In the same year the total value of the State's dairy products amounted to $40,310,105, con sisting of 70,030,174 pounds of butter, worth $19,181,264; 7,745,124 pounds of cheese, worth $1,203,592; and other produce valued at $19, 925,249.
The sensational achievements of Luther Bur bank in hybridizing fruits — for instance, the creation of a large plum without any pit what ever—are already world-famous. Almost as remarkable results have been reached in floricul ture. Seeds and bulbs are raised on a great scale; carnations, calla lilies and other flowers being grown outdoors by the 10-acre field. A large proportion of the flower seed of the United States is grown in California, and it supplies most of the mustard of the nation. The total area of California farms is now over 46,000 square miles, considerably exceeding the entire area of States of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Is land and Maryland. The State was eleventh in the Union in per capita value of farm prod ucts ($88) and fifth in value of products of farm as compared with Ohio, $929) in 1900. Ca had in 1910, 87,670 farms; total value of farm property, $1,448,560,000; total value of farm products 1899, $131,690,606. Total acreage in farms, 27,883,000 acres, of which 11,380,000 acres are improved. The area farmed decreased 3 per cent, 1900 to 1910. In 1850 there were 872 farms; in 1860, 18,716; in 1870, 23,724. The development of farming is briefly indicated as follows to 1910— the latest Federal figures available. The great increase since 1910 cannot be officially stated.
had over 3,000 farms each; Santa Clara, 3,995; Sonoma, 3,676; and Fresno, 3,290. Of all farms, 84,692 were farmed by whites; the rest by Indians, Chinese, negroes, Japanese.
Dairy cows had increased nearly one hun dred-fold since 1850, in 1910 being 464,000. Horses (1910), 462,000; mules, 68,000; sheep, 2,325,000• swine, 749,000; of other cattle there were 1,155,000. Total value of domestic animals 1910, $119,487,452—including poultry and bees, animals sold and slaughtered, 5,754,9g; poultry and eggs, $6,356,746; wool, 1,707,088. Sheep and wool decreased steadily, from 1879, with the great increase in value of lands for farming.
From 1850 to 1900 the population increased sixteen-fold; number of farms over eighty fold. California was one of the few States in
1900 that in 30 years added more to its agri cultural than to its other population.
Irrigation and Develop ment of the new and characteristic agricultural era in California is outlined by these statistics from the last available census (1910).
government experimental stations in Arizona. In 1916 the Coachella Valley produced $65,000 of dates. The acreage has vastly increased since. There are over 7,000 bee-keepers in the State, owning more than 600,000 colonies. The production of honey in 1916 was 11,100,000 pounds,' valued at $642,000.
California was first (1769), and is still prac tically the only State to produce the olive and its oil. Thirty-eight counties now grow the olive, though only in half a dozen is it import ant. There are about a million bearing trees in the State, and half as many not yet bearing. The California (ripe olive has become of great commercial importance; while the seems destined to become even more popular.
The annual production of oil (1916) is 1,000,000 gallons; packed olives, 18,000,000 gallons.
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Of the 72,542 farms in the State, 25,675 or 35.4 per cent were irrigated, an increase of 44 per cent in 10 years; the number of irrigators increased in the same term 87 per cent, showing the great subdivision of the lands—nearly twice as many people living on the same area Total cost of construction of all irrigating sys tems, $19,181,610; so thA irrigated crop of I899 alone paid nearly $14,000,000 in excess of total cost of works. Los Angeles County led by far in number of irrigators (4,066); only Fresno (2,459) having one-half as many. In number of acres Fresno County was far in the lead, with 283,737 acres; Kern next with 112,533 and Merced, 111,330. Of the total 1,445,872 acres irrigated in 1910 (last available figures), 1, 293,608 were irrigated from streams. There were 2,361 artesian wells and 10,924 pumped. By 1914, the pumping-plants for irrigation had increased to 24,589. More than half the flowing artesian wells in the United States were in California; and a large number of farms were served by electric power pumped from under ground wells.