544 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



OPENING ADDRESS. 



By Richard White. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: A great pleasure has been accorded me in 

 welcoming you here to-night, and formally opening the eighth annual Fair 

 of the Third Agricultural District of California. I assure you I considei 

 this a proud moment of my life in being permitted to pay my slight tribute 

 to the noblest' of employments — agriculture; and am thoroughly conscious 

 of my inability to perform gracefully the high functions of my trust under 

 the most favorable conditions, but on this occasion I only knew at the very 

 last moment that I was expected to appear before you to-night, and can 

 consequently expect to say only a few words in formally extending you 

 the greetings of the Directors, and their thanks for your encouragement 

 in the way of exhibits, and your attendance at this entertainment; for 

 my impromptu and discordant remarks, however, I promise you, shall 

 possess the merit of brevity. 



My presence here will remind you of the inability of the President to 

 attend and perform this portion of his duties personally. This is perhaps 

 the saddest feature of the occasion, in that it reminds you of the serious 

 indisposition of one of your most enterprising and respected citizens, Dr. 

 Mason, upon whose good services has always depended so much of the 

 success of former agricultural Fairs in this district. Were he present he 

 would give you an interesting and statistical account of the work and 

 condition, together with the hopes and prospects of the association. It is 

 customary on occasions of this kind to discuss exhaustively those topics 

 which are of vital interest to the industrial classes of the whole district, 

 and incidentally those matters which are indirectly related to them; but 

 I am informed that on to-morrow a gentleman is expected to deliver the 

 annual address, so that I will only revert to these grand questions moment- 

 arily in formally opening this exhibition. The surroundings this evening 

 are so propitious that I cannot, in justice to my own interested feelings, 

 refrain from a few general remarks upon the subject of that noble profes- 

 sion which principally this Fair is intended to foster and stimulate. Agri- 

 culture from the beginning of human progress has occupied the highest 

 place among all the avocations which engage man's attention. Humanity 

 began its existence enjoying the fruits of the soil, and when it felt a slight 

 independence for a comparatively short time only did it rove pastorally 

 after its herds and flocks upon community hills; and then resumed the 

 pursuit of its first love, the tillage of the earth, the appropriation of its 

 arable soil, and the development of all its resources to individual wealth. 

 Since that time no higher conception has ever entered the mind of man; 

 and to-day, amid all the innumerable and varied industries of the world, 

 the acquisition of one's own land, and the cultivation of one's own vine 

 and fig tree, with the accompanying security and ease within their shade, 

 is the goal toward which we are all striving. The statesman is anxiously 

 looking for the time when he can shift the burden of the responsibilities 



