California
From Encyclopediak
California. "California is more than a state—it is a country," wrote the great Lord Bryce. And indeed, few countries can boast of the wealth of natural resources, the scenery, or the climate that make the southernmost of the Pacific states an earthly paradise. A land of sunshine and flowers, of rose-embowered bungalows and palm-shaded drives, of gleaming beaches washed by the waves of the blue Pacific, of snow-capped peaks and foaming mountain torrents, of burning cactus-tufted deserts and valleys floored with billowing seas of blossoms, California is richer than the Indies and magnificent in its splendid contrasts of mountain, desert, and fertile valley. Extending- along the Pacific coast from Mexico to Oregon, the state is bounded on the east by Nevada and Arizona- The length from north to south through the middle is 750 miles, the average breadth is 200 miles, and the area is 158,297 square miles, of which 2,645 square miles are water. The length of the coast line is more than 1,000 miles. If placed along the Atlantic seaboard, California would extend from Charleston, South Carolina, to Boston, and inland as far as South Carolina. The second state in area, it is four times the size of Ohio, and could contain all of New England, New York, and Ohio, with room to spare.
PHYSICAL FEATURES. The outstanding surface feature is the Great Valley of California, extending for 400 miles through the center of the state and composing an area of over 12,000,000 acres— equal to that of Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Delaware. Sheltered from the sea winds by the Coast Range and watered by the melting snows of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the east, it is a vast agricultural bowl of almost incredible fertility. The Great Valley is drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers which meet and flow together into San Francisco Bay, the natural port of all this rich region. The Coast Range lies from 20 to 40 miles inland and is really a series of broken mountain ranges enclosing sunny, fertile valleys, many of which are open to the sea. The Sierra Nevada Mountains form a 400-mile granite barrier roughly paralleling the Nevada border and culminating in Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the United States (14,502 ft.). The range has 10 other peaks more than 13,000 feet high, while at the extreme north is Lassen Peak, the only living volcano in the country. Near the crest of the Sierra, on the Nevada border, is Lake Tahoe, 6,225 feet above the sea and rimmed on every side by snow-capped granite peaks. It is the largest of the countless snow-fed lakes which gleam in the folds of the high Sierra. Curving westward to meet the Coast Range, the Tehachapi Mountains close the valley at the south. North of the central basin lies North California, with dense forests and rugged valleys, dominated by "chaste" Mt. Shasta, called by the Indians "God's first mountain." South of the Great Valley is Southern California, the San Bernardino Mountains separating the Mojave Desert from the Imperial Valley and the beautiful coastal region. North of the desert and a scant hundred miles southeast of Mt. Whitney lies Death Valley, 280 feet below the sea and the lowest point in the United States. Far to the south is the Imperial Valley, one of the garden spots of the world, that only a few short years ago was a waste of cactus and sand. Today it is irrigated by water from the Colorado River. Northwest of this valley and south of the San Bernardino Mountains is the Salton Sea, occupying part of the bed of an ancient salt lake that is 275 feet below sea level. The present sea was formed in 1905-06 when the Colorado flooded her banks and through the irrigation canal to the Imperial Valley sought a more expeditious route to sea level than that afforded by her normal channel.
CLIMATE. California is said to have all the different sorts of climate in North America, ranging from semi-tropical in the lowlands of Southern California to the Arctic on the summits of the mountains. The barrier of the Sierra Nevada Mountains shelters the state from the cold winds of the north and the winds from the Pacific exert an equalizing influence on the temperature of the lower levels. For these reasons changes in temperature are due more to differences in altitude than to differences in latitude. In the Great Valley the summers are delightful and the winters mild. Along the coast there is little difference between the mean temperature of January and July, In Southern California the temperature is practically uniform throughout the year. In the high altitudes of the Sierra Nevada the winters are cold and the snowfall is heavy. California, except for the great heights is a winterless land. Stock can roam without shelter throughout the year and there is never a day in which outdoor work cannot be done. The year is divided into the rainy (winter) and the dry (summer) seasons. The north coast, where grow the redwoods (See SEQUOIA TREE), is a land of fogs and heavy rains, but as one goes south and inland the rain decreases until in the southeast it is exceedingly rare.
SCENERY. There are points in Southern California where one may look from ocean to desert and from orange groves to snow-clad peaks. But the lofty Sierra Nevada Mountains stand unrivaled in the majesty and beauty of their scenery. The western forest-blanketed slopes are gashed by canyons of indescribable beauty, cut by the mountain streams. Of these the Yosemite Valley is the most noted. Here, too, are the groves of "Big Trees" (the sequoia), the oldest living things in the world. The view of the mile-wide Golden Gate with the splendid amphitheatre of the San Francisco Bay on one side, opening out upon the blue expanse of the Pacific on the other, is a sight never to be forgotten. And the southern coast, with its curving beaches, its orange groves, its sapphire skies, its profusion of flowers and palatial hotels is justly famed as the Riviera of America.
POPULATION. The census of 1920 showed California ranking eighth in the United States with a population of 3,426,861, an increase of 44.1 per cent since 1910. Nearly 80 per cent were native Americans. Of the foreign born the British, Irish, and Canadians, the southern Europeans (Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, and Greeks), Mexicans, and Germans were the most important groups, except the Chinese and Japanese. Of the Orientals, there were fewer than 40,000 Chinese and some 72,000 Japanese, the latter showing a gain of nearly 75 per cent in the past decade. An Indian population of about 17,000 lives on the reservations scattered over the state.
FORESTS AND LUMBER. The relative importance of California as a lumber state is increasing. All of the redwood, about half of the white fir, and practically all of the sugar pine of the country comes from her forests. Western yellow pine and redwood lead, each contributing about a third to the total production. Douglas fir, sugar pine, and white fir follow in importance. The redwood belt, extending along the coast from Oregon to Monterey Bay, embraces 2,000 square miles of compact heavily stocked forests. Seven-tenths of this area has never been touched by ax or saw, while the cut-over land is being systematically reforested. The other forests are found in the mountainous sections of central and northern California. There is no de-forestation menace in California, for it stands first in national forest areas, and large reservations have also been established by the state. It is second only to Alaska in virgin timber lands.
INDUSTRIES. California has a unique industrial history. The Spanish brought with them large herds that were their chief source of wealth. This pastoral period lasted well into the first generation of the American occupation and was succeeded by a frenzied two decades of mining activity, introduced by the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848. As the gold fever wore off, some of the immigrants turned to farming, and for the next half century agriculture occupied the center of the economic stage. But since 1900 a tremendous growth of manufacturing has placed California eighth on the list of the manufacturing states. This is due, not only to a vast range of agricultural, forest, and mineral products, but still more to the enormous development of petroleum for fuel and to hydro-electric power. In the long distance transmission of electric power from the mountains, California has long led the world, yet only a little more than a fourth of her potential 4,000,000 horse hydro-electric power has been brought under control.
MINERALS AND MINING. The yield of the oil and natural gas wells of the central and southern counties is valued at 85 per cent of the total annual mineral production and is one of the greatest industrial and economic factors in the state. Since 1849 California mines have produced more gold than all the rest of the country put together. Most of the mines are in the central and northern counties. Both lode and placer mines are being profitably worked. The principal copper mines are in Shasta County. More than nine-tenths of the nation's supply of borax comes from Death Valley and the state ranks high in other minor minerals, being first in quicksilver and chromite and second in the rare metals and magnesite. Extensive clay deposits and granite quarries are important to the state industrially.
AGRICULTURE. The bonanza farming of wheat and barley that marked the first stage of California's agricultural development long since gave way to diversified farming and horticulture. The modern period may be dated from 1873 when two seedless orange trees were brought from Brazil to Riverside. From these two trees have come all the trees in the orchards that reach to the horizon in Central California and make Sail Bernardino, Riverside, and Los Angeles counties the greatest navel orange district in the world. In the Great Valley diversified farming is practiced with alfalfa, barley, wheat, beans, rice, potatoes, and sugar beets as the chief field crops. Alfalfa, which is planted in some parts of the state every month in the year, is California's most valuable agricultural product, exceeding the entire citrus fruit crop. In less than a decade the Sacramento Valley rice fields have made the state second only to Louisiana as a rice grower. The nation's supply of almonds conies from the orchards of Yolo and adjacent counties. But in the dreat Valley, as in Southern California, fruit growing is the dominant industry. In deciduous fruits, total production and shipment (fresh, canned, and dried), the state has within a generation come to lead the Union. In apples, cherries, peaches, pears, blackberries, and currants, California is first in rank. Nearly half the prunes eaten in the United States are grown and cured in the Santa Clara Valley, which is likewise famous for its apricots. The latter are raised in no other state of the Union. Every magazine reader knows that Fresno County is the home of the raisin. And most of the raisin-, table-, and juice-grapes, second only in rank to oranges, are cultivated in the Great Valley. Figs are grown in the Fresno district and elsewhere, and the state also grows alligator pears, pomegranates, dates, and other rarer fruits. Most of the tropical fruits grown in the United States are raised in California, which supplies 80 per cent of the country's oranges, all of the lemons, ripe and green olives and olive oil, and much of the grape fruit. More "English" walnuts are grown than in any other place in the world. An excellent variety of Egyptian Mtton is now a staple crop of the Imperial Valley, which boasts the largest cantaloupe and lettuce beds in the country. In the artesian irrigated Coachella Valley of Riverside County are found palm groves producing three-fourths of the American-grown dates. The cultivation of fresh vegetables for the central and eastern markets is increasingly important. The Golden State is pre-eminently the vegetable and flower-seed producing state in many varieties that require long ripening periods. In the rich soil and favorable climatic conditions of Santa Rosa, Luther Burbank has an ideal laboratory for his world-famed experiments in plant breeding. Raising horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs is important in the northern and central parts of the state. Dairying is of growing importance, and bees are profitable. Irrigation is essential in the southern and central counties and acts as a crop insurance in many others. There are vast projects in the Great Valley. Of those supplying Southern California the most celebrated is that of the Imperial Valley, which has literally "made the desert to blossom like a rose."
MANUFACTURES. The value of California's manufactured products is approximately three times that of the products of the farm. Canning and preserving of fruits vies with petroleum-refining for first place, with the latter slightly in the lead. Ninety per cent of the dried fruits and two-thirds of the canned fruits consumed in the United States are grown and prepared in this state. A close second to the canning industry is shipbuilding, which centers in San Francisco Bay with great yards at San Francisco, Oakland, and Mare Island. On the southern coast, Los Angeles Harbor, Long Beach, and San Diego have important shipbuilding interests. The manufactures growing out of the lumber industry rank high and others, in the order of their importance, are the building of railroad-cars, slaughtering and meat packing, milling of flours and cereals, sugar refining, and the canning of fish. A large steel industry is now being established in the San Francisco Bay district.
FISHERIES. The canning of salmon has long been important. It is now surpassed in value, however, by the sardine and tuna (albacore) canneries. Among the many varieties of fish taken from the coastal waters are mackerel, Halibut, Spanish mackerel, sole, cod. Shrimps are abundant and juantities of oysters, crabs, and mussels are caught. The whaling industry that once made San Francisco the greatest whaling port in the New World has declined. All kinds of trout, several varieties of bass, and other fresh-water fish, are found in the well-stocked inland lakes and rivers. For game fish and sport, California leads the world, not only in trout and black bass, but in the marine fish, like the '"leaping tuna" of Catalina. The fisheries are regulated by the state and federal commissions.
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMERCE. Most of the 8,355 miles of railway are owned or controlled by the two great transcontinental systems, the Southern Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, Oakland, opposite San Francisco, is the great railway center and all trunk lines meet there. Los Angeles, Fresno, and Sacramento are other important centers. The Pacific Electric Railway Company of Los Angeles is the most extensive electric railway system in the world. San Francisco, Oakland, and Sacramento arc likewise important centers for electric lines. Motor traffic is an important element in local transportation. There is an automobile for every fifth person in the state and more than 6,000 miles of excellent paved highways. Motor lines for hauling both passengers and freight are efficient, popular, and profitable. Through San Francisco passes half the foreign commerce of the Pacific Coast. Thirteen steamship lines are operated from there through the Panama Canal to Atlantic and European ports. There trails-Pacific lines connect with tlie transcontinental railways. The Sacramento and Sail Joaquin rivers provide an inland waterway system that penetrates the heart of the Great Valley and carries its products to the seaboard. With the modern refrigerator freight cars a vast quantity of fresh fruits and vegetables is now shipped east to cities 2,000 and 3,000 miles away. An interesting feature of this commerce is the growth of the cooperative marketing organization which has done much for the agriculturist by standardizing his products, providing adequate shipping facilities, and enlarging the markets by nation-wide advertising campaigns.
GOVERNMENT. The first constitution was adopted in 1849. The present one succeeded it in 1880 and is notable for the detailed restrictions placed on legislative action, the three-fourths majority verdict required of juries in civil cases, and the prohibition of Chinese suffrage and of the employment of Chinese on state works or by corporations. An educational test is required for voting. Many amendments have been adopted, the most important providing for the initiative, referendum, and recall, and woman's suffrage. The legislature consists of a senate of 40 members elected for four years and of an assembly of 80 members elected for two years. The sessions are biennial and practically limited to 60 days. A governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, attorney-general, treasurer, comptroller, surveyor-general, and superintendent of public instruction comprise the executive department. At the head of the judiciary is a supreme court composed of a chief justice and six associates elected for 12 years. Each county has a superior court whose members are elected for six years. Inferior courts are established by the legislature. In politics California ranks as safe republican. During the campaign of 1912 it was especially prominent owing to the activities of Gov. Hiram Johnson, one of the leaders of the Progressive party and Roosevelt's running mate on its ticket. State politics have been much complicated by the vexed Chinese and Japanese questions. California has been very progressive politically. It was the sixth state to adopt woman's suffrage and has passed much humanitarian legislation in recent years, such as a working men's compensation act, minimum wage law for women and minors, and a mother's pension law.
EDUCATION. California divides the honors with Massachusetts in matters of educational progress. Eighth in population, it ranks sixth in the number of students enrolled, with 219 out of every 1,000 persons in school. School attendance is required of all children between 8 and 16, for five months of the year. There is also a compulsory physical education law. In providing rural districts with educational advantages California has been exceptionally progressive. The rural elementary schools have a uniform course of study and rank very high. In the field of secondary education the consolidation movement has gained remarkable headway in country districts where the schoolhouse serves the whole countryside as a community center. There is also a system of junior colleges whereby the student may take his first two years of collegiate work in his own home town. At the head of the public school system is the superintendent of public instruction. The University of California, a state institution at Berkeley, and Leiand Stanford Jr. University at Palo Alto are world famous. Thr former, through its college of agriculture, has knit itself intimately into the rural life of the state and the value of its services to agriculture can scarcely be measured. State normal schools are maintained at Arcata, Chico, Fresno, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Santa Barbara, and the requirements for a teacher's certificate are higher than in any other state. The state polytechnic school is at San Luis Obispo. There are in addition to these institutions some 22 colleges in the state. California is the only state having a comprehensive library system. An interesting branch of its work is the free county library that takes many of the advantages of the city library to the rural residents of most of the counties.
STATE INSTITUTIONS. A board of charities and corrections has control of the state hospitals and penal institutions. They include the Industrial School for the Adult Blind at Oakland, a school for girls at Ventura, the Preston School of Industries at lone, the reform school at Whittier; hospitals for the insane at Agssew, Napa, Norwalk, and Stockton; the Mendocine State Hospital at Talmage; the Southern California State Hospital at Patton and the Sonoma Hospital at Eldridge. The state penitentiaries are at Folsom and San Quentin.
CITIES. Los Angeles and San Francisco rank tenth and twelfth, respectively, among the leading American cities. Other leading cities, in order of their size, are: Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento, the state capital, Berkeley, Long Beach, Pasadena, Fresno, Stockton, San Jose, and Alameda.
HISTORY. The name California was first applied to the Lower Peninsula by the Spanish who visited it in 1533, and later extended to the whole coast as far north as the 42d parallel. It was taken from a fictitious island, supposedly in the Far East near the Equator, which played a prominent part in Montalvo's romance. Cabrillo visited the coast of the Santa Barbara region in 1542 and in 1579 Sir Francis Drake sailed up the coast as far as the 43d parallel, but did not enter San Francisco Bay. In the middle of the 18th century the Spanish attempted to civilize the country by establishing missions along the coast. The Franciscans built their first mission at San Diego in 1769 and gradually spread north until in 1823 the twenty-first and last of the Spanish missions was established at Sonoma. The Franciscans converted the Indians to civilization and Christianity and also acquired vast wealth in orange and grape plantations and cattle and horse randies. After the Mexican revolution the influence of the missions declined. In 1846, 20 years after the first Yankee immigrant train toiled over the mountain passes into California, the American settlers under Captain Fremont revolted from Mexican rule and proclaimed the Bear Flag Republic at Sonoma. By the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo the territory was ceded to the United States. On Jan. 24, 1848, gold was discovered at Sutler's Mill near Coloma. The following year witnessed the arrival of the famous Forty-niners, fortune hunters from the ends of the earth. A government was sorely needed but none existed. After several attempts, the people drew up and adopted the anti-slavery constitution of 1849, then applied for admission to the Union. California was accordingly admitted as a free state in 1850. Since the Civil War, the most striking feature of the state has been its remarkable economic development. In 1906 occurred the disastrous earthquake and fire which destroyed many of San Francisco's old landmarks.
