AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS IN CALIFORNIA

W. M. NEWHALL

When paid the compliment of being asked to take part on this occasion, it was suggested as a fitting subject: "Forty Years' Personal Recollection of the Agricultural Progress in California."'

It appears that the inspiration for this subject is due to the fact that the activities of him in whose honor we are assembled today covered a period of forty years.

It seems to be a usual custom in new countries where statistics and data are scarce, imperfect or unavailable, that when anyone wishes to learn of previous conditions, an appeal is always made, as in this instance, to the oldest inhabitant. And from my personal experience I do not hesitate to say that of all the unreliable sources for information, accuracy and knowledge, the one most of all to be avoided is the oldest inhabitant.

In the evolution of the earth through long geological ages, there arose in the course of time a strip of land, which, at the end of the Mexican War was made a part of the United States, and shortly afterwards became one of the United States under the name of the State of California; a state so unique in its topography, its climate and its resources as to be conspicuous among the places of the earth; a country that might easily be divided into three partsthe southern, the middle and the northern-each with its own peculiar characteristics, yet having nevertheless much in common.

This vast territory with a length of some one thousand miles and a general width of some two hundred miles, comprises an area of one hundred million acres. An area so great that if reduced to a strip fifty miles wide-the distance from San Francisco to San José-it would extend entirely across the continent from San Francisco to the city of New York.

Perhaps there is nothing available showing so well the early conditions in this state as is presented in the famous and time-enduring book of Richard Dana entitled "Two Years Before the Mast❞— a book written as an account of his voyage to this coast in the early forties, showing the conditions and habits of life of man and beast in the first stages of settlement. This was a time when nothing was produced except cattle, and the object of the voyages to this coast was merely to take from it hides and tallow to the eastern seaports by the way of Cape Horn.

The unusual quality of the products for which this state has always been noted was shown even then in the reputation that those very hides had for toughness and durability. Dana also men

tions the fact that the amount of fat and tallow was hardly commensurate with the number of animals killed for that purposea statement that from my personal experience I believe to be entirely accurate.

Perhaps in nothing, might the agricultural conditions be better contrasted than in those existing during the droughts of 1863, 1877, as compared with 1898.

As in the drought of 1863, while I was not an eye witnessbeing then busily engaged in the acquisition of the basic knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic-I have had the opportunity of hearing those who went through that period describe the conditions in detail. At that time there was probably little or nothing grown except what came in the ordinary process of nature without cultivation and planting. It was not the custom then to put up hay for the house animals, but to let them feed on the natural grasses in corrals and inclosures. During the winter following 1863, the very saddle horses and milk cows of the settlers died at their doors from sheer starvation.

During the drought of 1877, conditions were little better. While more progress had been made in the cultivation and planting of hay and crops, there was such a deficiency in the very important matter of transportation as to render it impossible either to get food to the animals or move them where food might be found.

We have quite another picture in the drought of 1898, though conditions were quite as severe, by that time cultivation, planting, the growth of alfalfa and transportation facilities had so increased that animals from the barren parts could be moved to the irrigated fields in the more favored parts of the state, and to the markets of the East. There were thus during this period ameliorating factors due to the progress of agriculture, which were in 1863 so lacking that under the same conditions of drought, there was nothing but dire calamity.

It is stated that the area of land in this state now cultivated reaches the magnificent figure of nearly seven million acres. I shall not attempt to present the confusing figures of square miles, nor dwell upon the commercial value of the products-a value so large that scarcely anyone can appreciate its significance and volume.

Rather, with your permission, would I present for your visualization what this cultivated area means, the fact that these six or seven million acres if reduced to a strip three and a half to four miles wide, would reach across the continent from San Francisco to the city of New York.

Imagine a strip, having an automobile highway in the center

with a mile and three-quarters to two miles on either side. Imagine starting on a trip for thirty days over that highway, driving one hundred miles a day-a rate of progress which would give an interested person an opportunity for observation.

Picture, if you please, that for the first two hundred and seventy miles a distance from San Francisco beyond its eastern boundarythere would be on one side the deciduous fruit trees and on the other the citrus fruit trees now in the state. Imagine then coming into our grain and hay fields. The area in cultivation for those purposes would extend nineteen hundred and twenty miles farther. Imagine for that distance, after leaving the eastern boundary of California, that, instead of going through the alkali deserts and sage brush countries of Nevada, Utah and part of Colorado, you pass through fields of growing grain maturing to fill the bins for the world's supply. Imagine traveling for one hundred and thirty miles through vineyards on both sides; then proceeding for more than seventy miles through fields planted and cultivated for potatoes and other vegetables; then passing for eighty miles through fields of beans, then, for thirty miles through fields of rice, then for forty miles with nothing on either side but sugar beets, then for thirty miles through white-decked fields of growing cotton; finally to end the journey, driving for 450 miles or four and a half days through fields of prolific, sustaining alfalfa, with grazing cattle turning alfalfa into butter fat and nutritious meat.

This, then, is the panorama of what the cultivated area of the varied products of the state would give you for a period of a month's ride.

There is no outward evidence of progress and prosperity in an agricultural community as great as that which is evidenced by the homes and improvements belonging to the inhabitants of the rural regions. Passing through this state on the railroads or in automobiles note the comfortable homes, the high character of the improvements, and compare these with what I, at least, know existed forty years ago, and the commentary of the situation is— progress and prosperity.

It is accepted that progress is not so much evidenced by what a community has done or what it is doing, as in what foundation it is laying for the future. Of all things that have tended towards the recent rapid advancement of agricultural prosperity in this state, of all things that are laying the foundation for future prosperity, there is nothing that stands out so strong, so potent, so uplifting as the Department of Agriculture of the University; a factor so great that without its assistance all our other advance

ments in electricity, power, and irrigation would make relatively slow progress if the knowledge that is being disseminated by that department were wanting.

What is the function of an agricultural department?

The function of such a department is a dissemination of the principles as laid down in the Parable of the Sower: teaching men not to sow seed among stones and with the tares and weeds, but on ground and in a manner that would yield a hundred fold; and furthermore with the assistance and advancement of applied science causing the seed not only to yield one hundredfold, but many hundredfold.

What is this department of our university doing for the state? Among other things it is engaged in experimentation and research work, under the management of men trained and experienced in their respective departments, and it is giving out to the people, to their advantage, the beneficial results of their activities. It is doing under the support of the state what those engaged in livelihood work have not the technical training, the necessary time or the financial means to do for themselves.

Wonderfully well is the department doing its work and accomplishing results. This is evidenced not only by popular acclaim on all sides and ready acceptance of its valuable services as the most beneficial department of our state's organization, but by the willing and liberal appropriations by our legislature as a response to the "Will of the People." The last appropriation for the present biennial period, was the not insignificant sum of nearly $1,000,000.

What has been the growth of this department? From practically nothing over a long period of years, when this department existed merely in name with a microscopic appropriation and a professorial staff of four, to an organization having nearly one hundred and forty trained men of instructional functions with seven active stations and with an equipment of the value of $1,600,000.

What is this department doing for its beneficiaries in this agricultural state?

In addition to the education of increasing numbers of students it is, through correspondence, distribution of useful literature, short courses, summer courses and demonstration trains, dispensing useful knowledge of almost inestimable value. Information of every kind of an agricultural nature is properly and intelligently given. Last year over one hundred thousand replies to inquiries were given by mail and over nine hundred thousand bulletins distributed.

Are the services of this department appreciated and valued? Yes, emphatically yes. In addition to liberal legislative support as evidencing the will of the people and the seeking of information and advice in person and by mail, the growing attendance of students and lecture patrons, there exists an increasing popularity of demonstration trains sent throughout the state. There was a time when this practice was more or less resented as a reflection upon the intelligence of the rural element. Some years ago a bucolic was overheard to remark in this connection, "the cheek of them high brows trying to learn we farmers how to farm a farm."' Today the trouble with these demonstration trains is how to afford proper facilities to accommodate the attendants.

It is not easy to offer suitable recognition of the services, the ability, the energy of its administrative head-the mastery displayed in the upbuilding and the development of the widespread usefulness of this department. But, if I might venture to express a personal opinion, there is no one department of this university and no branch of the state organization so calculated to bring benefit and advantage to more people of this state than the agricultural department of this university.

As an evidence of our progress agriculturally, we are today called together for the dedication of this magnificent Hall, named in honor of one of our foremost, most respected and most honored of men-one who gave his life service in the teaching of agriculture and the furthering of soil productivity.

In this Hall there might properly be placed two statues-one of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, and the other-still more important on account of its function, and without whose services Ceres herself would be of no avail the statue of Jupiter Pluvius, the maker and controller of rain, that life-saving element so indispensable to the prosperity of our state. To that honored man who has passed away in the plentitude of his power-even ahead of his time when his thought and knowledge might have been of greater service with the advancement of science and opportunity— to him and in his honor I, with you, place a wreath of tribute and of memory upon the arm of his vacant chair.