public square should be reserved to "all the citizens of San Diego;" and one lot of fifty varas square, bordering on the public square, should be conveyed to the authorities of the Town of San Diego. This deed was duly recorded on March nineteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty. In July of the same year a voluntary partition of the lots in said tract (then called "New San Diego") was made between the parties, and in September following, and said partition was confirmed by a decree of the District Court of the First Judicial District for the County of San Diego, under which decree their respective interests were finally partitioned to them; and they have since remained in the possession of the premises, making sales of the same. The official map of said New San Diego, made by A. B. Gray, United States Boundary Commissioner, and F. D. Johns, United States Army, has been before us, and the lots respectively claimed, as set forth in the bills, are designated thereon, with all necessary certainty of description, and compliance has been shown with the conditions of the grant of the Alcalde and Prefect. There is no reason to believe that perfect good faith did not govern the claimants and the town authorities in forming this new establishment for the objects they must have had in view, and that a warehouse and water front were a necessity to the proper development of the new settlement or town. The aforesaid site is situated on the bay or harbor of San Diego, and is distant about three miles (up the bay) from the "Old Town," and six miles from the entrance to the harbor, and it was doubtless a sound judgment in the authorities to make this location in view of the future business of the place. In fact, it presents many advantages for laying out a town, having sufficient depth of water in front of it for vessels of large capacity, a broad and level site, and near the main body of population there living within the eight leagues of land belonging to the said pueblo. The improvements made under and by virtue of the aforesaid contract were undeniably of great public benefit to all the inhabitants thereabouts. The price paid for the lands, as fixed by the authorities of San Diego, was not insignificant, considering the value of the lands at that time, and was besides a considerable revenue to that town, then very remote from the then great commercial highways. The "consideration" was, as has been shown, paid jointly by Aguirre, father of one set of the heirs claiming; Pedrorena, father of the other heirs, and Davis, and amounted to two thousand three hundred and four dollars, and the wharf and warehouse were erected at a cost of twenty thousand dollars, and was paid exclusively by Davis, and for which he has never been reimbursed in any manner by the other parties to the agreement. The entire water front of the harbor of San Diego is about six miles in length, of which the lands in question comprise but a small fraction.. Your committee, therefore, in view of the foregoing facts, believe that the petitioners, although acting in good faith in everything connected with the foregoing transaction, they failed to obtain a legal right to the lands in question, for the reason that the authorities granting the same had no right or power to grant said lands, for want of jurisdiction, and whatever of claim they may have is based wholly upon the equities of their case. What those equities are is not for your committee to determine, but must be left to the wisdom and consideration of your honorable body. But, in view of the fact that the aforesaid Davis has expended a large amount of money on the faith of the said grant, and unless confirmed in the possession and title to the same will suffer serious loss and perhaps be ruined in business, we would most respectfully recommend that the said W. H. Davis be confirmed in the possession and right to such of the lands as are comprised in block eight hundred and nine (809) as represented on the official map of the City of San Diego. by Chas. H. Poole, and comprising twenty-two (22) lots lying between San Jacinto and Buena Vista streets. the same being block twenty, as represented by the official map of said town of New San Diego by A. B. Gray and F. T. Johns, U. S. A. and U. S. Boundary Commission, of eighteen hundred and fifty, together with the water frontage to the same for a distance into the bay sufficient to reach a depth of water suitable for the purposes of commerce, being one hundred and forty feet. as prayed for by petitioner. So far as the claims of the other heirs represented in the bills Nos. 275 and 272, relating to a part of the same land claimed by José A. Aguirre and M. Pedroreña, or their heirs, are concerned, your Committee are of the opinion that they not only have no legal rights, but fail to show any equities, none of them ever having spent anything either in money or by making improvements thereon. They do not how reside upon nor have they ever occupied the lands or any part thereof at any time; hence, so far as they are concerned, your Committee are of the opinion that the State should not grant the lands asked for in the said bills Nos. 275 and 272, and recommend they do not pass. Your Committee would state, in conclusion, that whilst they make the foregoing recommendations they fully understand that it is only as a matter of justice, resting entirely upon the equities in the case, and in that case refer the matter to your own honorable body for such action as may seem most likely to promote the ends of justice. TULLY, Chairman of Committee on Public Lands. MEMORIAL. D. W. GELWICKS.........STATE PRINTER. The memorial of L. Prevost to the Legislature of California respectfully represents : First-That experiments, made within the last fifteen years by himself and others, prove that the soil and climate of California are better adapted to the growing of the mulberry tree and the rearing of the silk worm than any other country; that the silk culture gives promise of becoming of very great interest to the State, and he submits that the importance which it is assuming deserves the careful attention, consideration and encouragement of the Legislature. Second-That he first introduced the silk culture into the State, was acknowledged in the State Agricultural Report of eighteen hundred and fifty-six to be its pioneer, and has for the last fifteen years most assiduously cherished it. He has carefully studied the habits and conditions of the worm in the peculiar climate of this State, and has fully developed the fact that in spite of the high price of labor, California can produce silk more abundantly, at less cost, with more profit and of better quality than any other country in the world, when once fairly started in the business, and that these results are due to the serenity and dryness of the climate, the absence of electric storms, the rich nutriciousness and perfection of the food, and the consequent healthiness and vigor of the worm; and that in consequence of these, a system of feeding and care of the worm that he has successfully applied enables one person in California to do generally the work of six or eight in other silk-growing countries; and that he has, by his own unaided labor, fed and reared as many worms as eight men usually do in the most prosperous silk districts of France and Italy. Third-That the silk culture of California is so unlike the practice in other countries and so peculiar to itself, that the explanations and instructions and management cannot be found in any treatise upon the subject drawn from the experience of any other country; that a manual was published by himself to meet the early wants of this State, but now that the time has come for more full and copious explanations of the subject. His time has been occupied for several years, chiefly in supplying information upon the subject within and without the State, and repeated suggestions are pressed upon him to circulate it in printed form through every Post Office in the State, and from his ample correspondence. with the silk-growers of every part of this State and in others of the United States, and with those of France and Italy, and the manufacturers of these countries, he is warranted in saying that a proper descrip. tion of the capacity of California for the silk culture, and its easy and cheap management here, will produce two results most important to the prosperity of the State, viz: 1st. In developing the silk culture in California just at the moment that the destruction of the mulberry trees in great quantity in China by the havoc of civil war, and the ravage by disease of the silk worm in almost all the silk countries of Europe, are diminishing the supply and greatly enhancing the demand and the price. 2d. In exciting and accelerating a large immigration of useful producing population from the silk districts of other countries, for the purpose of engaging in its most profitable culture in California. Fourth-Then he desires and proposes to write and publish in English a succinct and improved edition of his manual, with full description of our climate and its advantages, and instructions upon all points connected with the silk culture, for the guidance of silk growers of this State, and for circulation in the Atlantic States and England, giving the results of experience in this State, explaining the capacity of California and her advantages over every other country for the silk culture, and the profits to be reaped by engaging in it, and to translate this work into the German and French languages for circulation in Europe; but the demand that has been made upon his time and purse by Californians and the people from all parts of the States and Europe, calling upon him for information, and his free and gratuitous distribution among them of mulberry buds and silkworm eggs, cocoons, etc.-his only source of income-has so nearly impoverished him that he cannot, unaided, effect this useful object. The uniform responses of his California correspondents-to whom he has to reply that his poverty will not permit him to print and circulate the information they seek-is that the State should aid him. He therefore asks that the Legislature will encourage and aid so useful a work by authorizing a subscription for twenty-two thousand volumes, viz. Twelve thousand in English, ten thousand in German and eight thousand in French-in all, thirty thousand-to be delivered to and distributed gratuitously, to the best advantage, by the State Agricultural Society. L. PREVOST. COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE IN RELATION TO FENCING AGRICULTURAL LANDS. |