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better adapted to the growth of fruits and vegetables. Wherever this 

 is the case, we should follow the suggestion of nature in adopting a 

 varied agriculture. The lesson I would convey by these considera- 

 tions may be briefly summarized: The soil and climate of different 

 countries differ. Each and all should be devoted to that product which 

 returns the highest reward for the labor. Commerce is the hand- 

 maiden of production. It admits of the growth of every product in 

 the climate and soil best adapted to their growth. The waving corn 

 fields and the yellow harvest of the Northern States yield untold 

 wealth to the farmer, because those products are interchangeable 

 with those of the rice fields, the cotton, and the sugar plantations of 

 the South. The acres in the temperate zone devoted to the produc- 

 tion of tropical fruits and plants, and the acres in the tropics devoted 

 to the growth of temperate productions, are each and all wasted 

 acres, and the labor bestowed upon them misdirected labor. A 

 varied agriculture will arise in California, but its development should 

 be slow and judicious. It will come too late only if the suggestions 

 which are found in the soil and the climate are unheeded. It will 

 come too soon if profitable agriculture be abandoned for unprofitable 

 experiment. 



I now propose to detain you a few moments on the education of 

 the youth of our country. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



The question of agricultural education ought to engage the atten- 

 tion of our Society far more earnestly than it has hitherto done. The 

 reports from the Agricultural Societies of other States show that they 

 are fully alive to the duty of cherishing institutions for the practical 

 training of youth in the noble calling we, as a Society, are organized 

 to improve. There can be no more certain way to promote the 

 interests of agriculture than placing our children in schools where 

 the leading object is to make intelligent farmers, and to show that 

 farming can be made as intellectual and as agreeable as any other 

 business. 



The example of the State of Massachusetts is worthy of imi- 

 tation in California. The State Agricultural Society said to the 

 Legislature, give us a fair proportion of the income of the grant of 

 Congress for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, and of 

 such other funds as the State may provide for carrying out the pur- 

 pose of the grant. Let us have the control of a college intended for 

 our benefit. Do not tie us up in an unnatural marriage with some 

 literary college, but leave us free to develop this one in direct rela- 

 tion to the needs of our future farmers. The Massachusetts farmers 

 had their way — and the leading farmers of Massachusetts — the lead- 

 ing horticulturists were chosen as Trustees, and the result has been 

 hundreds of skillful, educated farmers in the State. So they did in 

 Kansas. I see in their official report they say that they will not 

 "repeat the experiment of flying a literary kite with an agricultural 

 tail, because, though a pleasant regential and professional amuse- 

 * ment, and attractive to an immediate locality, there is not a cent of 

 money in it for the industrial student, whose money pays for the 

 kite.' r The report of the Michigan State Agricultural Society is very 

 important and suggestive on this subject. '"Do colleges and uni- 

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