SEVENTH DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 653 



So also may be said of individual district fairs. From Mt. Shasta to 

 San Diego, from the ocean waves to the Sierras, all have outrivaled their 

 predecessors, and gone them one better, both in the enthusiasm manifested 

 by the people, and in the display of district products. 



And our own district and county, too, have moved along with the rest of 

 the State. One short year ago, communication between our southern 

 extremity and the county seat, involved a wagon or stage ride of two or 

 more days, over a dry, hot, and windy road. Then the farmer must haul 

 his grain miles upon miles, before reaching a shipping point. Now, the 

 iron causeway of the railroad stretches the length of our great valley. The 

 daily neigh of the iron horse awakens the echoes, which hitherto reverber- 

 ated only to the cattle's low, and the coyote's yelp. Towns and villages, 

 and even a regal city, have sprung up along its course, as though called 

 into being by the magician's wand. The whilom untenanted lands of the 

 South now teem with life and energy. The wandering cattle find their 

 trails through the rich bunch grass, obstructed by the preemptor's and the 

 homesteader's fence; and grain fields and young orchards everywhere dot 

 the surface of valley and rich, rolling hills. 



Mother earth, too, has yielded up her treasures. Gold mines have been 

 discovered in this county, rich, almost, as the fabulous coffers of King 

 Croesus, and though there are skeptics who doubt, the Los Burros mining 

 district may yet cause doubters to wonder at their own skepticism; nor, 

 when I gaze around me, and see these products of toil and industry, can I 

 but believe that our own district has sent back the wave of enthusiasm 

 and praise to our sister counties, with an increased vibration. 



I can not be so uncautious as to say that the bread, and pies, and cakes, 

 competing for premiums this year, are better than like domestic produc- 

 tions of former years, for the bread of our mothers is proverbially better 

 than that of our wives, and the pie crust too; but were these garnered 

 stores to be contrasted with exhibitions of former years; were the ghosts 

 of the past to be conjured up, and placed shoulder to shoulder with the 

 spirit of enthusiasm, and friendly rivalry everywhere manifested during 

 this fair, no one would have the temerity to say, that we, too, have not 

 been floating along, side by side, with our sister counties, on the stream of 

 prosperity and progress. 



The fruit display, indeed, shows a marked and remarkable improve- 

 ment. The grapes, though small in quantity, might well compete with the 

 choicest raised in our own choice State. And, indeed, so successfully have 

 they competed, that to this district fell the honor of carrying off the palm 

 for finer wines, in the rivalry of counties, at Sacramento, this year. The 

 other fruits, in excellence of flavor, and largeness of size, far exceeded 

 anything of former years; proving conclusively that the fruit industry is 

 rapidly advancing in our county. Our merchants, also, have again come 

 to the front, and shown that spirited energy, which has ever characterized 

 their efforts to make our fairs a success. 



But the brunt of enthusiasm must belong to the ladies, and they have 

 shown it, not only in the way in which our hall is arranged and decorated, 

 but also in the beautiful and delicate articles of their handicraft, every- 

 where to be seen around us. 



But, ladies and gentlemen, notwithstanding all that can be said in praise 

 of our exhibition this year, in my humble judgment, it does not do full 

 justice to our county. Were all our people to take the interest in our fairs 

 which they should, not only would we have a larger and more varied 

 exhibition of the district's productions, but we could attract more people, 

 and, consequently, have a far more successful and satisfactory fair. 



