We should cease calling mining our paramount industry. It is far from it! Agriculture is today and has been for many years our paramount industry. Though we have produced $1,000,000,000 in precious and valuable metals and minerals, so far as the State has advantaged thereby, the 30,000 or 40,000 acres of cultivated land in the Truckee Valley, or the same acreage in Lovelock, or Fallon, or at Gardnerville and Minden, severally represents a value to the State infinitely greater. One has vanished and the other is here permanently. The enormous production of the Comstock Lode left little enrichment to Nevada, and we have seen the wealth take from the treasure chambers of nearly all our other mines withdrawn from the State. But the farmer first, and after him the stockman, is the true upbuilder of the wealth and prosperity of Nevada. We have nursed the dream too long that mining is our paramount industry and have neglected the vital foundation on which we must expect to build a great commonwealth – the fruitfulness of the soil under the tillage of husbandary. Charles Norcross, Commissioner of the Nevada Bureau of Industry, Agriculture and Irrigation. 1912
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:56:42 +0000
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