268 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



• 



Greek, Roman, or German text. It requires none of the hieroglyphics 

 of the ancient Egyptians, the word-conveying strokes and dots of the 

 Chinese, or the enigmatic figures of the aborigines of Central and 

 South America, to convey the lessons they are capable of teaching 

 to the mind of the beholder. The thought, the idea, the principle, 

 the truth, reaches and enlightens the understanding and remains a 

 permanent impress upon the tablets of the mind. 



The exhibition we see before us is sufficient exemplification of all 

 we have said. One day spent on the stock ground yonder, and in 

 this pavilion, is worth to the careful observer years of reading and 

 close study of dry facts and chemical formulas. 



Passing over the beautiful exhibitions of fancy and plain needle- 

 work, of ornamental and useful domestic industry, of dried and pre- 

 served fruits, and fragrant flowers, made by the misses and ladies of 

 this district; passing over the magnificent display of green fruits and 

 vegetables with which these tables are filled; passing over the agri- 

 cultural implements, pumps, plows, lumber wagons, and carriages, 

 all made by your own mechanics; passing over the long lists of thor- 

 oughbred, roadster, farm, and draught horses, Short-horn, Ayrshire, 

 and Jersey cattle luxuriating in your stalls at the stock grounds, we 

 desire to call especial attention to the almost invaluable exhibition 

 of wheat we behold in this pavilion. 



You have here no less than twenty-five varieties of wheat, all 

 labeled with their correct names, and each bearing evidences of dif- 

 ferent characteristics and different properties. This wheat exhibi- 

 tion derives its great importance, not so much from any intrinsic 

 merit in itself over other wheat exhibitions in other districts, as from 

 the fact that this Agricultural District Number Three is the great 

 wheat-growing district of the State. Within this district, comprised 

 of the Counties of Sutter, Yuba, Butte, Colusa, Tehama, Yolo, and 

 Sacramento, the four counties, Sutter, Butte, Colusa, and Yolo, are 

 at once the most extensive and most reliable wheat-producing 

 counties in the State. Of the seventeen million four hundred and 

 fifty-one thousand one hundred and eighty-one bushels reported by 

 the Assessors as the State's wheat product of eighteen hundred and 

 seventy-nine, these four counties are credited with having produced 

 eight million eight hundred and sixty-seven thousand three hundred 

 and fifty-six bushels. 



Of the thirty-three million bushels estimated as the product of 

 the State for the present year, these four counties have produced 

 nearly or quite half that amount, and adding the product of Yuba, 

 Sacramento, and Tehama, the product of this district may be consid- 

 erably over half the product of the entire State. In the light of this 

 fact you will agree with me, Mr. President, in the statement that this 

 wheat exhibit becomes a very important one. It opens up the whole 

 wheat question in all its bearings for the serious consideration of the 

 farmers of the district. The kind and change of seed, the mode of 

 cultivating the soil, and time and manner of planting and covering 

 the grain, the time and mode of harvesting and thrashing, the stor- 

 age and time to sell, and finally the transportation to market, are all 

 matters of great interest to these people. 



First, the kind of seed. It is a universal rule in nature that "like 

 produces like." The only exceptions to this rule are caused by con- 

 trolling circumstances. It follows, therefore, that if we would pro- 

 duce good and paying crops, we must sow good seed, adapted to our 



