10 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



by the Governor of the State. All laws, rules, articles of association, 

 with all legislative authority formerly belonging to the State Agri- 

 cultural Society, are now by law vested solely in the Board of Agri- 

 culture. 



This, the twenty-seventh annual exhibition of the Society, is the 

 first held under the new order of things. The law creates a Board 

 of twelve Directors, and requires the appointment of the members 

 thereof by the Governor. At the last annual meeting of the Society, 

 three members were elected for the ensuing three years. At the close 

 of that meeting the Board, as constituted, stood as follows: H. M. 

 Larue, L. U. Shippee, S. J. Rose, G. W. Hancock, D. Flint, G. W. 

 Colby, R. H. Newton, Cyrus Jones, W. P. Coleman, P. A. Finigan. 

 The Governor of the State, in making appointments to fill the twelve 

 positions created by law, appointed all the members of the Board as 

 constituted by the State Agricultural Society, adding two additional 

 names - M. D. Boruck and John Boggs — to complete the additional 

 number. Thus, the organization appears to be identical with that 

 existing before the passage of the law of eighteen hundred and eighty; 

 but, in fact, the entire legal aspects of the Board and Society have 

 undergone a complete revolution. A Department of Agriculture has 

 been established as a department of State government; the members 

 of the Board of Agriculture are State officers, and the rules of this 

 exhibition, have the sanction of statutory law ; the exhibition itself 

 is held by the authority and under the protection of law; the objects 

 and aims of the State Agricultural Society have been indorsed by this 

 commonwealth; the whole people constitute its membership; while 

 its transactions and exhibitions, its efforts to dignify and ennoble 

 labor, disseminate information on subjects of practical and scientific 

 agriculture, manufactures, mechanics, mining, and the fine arts, have 

 been placed side by side with the State University and the common 

 schools — a recognized department in the great system of public educa- 

 tion. In the law under consideration, the State Agricultural Society 

 is fully recognized. Its mission is by no means at an end. Its annual 

 meetings will still be continued, and relieved from many elements 

 of contention growing out of succession in office. The Society can 

 address its efforts to still higher achievements in consonance with the 

 aim of its founders. The Agricultural Societies of California have 

 accomplished more for the cause of practical education than all the 

 schools of the State. The public recognition of the importance of 

 this department of public instruction is a high achievement, the 

 honor of which belongs to the State Agricultural Society. But there 

 remains other and higher work to be performed; and, judging from 

 the past, I am justified in believing that the State Society will not be 

 found wanting in that zeal for which it has been so distinguished. 



The past season has been one of unusual productiveness. The yield 

 of all the staples has been satisfactory. There has been failure in 

 none. The wheat harvest, however, offers the broadest field of sug- 

 gestion, and to the lessons derived from the experiences of this year 

 I will devote the full limit of this address. 



The product of the harvest has been variously estimated at from 

 eight hundred thousand to one million two hundred thousand tons. 

 From reliable data I accept the mean figure between these extremes, 

 and adopt the sum of one million tons as the aggregate yield of the 

 season. This I am fully persuaded is not an overestimate. At the 

 low market rate now ruling this wheat is worth twenty-five million 



