THIRD DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. ."> -\~> 



of his trust; the manufacturer awaits the season when his ears are no 

 longer dinned by the hum of machinery; the owner of his argosies antici- 

 pates a calm during which he can forever cast a safe anchor; the general is 

 intently listening for the command to disband his army; the doctor, the 

 lawyer, the business man in every branch of business — all wait anxiously 

 for the time when they can assume the independence of the farmer's life, 

 and live with his luxury and ease upon their own acres. 



Since the day when old Cincinnatus left his Roman plow afield to 

 assume the insignia of power, and the head of the grandest empire of 

 antiquity, to again resume the plow-handle and the sickle, when the emer- 

 gency of state which required his service was past, has any man been able 

 to claim for his sphere in life a position of more grandeur and dignity than 

 the humble tiller of the soil. 



Agricultural Fairs are intended to encourage and stimulate this noble 

 industry. The principle on which they work is generally accepted to be 

 the correct one, and is as old as history itself, extending back to the time 

 when the champions of the Olympian and Isthmian games of early Greece 

 strove with each other in furtherance of the nobility of the development 

 of physical manhood. They are supported by the enactment of aiding 

 statutes all through the statute books of civilization. In order to provide 

 for their success the State Treasury is opened under the advice of the most 

 competent counselors, and it is a generally accepted principle that only 

 good results for the respective districts can follow unless their privileges be 

 abused. 



The State is divided into convenient districts to make the Fairs more 

 effective in bringing them to as many of the people's doors as possible. 

 This agricultural district consists of Tehama and Colusa in addition to 

 our own county of Butte. The whole district is represented by exhibits 

 displayed in this pavilion to-night, though the notice has been so short as 

 to preclude an elaborate display from the distant portions of the district. 

 While we regret this fact still we feel proud that the resources of the soil 

 and climate of our immediate vicinity are so great as to make so credita- 

 ble a display possible in so short a time without aid and assistance from 

 our more remote neighbors and fellow toilers. I congratulate you upon 

 the wonderful display you have made almost impromptu. It speaks vol- 

 umes for the natural resources of our county and the enterprise of its citi- 

 zens. 



This Fair is unique in many particulars, depending as it does upon the 

 agricultural and mechanical display, unaided by racing or any of the 

 other accompaniments which are usually resorted to in order to make the 

 annual Fairs a success. All of the lessons to be learned here are of the 

 material and lasting kind, which every spectator can carry away with him 

 without fear of failure in profiting materially by them, without contact 

 with any evil influence. Gathered together within this hall are products 

 typical of the whole range of the octave of soil and climate, from the 

 exotic of the torrids, which luxuriates in our sunny valleys, to those prod- 

 ucts of the forest and mountain, corresponding in characteristics with the 

 rugged tamarack which waves its plumes in the breezes which disturb 

 the placid surface of our mountain lakes. 



Concluding, I wish to call your attention to this particular crisis of our 

 national existence, when displays of this kind can contribute so much to 

 the enhancement of our national wealth and prosperity. 



It is a time when multitudes of intelligent, wealthy, and industrious 

 people are gazing longingly over our eastern mountains for just such a 

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