STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 177 



public will no longer be tired out with those dreary intervals which 

 take up so much more time than the actual trotting or running. 

 Again, there will this year be no trouble in ascertaining what horses 

 are about to compete, since it has been decided that drivers and 

 jockeys must all wear distinctive colors, and neat uniforms, so that 

 it will be easy to follow them with the eye from the beginning to the 

 end of the race. An improved method of announcing the results of 

 the heats has also been introduced, and altogether it is safe to say 

 that the races this year will be more lively and interesting than they 

 have ever been before. 



The same activity and energy have been applied to the other 

 departments of the Fair. The exhibition at the Pavilion will not 

 only be made more satisfactory than in any former year, but it will 

 be ready for the public much earlier. Those wlm know how difficult 

 it has always been to make exhibitors get ready in time will appre- 

 ciate this reform. Generally it has been impossible to get all the 

 preparations completed before Wednesday, but this year everybody 

 has been compelled to begin in good time, and the results are 

 encouraging. There will be large exhibits from the Mechanics' Fair 

 at San Francisco, and from several of the District Fairs. Efforts 

 have been made to restrict the display of manufactures which have 

 no State significance, and which have in the past been allowed to 

 take up far too much room. The most useful innovations in this 

 connection, however, are of necessity brought about very slowly, for 

 when once things fall into a rut it is hard to move them out of it. 

 The Pavilion exhibits nevertheless show increasing signs of improve- 

 ment every year, and the display of native produce and inventions 

 covers a larger area every State Fair. The military encampment of 

 Colonel Dickinson's regiment adds liveliness and color to the holiday 

 time, and will afford a new kind of interest to thousands during the 

 intervals between the sights at the Park and the regular evening 

 promenades at the Pavilion. Though the influx of visitors is already 

 very much greater than at the corresponding period in former years, 

 there is no reason to apprehend any uncomfortable crowding. 

 Sacramento has plenty of good hotels and boarding houses, and when 

 these are full there will be no trouble in finding accommodation 

 in private families. It is doubtless very dangerous to say anything 

 about the weather at State Fair times, for we generally manage to 

 have a "warm spell" at this season, which is apt to give visitors an 

 erroneous impression of the climate. Thus far, however, the tem- 

 perature is all that could be desired, and though lovers of the turf 

 believe that a roasting hot day is particularly favorable to fast time 

 on the track, it is probable that fifteen or twenty thousand human 

 beings would rather lose a second or so in the time than gain so 

 much at the expense of their personal comfort. 



THE ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The address delivered at the Pavilion last night by Mr. Larue, 

 President of the State Board of Agriculture, deserves far more atten- 

 tion than is commonly bestowed upon such matters. It is indeed a 

 very commendable innovation upon the usual form of agricultural 

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