Soil.—The soil varies with the surface conditions of the State. In the elevated portions it is rich, mellow, and easily worked, and timber land abounds. In the lower portions the soil varies from a rich loam to a heavy clay or adobe. What was formerly considered desert land can now, under irrigation, be turned into valuable agricultural dis tricts.
Agriculture.—The State is very rich in its agricultural interests. The acreage, production and value of the principal crops in 1919 was as follows: corn, 87,000 acres, with a production of 2, 871,000 bushels, valued at $5,139,000; oats, 175,000 acres, with a produc tion of 5,250,000 bushels, valued at $5,040,000; wheat, 990,000 acres, with a production of 16,335,000 bushels, valued at $33,323,000; barley, 1,000,000 acres, with a production of 30,000,000 bushels, valued at $42,300,000; hay, 2,352,000 acres, with a production of 4,257,000 tons, valued at $73,220,000; beans, 395, 000 acres, with a production of 4,464,000 bushels, valued at $19,418,000; potatoes, 88,000 acres, with a production of 11, 352,000 bushels, valued at $19,412,000; cotton, 167,000 acres, with a production of 102,000 bales, valued at $21,930,000; rice, 142,000 acres, with a production of 7,881,000 bushels, valued at $21,042,000; and hops, 11,000 acres, with a produc tion of 17,875,000 pounds, valued at $13, 764,000. There were, in 1919, 88,197 farms, with a total acreage of 27,931, 000, valued at $1,614,694,000.
Manufacturing.—In 1914 there were nearly 5,000 manufacturing industries. There were 10,057 establishments, 176, 547 workers engaged, with salaries and wages of $140,842,691. The capital in vested was $736,105,455, and the value of the manufactured products was $712, 800,764. The chief industries were meat packing, fruit and vegetable can ning, lumber, foundry, and machine-shop products, flour and mill products, petro leum, and shipbuilding.
Banking.—In 1919 there were 290 Na tional banks in operation, having $62, 976,000 in capital, $22,017,000 in out standing circulation, and $126,244,000 in United States bonds. There were also 298 State banks, with $34,391,000 in capital, $253,301,000 in deposits, and $342,137,000 in resources. In the year ending Sept. 30, 1919, the exchange at the United States clearing houses in San Francisco aggregated $6,703, 134,000.
Education.—The public school enroll ment in 1918 was 596,155. There were 11,680 teachers in the elementary schools, and 2,882 in the high schools. The average salary of male teachers in the elementary schools was $905; female $895; in the high schools $1,450.64 for male teachers and $1,336.95 for female. The annual expenditure for schools is $34,133,122. There are 13 colleges with an enrollment of 15,136. The principal universities and colleges are: University of California (opened 1869, non-secta rian) ; Leland Stanford Junior Univer sity (1891, non-sectarian) ; St. Ignatius College (1855, Roman Catholic) ; Santa Clara College (1851, Roman Catholic), and the University of Southern Califor nia (1880, Methodist Episcopal). See LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY; CALIFORNIA, UNIVERSITY OF.
Charities—State institutions on Nov. 30, 1919, held 15,169 inmates, distrib uted as follows: State reform schools, 734; hospitals for the insane, 10,124; Industrial Home for Adult Blind, 139; Home for 1,301. There were 2,871 in the State prisons.
Railroads.—There are 12,145 miles of railway and 3,032 miles of electric rail ways in the State. California has 19 lines of ocean steamers plying to China, the Philippines, Chile, Panama, Mexico, and Alaska. There are also 13 coast wise lines.
Finances.—The revenues for the fiscal year 1918-1919 were $50,132,906.37, and the expenditures $50,681,433.48. On July 1, 1919, the net bonded debt was $44,138,500. The assessed valuation of taxable property was $4,023,009,588.
State Government.—The Governor is elected for a term of four years and re ceives a salary of $10,000 per annum. The legislature has 40 members in the Senate and 80 in the House. There are eleven Representatives in Congress. The State government in 1920 was Repub lican.
History.—The name California was applied to an island in the Pacific in 1521, and, sometime between 1535 and 1549, was also applied to that part of North America now known as California and Lower California. Several Spanish and English explorers visited this sec tion during the 16th and 17th centuries, and in 1769 the Franciscan monks founded San Diego and soon afterward many other missions, including Dolores at San Francisco, 1776. In 1826 the first American emigrant train entered the present limits of the State, and in 1840 Monterey was made the capital. The United States tried to form an alli ance with California in 1846; but the Americans already settled there seized Sonoma and proclaimed a republic. At the outbreak of the Mexican War, San Francisco was seized by the Americans, and, on Aug. 15, 1846, California was declared United States territory. In 1848 gold was discovered, and this led to a great immigration. In less than four years there were 250,000 people in the State. Many of these were lawless and capable of any crime, and several times vigilance committees were organ ized by the better class for active meas ures in the suppression of crime. Cali fornia was admitted to the Union as a Free State, Sept. 9, 1850. In 1869 the Central Pacific Railroad was completed, and the employment of Chinese in this work led to serious riots, and resulted in the passage by Congress of the Chi nese Exclusion Act. During the Spanish American War and the American opera tions against the Filipino insurgents, nearly all the expeditions to the Philip pine Islands started from San Fran cisco. Agitation against the immigra tion of Japanese laborers, which became acute in 1912 and the year following, and which was quieted by a compromise between the American and Japanese Governments, again became a source of irritation in 1920. The action of the United States Government in practically debarring Japanese immigrants from California was bitterly resented by the Japanese people.