266 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



sible positions by the appointment of the Governor. I can say, and 

 do now say, that one hundred better men could scarcely be found 

 in this or any other State. The manner in which they have taken 

 hold of the work before them; the promptness with which they have 

 organized the associations within their several districts; the interest 

 they have enlisted among the people in behalf of these associations, 

 and in the development and advancement of local industries; and 

 above all, the unprecedented success' which has attended the first 

 annual fairs of the State and districts this Fall under their manage- 

 ment, prove the entire correctness of our position, and the wisdom of 

 the laws under which they have been organized. 



As our State has natural advantages of climate and soil, and a more 

 central location for the commerce of the world than any other State 

 in the Union, so, by the wise laws of last Winter, it has a better 

 industrial organization than any other State. Bymaking our State 

 Agricultural Society, and the eleven District Associations, State insti- 

 tutions, and the members of their Boards of Managers State officers, 

 California has taken the lead of all her sister States in elevating the 

 standard of the material industries, and recognizing the true dignity 

 of labor. Agriculture and the mechanic arts in California to-day 

 have a representation in the State Government of equal honor and 

 equal dignity with the Department of State or the Executive Depart- 

 ment. The Presidency of the State Agricultural Society of California 

 is by our laws an office of equal dignity and honor and of equal 

 importance with that of Governor. The Secretary of the State Board 

 of Agriculture holds a position the responsibilities of which are 

 measured by the magnitude of the State's material resources and 

 the possible value of her producing industries. The several District 

 Boards and their officers, within their limited jurisdictions, hold 

 equally honorable and responsible positions. 



The new California system for the encouragement and advance- 

 ment of her industries is broad and comprehensive, embracing every 

 foot of territory in the State, and every industry known to her people. 

 The counties lying contiguous to each other, and offering the best 

 facilities for concentrating their people and products at a common 

 center, are grouped together in districts. Each district, as a rule, 

 embraces a territory having a climate and soils peculiar to itself, and 

 differing with the climates and soils of all the others. The general 

 agricultural products of each district correspond to the peculiarities 

 of its soils and climate. Each district, as a rule, has its local markets, 

 and its distinct and separate modes of travel to general markets. 

 Each district has, also, manufacturing industries peculiar to itself and 

 its people. Thus, the counties composing the great southern inland 

 valley of the San Joaquin constitute the Second District, and those 

 . lying within the great northern valley of the Sacramento constitute 

 the Third District. These two districts embrace the great wheat-grow- 

 ing sections of the State; and yet they differ so much in climate 

 and soil, and in the amount of annual rainfall, that the modes of 

 cultivation, and the general systems for bringing each under a high 

 state of development and production, must be entirely different. 

 The coast and inland counties of the extreme north, being divided 

 by an almost impassable range of mountains into three sections, are 

 grouped in three separated districts; and these, again, have soils and 

 climates and general products peculiar to each ; and their markets 

 and general interests are different; so that a system of agriculture 



