STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 35 



of transportation as a leading factor in the profitable production of 



our staples. The completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad will 

 have an important bearing upon all the leading industries of this 

 State. When the great wheat-growing valleys of California are con- 

 nected with New Orleans by rail over the level grades of the southern 

 route, the commercial lines to the final market for our wheat will be 

 shortened by ten thousand miles. We will then have a constantly 

 operative means of transportation at what 1 have reason to hope and 

 believe will be reduced rates. The average inland tonnage on our 

 grain now is about three dollars and fifty cents per ton. The average 

 ocean tonnage to Liverpool about thirteen dollars per ton, aggregating 

 sixteen dollars and fifty cents per ton from the station or landing to 

 the ultimate market. By the Southern Pacific Railroad (lie pro rata 

 of ocean to rail transportation will be reversed. The tonnage rate 

 from New Orleans to Liverpool will not exceed five dollars per ton. 

 Thus leaving eleven dollars and fifty cents per ton as the pro rata to 

 rail transportation, and without increasing the aggregate rate. If 

 expectation in this direction is well founded, the wheat product of 

 California will possess higher advantages in the market than hitherto 

 enjoyed. The completion of this southern route will introduce the 

 now wanting element of competition with the long voyage around 

 Cape Horn. It will also enable the shipper to receive quicker returns. 

 Its further advantages will be found in the opening of markets for 

 the orchard and dairy products of Southern California, and it is 

 within the range of possibilities to ship green fruit and fresh beef to 

 the English market by that route. At this time fresh beef is shipped 

 from points on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers by way of New 

 Orleans to England, and the time from Sacramento by rail to the 

 Crescent City is shorter than the time from Kansas City to the same 

 point bv water. 



For the first time in the history of this Society our annual exhibi- 

 tion is honored by the presence of the Chief Magistrate of the 

 Nation. As a pioneer, looking back to the early isolation of this 

 State, this event has more significance than it can have for those 

 whose residence in California dates since the era of transcontinental 

 railroads. It impresses upon my mind a most forcible realization of 

 the wonderful changes a few years have wrought in the means of 

 communication. From the capital of this great republic, on the 

 opposite shore of this mighty continent, the President of the Nation 

 comes as a visitor to spend a few days with us, and then to return to 

 the seat of government, having enjoyed but a brief vacation from 

 the full burden of official duty. None but a pioneer can know how 

 grateful is the task of extending to him a welcome among us, for 

 none but a pioneer can so well feel that by his presence here we 

 realize anew the nearness of this land of our love and adoption to 

 the homes of our early and hallowed associations. I lis Excellency 

 will never realize a continent so broad in extent as that still linger- 

 ing in the consciousness of those who made its transit by ox teams. 

 He will scarcely comprehend the vastness of mountain ranges exist- 

 ing in the geography of those only who toiled on foot up their weari- 

 some slopes. But it will be borne in upon our people by his coming 

 here that all parts of our beloved country are being brought closer 

 and closer together by the discoveries of science, the triumphs of 

 skill, and the energies of our civilization. These combined have 

 annihilated time and space, until no part of our common country is 



