commerce, of foreign

immigration and of foreign influence.

The Franciscans were mostly Spaniards in blood and in sympathies. They

viewed with displeasure and foreboding the fall of Iturbide's empire and

the creation of the republic. They were not treasonable, but talked

much, refusing allegiance to the new government; and as they controlled

the resources of the colony and the good will of the Indians, they felt

their strength against the local authority; besides, they were its

constant benefactors. But secularization was in harmony with the growth

of republican ideas. There was talk in California of the rights of man

and neophytes, and of the sins of friars. The missions were never

intended to be permanent. The missionaries were only the field workers

sent out to convert and civilize the Indians, who were to be turned over

then to the regular clergy, the monks pushing further onward into new

fields. This was the well-established policy of Spain. In 1813 the

Spanish Cortes ordered the secularization of all missions in America

that were ten years old, but this decree was not published in

California until 1821. After that secularization was the burning

question in Californian politics. In 1826 a beginning toward it was made

in partially emancipating the neophytes, but active and thorough

secularization of the missions did not begin until 1834; by 1835 it was

consummated at sixteen missions out of twenty-one, and by 1840 at all.

At some of the missions the monks acted later as temporary curates for

the civil authorities, until in 1845-1846 all the missions were sold by

the government. Unfortunately the manner of carrying it out discredited

a policy neither unjust nor bad in itself, increasing its importance in

the political struggles of the time. The friars were in no way

mistreated: Californians did not share Mexican resentments against

Spaniards, and the national laws directed against these were in the main

quietly ignored in the province. In 1831 the mission question led to a

rising against the reactionary clerical rule of Governor Manuel

Victoria. He was driven out of the province.

This was the first of the opera bouffe wars. The causes underlying them

were serious enough. In the first place, there was a growing

dissatisfaction with Mexican rule, which accomplished nothing tangible

for good in California,--although its plans were as excellent as could

be asked had there only been peace and means to realize them; however,

it made the mistake of sending convicts as soldiers. Californians were

enthusiastic republicans, but found the benefits of republicanism slow

in coming. The resentment of the Franciscans, the presence of these and

other reactionaries and of Spaniards, the attitude of foreign residents,

and the ambitions of leading Californian families united to foment and

propagate discontent. The feeling against Mexicans--those "de la otra

banda" as they were significantly termed--invaded political and even

social life. In the second place, there was growing jealousy between

northern towns and southern towns, northern families and southern

families. These entered into disputes over the location of the capital

and the custom-house, in the Franciscan question also (because the

friars came some from a northern and some from a southern college), and

in the question of the distribution of commands in the army and offices

in the civil government. Then there was the mission question; this

became acuter about 1833 when the friars began to destroy, or sell and

realize on, the mission property. The next decade was one of plunder and

ruin in mission history. Finally there was a real growth of

republicanism, and some rulers--notably Victoria--were wholly out of

sympathy with anything but personal, military rule. From all these

causes sprang much unrest and considerable agitation.

In 1828-1829 there was a revolution of unpaid soldiers aided by natives,

against alleged but not serious abuses, that really aimed at the

establishment of an independent native government. In 1831 Governor

Victoria was deposed; in 1836 Governor Mariano Chico was frightened out

of the province; in 1836 Governor Nicolas Gutierrez and in 1844-1845

Governor Manuel Micheltorena were driven out of office. The leading

natives headed this last rising. There was talk of independence, but

sectional and personal jealousies could not be overcome. In all these

wars there was not enough blood shed to discolour a sword. The rising of

1836 against Gutierrez seems to-day most interesting, for it was in part

a protest against the growth of federalism in Mexico. California was

even deferred to as (declared to be seems much too strong a statement)

an Estado Libre y Soberano; and from 1836 to 1838, when the

revolutionary governor, Juan B. Alvarado, was recognized by the Mexican

government, which had again inclined to federalism and, besides, did not

take the matter very seriously, the local government rested simply on

local sentiment. The satisfaction of this ended all difficulties.

American immigration.

American and European intriques.

By this time foreign influence was showing itself of importance. Foreign

commerce, which of course was contraband, being contrary to all Spanish

laws, was active by the beginning of the 19th century. It was greatly

stimulated during the Spanish-American revolutions (the Lima and Panama

trade dating from about 1813), for, as the Californian authorities

practically ignored the law, smuggling was unnecessary; this was,

indeed, much greater after 1822 under the high duties (in 1836-1840

generally about 100%) of the Mexican tariffs. In the early 'forties some

three-fourths of the imports, even at Monterey itself, are said to have

paid no duties, being landed by agreement with the officials. Wholesale

and retail trade flourished all along the coast in defiance of

prohibitory laws. American trade was by far most important. The Boston

traders--whose direct trade began in 1822, but the indirect ventures

long before that--were men of decided influence in California. The trade

supplied almost all the clothing, merchandise and manufactures used in

the province; hides and furs were given in exchange. If foreign trade

was not to be received, still less were foreign travellers, under the

Spanish laws. However, the Russians came in 1805, and in 1812 founded on

Bodega Bay a post they held till 1841, whence they traded and hunted

(even in San Francisco Bay) for furs. From the day of the earliest

foreign commerce sailors and traders of divers nationalities began to

settle in the province. In 1826 American hunters first crossed to the

coast; in 1830 the Hudson's Bay Company began operations in northern

California. By this time the foreign element was considerable in number,

and it doubled in the next six years, although the true overland

immigration from the United States began only about 1840. As a class

foreigners were respected, and they were influential beyond proportion

to their numbers. They controlled commerce, and were more energetic,

generally, than were the natives; many were naturalized, held generous

grants of land, and had married into Californian families, not excluding

the most select and influential. Most prominent of Americans in the

interior was John A. Sutter (1803-1880), who held a grant of eleven

square leagues around the present site of Sacramento, whereon he built a

fort. His position as a Mexican official, and the location of his

fortified post on the border, commanding the interior country and lying

on the route of the overland immigrants, made him of great importance in

the years preceding and immediately following American occupation;

although he was a man of slight abilities and wasted his great

opportunities. Other settlers in the coast towns were also of high

standing and importance. In short, Americans were hospitably received

and very well treated by the government and the people; despite some

formalities and ostensible surveillance there was no oppression

whatever. There was, however, some jealousy of the ease with which

Americans secured land grants, and an entirely just dislike of "bad"

Americans. The sources from which all the immigrants were recruited made

inevitable an element of lawlessness and truculence. The Americans

happened to predominate. Along with a full share of border individuality

and restlessness they had the usual boisterous boastfulness and a racial

contempt, which was arrogantly proclaimed, for Mexicans,--often too for

Mexican legal formalities. The early comers were a conservative force in

politics, but many of the later comers wanted to make California a

second Texas. As early as 1805 (at the time of James Monroe's

negotiations for Florida), there are traces of Spain's fear of American

ambitions even in this far-away province. It was a fear she felt for all

her American possessions. Spain's fears passed on to Mexico, the

Russians being feared only less than Americans. An offer was made by

President Jackson in 1835 to buy the northern part of California,

including San Francisco Bay, but was refused. In 1836 and 1844 Americans

were prominent in the incidents of revolution; divided in opinion in

both years they were neutral in the actual "hostilities" of the latter,

but some gave active support to the governor in 1836. From 1836 on,

foreign interference was much talked about. Americans supposed that

Great Britain wished to exchange Mexican bonds for California; France

also was thought to be watching for an opening for gratifying supposed

ambitions; and all parties saw that even without overt act by the United

States the progress of American settlement seemed likely to gain them

the province, whose connexion with Mexico had long been a notoriously

loose one. A considerable literature written by travellers of all the

countries named had before this discussed all interests. In 1840 for too

active interest in politics some Americans and Englishmen were

temporarily expelled.