I have endeavored so to arrange the facts embodied in my letters from
this state as to furnish an answer to this question. I will here only
sum up my conclusions:
1. California has still a great need of virtuous, educated, energetic
women. One hundred thousand more of these would find homes and be useful
here. Certainly, I would advise no woman to pitch into such a community
devoid of the protection of relatives or trusted friends; but women who
can teach, manage a dairy, keep house, etc., and do not fancy any useful
work degrading, are still greatly needed here. House servants command
twenty to thirty dollars per month; capable female workers in other
capacities are paid in proportion. For a resolute, capable young woman,
who has a married sister or trusted friend here, and who is not detained
elsewhere by strong natural ties, I believe, there is no better country
than this.
Good farmers, who have considerable means, but especially those who
understand the dairy business, and have families who can and will tender
them efficient help in it, can also do well here. The naked facts that,
while wheat now sells for one dollar per bushel, butter brings fifty and
cheese twenty-five cents per pound, are enough to show that
dairy-farming is profitable. The best grazing country is found along the
coast; but it is all good for those who understand it, and are willing
to grow feed for a part of each year. Bees do far better here than
elsewhere, are worth one hundred dollars per hive, and good property at
that. Fruit-growing is still profitable; vine-growing will always be. I
believe a young, energetic, intelligent farmer, with a good wife and two
thousand dollars or over, can do as well in California as elsewhere, in
spite of the horrible confusion of land-titles. Buy no tract of which
the title is at all doubtful, unless you can buy all the conflicting
claims, but pay higher for good land well located, and as to the
ownership of which there is no dispute. Such may at all times be found;
if settlers were willing to pay for this rather than buy uncertainties
at lower rates, it would be far better for them.
I do not think it advisable for young men, or any others, to come here
expecting to “make their pile,” and return to the east. The chances for
doing this, always doubtful, have nearly ceased to exist. No more
merchants or clerks are wanted; and of those who come hereafter,
nine-tenths will go back disappointed and impoverished, or stay here
paupers. Goods are sold in California at as reasonable rates, all things
considered, as in New England or New York, and there are quite sellers
enough. The chances for “big strikes” in the mines are few, and
greenhorns cannot share them. Mining is reduced to a business, and one,
at best, no better, in the average, than other business. The men who dig
the gold carry away but a small share of it. Better leave the chances of
gold-digging to those who understand it.
As to labor for wages, it is generally well paid here—say from
twenty-five to forty dollars per month, beside board, and for mechanics
still higher. But employment is precarious, whether in the cities, or
the mines, while the farmers are shy of hiring at high wages when wheat
brings but one dollar per bushel. I cannot consider it worth any man’s
while to risk the price of a passage hither for the chance of getting
employment by the month. The experiment will usually cost all it comes
to. If you come to California at all, come to stay; and nowhere else
will you find a little money more desirable than here. Even one thousand
dollars, well applied, may, with resolute industry and frugality, place
you soon on the high road to independence.
* * * * *
But the steamship’s shrill pipe gives warning that I must be up and
away. I had ardently hoped and expected to return by the Butterfield
Overland Mail, via Los Angeles, Fort Yumas, Tucson, El Paso, etc., but
this was not to be. These pestilent boils, which are the scourge of many
overland comers to California, forbid it. I have no choice but to return
by way of the Isthmus, for I can wait no longer. And so, as the good
steamer Golden Age swings from her moorings, I wave to my many and
generous friends in California—whose number I trust my visit has not
tended to diminish—a fervent and hearty adieu!
XXXII.
CALIFORNIA—FINAL GLEANINGS.
STEAMSHIP GOLDEN AGE, Pacific Ocean, Sept. 9. 1859.
Though my overland journey is ended, some facts gathered in its last
stages remain to be noted. They relate exclusively to the moral and
intellectual well-being and prospects of the golden state.