Farmers before the Gold Rush
Before the Gold Rush, California's abundant natural resources such as oil, timber, rich soil, and a mild climate made it a wonderful place to farm. Despite this, the population in California was very small, thus California did not have a big demand for farmers. As a result, agriculture was never a main trait of California before the Gold Rush.
This lack of agriculture in California was illustrated during the Mexican period, a time period when Mexico became independent from Spain and many Mexicans settled in California. During the Mexican period, agriculture was completely neglected, and breeding cattle became common. In the years following the Mexican period, when Americans settled in California, they all continued to neglect agriculture and breed cattle. Thus, prior to the Californian gold rush, farmers very much only produced food for themselves. John Bidwell, a prominent California farmer, said that " The country was brown and parched; throughout the state wheat, beans, everything had failed," illustrating the lack of agriculture in California before the Gold Rush (Uschan).