97 



ANNUAL ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE SONOMA AND MARIN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



AT PETALUMA, SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH, EIGHTEEN 



HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SEVEN. 



BY MARCUS D. BORUCK, OF SAN FRANCISCO. 



Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: "What clo you know 

 about farming?" was the question asked me by a friend who had 

 seen the announcement that I was to have the honor of deliver- 

 ing the annual address before the Sonoma and Marin Agricultural 

 Society. I reflected an instant, and answered: "As much as men 

 in my position usually know, I believe." The question kept haunting 

 me, however, and the reflection of an instant growing into the reflec- 

 tion of a day, bore such fruit of difficulties to be met, and ideas to be 

 discussed, that I actually felt dismayed at the task I had so confi- 

 dently undertaken. Your invitation had pleased me as a new toy 

 pleases a child, but when, instead of a toy, I found I had an intricate 

 and important piece of mechanism to handle, pleasure changed to 

 anxiety, and there arose hesitation of moment — momentous, not 

 momentary — whether to give or give up the address. Long before I 

 come to "And now, in conclusion, Mr. President, and ladies, and 

 gentlemen," you will easily have arrived at your decision whether 

 the merits lie in my being here as a speaker rather than as a listener. 

 Having become of a fixed mind in the matter, however, there com- 

 menced a course of general investigation, close observing, and per- 

 sistent inquiry. I found, whilst I knew infinitely little on some 

 points that should be touched upon in an agricultural address, that 

 I knew surprisingly much on others. I found that the opportunities 

 of elaboration were so numerous that the difficulty would be what 

 not to say, rather than what I should say. I found that there were 

 such great schemes and problems, such vitally important questions 

 and plans, all worthy of note and notice, that there came the doubt 

 as to whether, in touching on this and slighting that, I might not be 

 touching on what was thoroughly antagonistic and slighting what 

 was vitally necessary. I found that, since last studying the matter, 

 such radical changes in the mode of agriculture had taken place that 

 the fashion of it had changed as does the fashion of a garment; that 

 nature had not only been tickled and taken advantage of when in 

 generous mood, but that she had been battled with and conquered 

 when most obstinate and unpromising. I found two Titans in your 

 service — Irrigation and Reclamation — and that with them you were 

 bringing about the fulfillment of prophecy, for the desert places do 

 rejoice, and the wilderness blossoms with the rose. I found that Cal- 

 ifornia is looking to her farms and farmers for solid prosperity, and 

 that amidst the trouble, noise, and sorrow caused by the breaking of 

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