STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. ' 225 



to be contained therein, and the probable value thereof." Notwith- 

 standing this, the bill was, after much discussion, finally defeated by the 

 exertions and votes of the representatives of the mining counties ar- 

 rayed against those of the agricultural. 



It is unfortuate for the general interests of the State that there has 

 existed for some years in our Legislature a feeling of distrust between 

 the mining and agricultural portions of the State, having its origin in a 

 ire that all species of property should bear its legitimate portion of 

 the burdens of the government. In attempting to put in practice this 

 very just and equitable proposition, the two interests have been brought 

 in collision — the agriculturists insisting that the mines are property, and 

 should be taxed, while the miners maintain that if they are property, 

 they are of that uncertain and indefinite kind of property which cannot 

 be correctly or equitably assessed, and therefore should not be taxed — 

 that it is sufficient to tax the proceeds after they are extracted from the 

 mine. The whole subject is involved in difficulties and embarrassments, 

 and we do not desire to express an opinion in the premises; but we do 

 desire to protest, in this age of progress and improvement, when emi- 

 grants from all the old countries and the Atlantic States are anxiously 

 searching every channel of information from this coast, both in regard to 

 our agricultural and mineral interests, against a policy of legislation the 

 effect of which is to retard the development of the boundless resources 

 of our State. 



What Ave want, above all things, on this coast is the establishment of 

 a proper channel for the collection and distribution, here and elsewhere, 

 of correct and reliable information in regard to our two great leading 

 interests — agriculture and the mines. And he who fails to comprehend 

 the importance of legislation having this end in view, or he who does 

 not recognize in the interests of the one the interests of the other, or in 

 other words, that the prosperity of the one depends upon the prosperity 

 of the other, and that the prosperity of the State depends upon correct 

 and reliable information in regard to both, fails to realize the responsi- 

 bility of his position as a citizen and a legislator. 



No paltry consideration of the expenditure of a few dollars, no local 

 or sectional advantage, or pride of power, should be allowed to interfere 

 when questions affecting the prosperity of all our interests are involved. 

 The State Agricultural Society has ever labored with as much zeal for 

 the advancement of the mineral interests of our State as for those of 

 the agricultural, and this volume is an evidence of the truth of this 

 assertion. It has never interfered with or even expressed an opinion 

 upon the subject of taxing the mines. It has always given its influence 

 in favor of liberal appropriations for the advancement of the geological 

 survey of our State, and now only desires, as the proper medium, to be 

 placed in a position and furnished with the means and machinery to col- 

 lect and distribute, in an official manner, valuable and reliable informa- 

 tion in regard to our agricultural interests and agricultural resources. 

 And it is now becoming to be generally understood that many of those 

 interests, in the shape of valuable vineyards, are located in those por- 

 tions of the State which but a few years since were considered valuable 

 only for the mines they contained. There are millions of acres of land 

 in the mining counties ten to one more valuable for vineyards and 

 orchards than for mining. We desire to search out this land, and pub- 

 lish to the world its advantages and immense value, not only to the indi- 



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