hing in
vain, the shipping facilities afforded by the noble inland seas that
clasp our shores, are a sign and promise of the commercial greatness
that awaits us in the future. We may well be proud of the condition
of our agricultural interest--that great interest which underlies
every other; which alike gives to the wealthy his opulence and the
beggar his crust. Our farmers have unmistakably indicated their
determination to accept of no secondary position in the quality of
their wheat, and their wool is not only rapidly gaining the first rank
as respect the amount produced, but is sought for with avidity for its
superior quality by all the principal manufacturers of the country.
Pomona, too, has thrown her influence in the scale. The region that
has thus far been devoted to the culture of fruit, in proportion to
its extent, cannot be surpassed in the Union, if indeed it can be
equaled. Such is a faint picture of the 'Peninsular State.'

"The snail-like progress hitherto made in the settlement of a large
share of the State, is an enigma to those not versed in our early
history. While occupying the position of a dependent of the central
power at Washington, we were so unfortunate in some instances as to
have men placed over us with whom personal interests were paramount to
the great interests of the territory, which, at the critical period
when the seeds of prosperity should have been planted, was fatal to
our advancement. Next came the era of Utopian projects of internal
improvement, by which our people were saddled with an onerous load of
debt. In the mean time immigrants were misled by false reports
concerning the character of the soil in the interior of the State, and
there were no roads by means of which they could satisfy themselves of
the true character of the country. They therefore passed on to find
homes upon what then seemed the most attractive prairies of the far
West. But there is at last a great change in the tide of affairs. The
value of our timber is justly regarded as greatly overbalancing the
doubtful advantage of settling upon prairie land, and the active
demand that has recently sprung up for it must constantly make a still
greater difference in our favor. Lands long held in the iron grasp of
speculators are rapidly coming into the possession of actual settlers.
Our State is being intersected by a system of roads, which will ere
long demonstrate the necessity of an extension of the system. Our
course