Exhibiting the average Price of Flour, Wheat, Barley and Oats, for each Month at San Francisco, from Jan. 1852 to Dec. 1857.

[Compiled from the San Francisco Prices Current and Shipping List.]

218

138

NOTE.-The above table shows the average prices for each month, of flour per two hundred pounds, and wheat, barley and oats, per pound, from January 1st, 1852, to December 31st, 1857, at San Francisco. As these articles of consumption were mostly imported for the first few years after the influx of population into California, foreign products have been taken as the standard during that period, In flour, Chili has been quoted, in wheat, barley and oats, those of eastern importations, until February, 1854, when the domestic productions of both flour and grain are substituted. In several instances we have been unable to determine the current value of flour, and have requoted Chili; such changes are indicated by an asterisk, (*).-[ED.

+ Sales of Flour in barrels for the last ten days of December, 1852, $38 and $42.

III.-POPULATION.

1. POPULATION OF CALIFORNIA.

The population of California in 1831, was estimated at 23,025,* and in January, 1849, at 26,000,† viz: Californians, 13,000; Americans, 8,000; Foreigners, 5,000.

The returns of the National Census of 1850, exhibit a population of 117,538, and the State Census of 1852, of 264,435. The ascertainments and estimates of these enumerations are believed to be very incomplete, in consequence of the fluctuating character of the people and the difficulties which then existed to prevent a thorough canvass of the State.

The following estimate of the present population of California has been prepared from the information obtained through official sources and a careful investigation of the different classes of residents included therein:

Returns of the County Assessors of the citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, liable to military duty, to the Quar

termaster-General of the State, 1857, (estimated in part)..... 183,000

Children between four and eighteen years of age, number returned to the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1857... Children under four years..

36,315

18,500

Chinese, (estimate of W. Hanley, Chinese Agent, 1857)..
Colored Persons...

38,687

2,000

Indians (estimate of Col. Henley, Superintendent of Indian Af

The Official Returns of the Census of 1850 make the population 92,597. See Journals of the Legislature, 1851, page 743.

§ This estimate, although large, is believed to be less than the actual number of Indians in the State. See Indian Reservations.

The population of the United States for 1856, is estimated, by Hon. James Guthrie, at 26,964,312. The vote cast at the Presidential election, 1856, was about 4,100,000, being an average of three votes for each twenty inhabitants. Taking this result as a basis, and estimating the population of California thereby by the vote of the same election 110,223, the population would amount to 734,820. This

2.

The Census and Vote of 1852; the Vote of 1856 and Returns of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Children of the State for 1856.

Clara.

(g) Organized 1850, from Los Angeles.

(a) Organized 1853, from Contra Costa and Santa | (ƒ) Organized 1854, from Butte.

(b) Organized 1854, from Calaveras.
(c) Organized 1856, from Mariposa.
(d) Organized 1853, from Trinity,
(e) Organized 1855, from Mariposa.

(h) Organized 1856, from San Francisco.

(i) Organized 1854, from Tuolumne.

(1) Organized 1856, from Colusa, Butte and

Shasta.

The enumeration of the County of El Dorado was not completed within the time provided by law, for taking the Census of the State for 1852. The figures included above, are believed to be a fair approximation to the actual resident population of that year, and were taken as a basis by the Legislature, in regulating the Apportionment Act of 1853.

mode of arriving at an approximation of the population of California, may not be regarded as a fair and reliable one, from the fact that there are not a proportional number of females and children among its residents as there are in the Eastern States. This is undoubtedly true, but will not the great excess of the foreign and Indian population of the State more than make up the difference?

Totals...

Persons on U. S. Vs'ls War

69,110

959,049 1,372,812 1,918.608 2,428.921 3,097.394 555,500 638,829 737.987 753,419 869.029 230,760 581,434 937,903 1,519.467 1,980,329| 810,091 1,049,458 1,348,233 1,724,033 2,311 786 77,031 83.659 97,199 108.830 147,545 415,115 502,741 581,185 594,398 668,507 261,727 422,813 681,904 829,210 1,002.717 212.592

235,704 280,652

880,200 974,622 1,065,379 1,211,405 1,239,797 1,421.661|

30,945 305,391

14,093 24,023 33,039 39.834 43,712 51,687

92,298

3,929,827 5,305,925 7,239,814 9,638, 131|12,866,020|17,069,453 23,191,876

4. SLAVES IN THE UNITED STATES.

245,555

277,575 320.823

373.306

489.555

291.948 314.120

5,318 6,100

::

*For estimated population, 1848, see page 114.

+ No slaves returned in the Territories of Minnesota, New Mexico and Oregon; Utah 26 are returned. Apprentices by the State Act to abolish slavery, of April 18, 1846.

5. NUMBER OF PASSENGERS

Which arrived at the Port of San Francisco, from 1849 to 1857.

MONTHS. 1849. 1850. 1851. 1852. 1853. 184. 1855. 1856. 1857.†

January
February.

March

April

May. June July.

2,455 1,131 3,204 3,472 1,878, 889 3,407 1,435 2,581 798 4,609 2,603 4,222 1,058 1,240 976 2.508 1,304 4,528 4,431, 5,390 2,526, 3,057 2,650 8,362 4,595 2,986 7,928 3,904 5,486, 2,378 1,678 2.443 5,175 4,904 4,503 8,889 4,207 5,664 4,546 2,500 2,945 7,888 6,468 2,895 9,711 3,174 5.097 2,109 4,878 1,668 7,996 3,484 2,159 10,572 1,404 5,070 3,085 2,820 3,743 8,790 3,369 2,813 6,632 1,364 5,528 1,617 1,003 1,741 September.. 16,131 1,941 1,382 2,741 1,050 2,978 2,865 1,249 834 October.... 13,037 1,405 1,970 3,029 2,880 3,189 4,053 1,185 1,124 November.. 10,862 1,556 2,620 2,471 2,199 1,131 2,681 2,282 1,625 December..13,164 1,196 2,621 2,674 2,545 1,898 1,391 2,820 1,806 Totals.... 91,405 36,462 27,182 66,988 33,233 47,531 29,198 28,119 22,990

August

Total arrivals from April, 1849, to December, 1857, 383,108.

6. COMPARATIVE VIEW

Of the Arrivals and Departures‡ at the Port of San Francisco, from January 1852, to December 31, 1867.

Of the de

Of the arrivals 1857-4,272 were women and 1,685 children. partures-1,164 were women and 814 children. Of the arrivals 185717,596 were from Panama, and of the departures-13,357 were for that port. For the six months ending June 30, 1858, the number of women that have arrived at this port, 2,931; children, 762. Departures same period, women, 899; children, 496.

*The overland immigration to California in 1584 was estimated at 61,462.-Message of Gov. Bigler,

1855.

The estimated number of overland immigration for 1857, is 12,500.

There is no record of the departures made at the Custom House, San Francisco. The number here estimated is compiled from the San Francisco Prices Current. The number of departures, by sea and land, for the Pacific British Possessions, during the present year and up to the 15th August, is estimated at 30,000; the number of arrivals from thence during the same period is 4,050; excess of departures, 25,950. The excess of arrivals from other countries for the same period is about 15,000; making a net loss to the population of the State, since January, 1858, of nearly 15,000. No account is taken in this estimate of the eastern overland immigration of the present year, variously estimated at from 5,000 to 8,000. From these figures it will be seen that there is scarcely a doubt that, with the returning wave of the Frazer River excitement, the population of the State will, at the close of the present year, exhibit a healthy increase over that of 1857.-[ED.