SEVENTEENTH DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 805 



enterprising genius reasoned from this result that fruits and vegetables 

 could be grown in the same localities equally well for the market; and what 

 is the result? Orchards and vineyards abound from Colfax westward to 

 the Sacramento County line. Thrifty cottages grace the hillsides, and 

 those same wild lands, now brought under cultivation, readily command a 

 price of from $20 to $100 per acre. The fruits of Placer County have 

 already attained a well merited fame abroad, and her horticultural enter- 

 prises are every year assuming larger proportions. 



But how is it with the other portion of the district, that is, with Nevada 

 County ? The climate of Nevada County is equally salubrious ; her soil is 

 equally fertile; water is equally abundant for irrigation; there are more 

 acres of tillable land within her borders. Her fruits and vegetables are 

 equal in quality to those of her sister county, and yet there are large areas 

 of the fertile lands of Nevada County that are still covered with the primi- 

 tive forest; while lands which command $50 per acre in Placer, can be 

 bought of equal quality in Nevada at from $10 to $20 per acre. The great 

 stumbling block in the way of the more rapid progress in Nevada County, 

 seems to be the lack of faith in the capabilities of her soil and climate, and 

 a lack of well directed industry and enterprise to convert these undevel- 

 oped resources with profitable and progressive industries. 



A SMALL FARM WELL TILLED. 



This question is often asked: Is it possible for a poor man to make a 

 living and support a family on from twenty to forty acres of land in Nevada 

 County, or is it possible to support a family while clearing the land, plant- 

 ing an orchard, and waiting for it to come into bearing? 



As a partial answer to these queries, so far as relates to the possibilities 

 of our soil and climate, I have but to refer you to this magnificent display 

 of the productions of this region; to the grains, the grasses, the vegetables, 

 the fruits, and the dairy products on exhibition before us. Such a display 

 ought to be evidence sufficient to convince the most skeptical, but in 

 addition to this I will give you a practical illustration of what has been 

 done in this line. 



Within less than five miles of Grass Valley is a small farm of forty 

 acres, owned and tilled solely by a poor widow. This little farm is located 

 on the loose red lands, on a sidehill, surrounded by pine forests. Its owner 

 had sufficient faith in the soil and climate of the county to believe that 

 she could make a living off from a small tract of land; and what is the 

 result? She has an orchard, a garden, a field of potatoes, a fine meadow 

 of alfalfa, fat cows, lively pigs, healthy poultry, and a horse and market 

 wagon to market her crops. She milks her own cows, makes butter, and 

 sells the butter at the highest market rate. She sells eggs, poultry, fruit, 

 and potatoes. In a single year she cultivated, dug, marketed, and sold a 

 crop of potatoes that netted her $300 in gold coin. Her land is paid for, 

 she is out of debt, and has an abundance on which to subsist. 



With such an example of enterprise and success as the result of the 

 unaided efforts of a poor, feeble woman, and with the like success which 

 has resulted from the thorough cultivation of small farms in other locali- 

 ties in this district, we are fully justified in the assertion that a small farm 

 judiciously planted, and thoroughly tilled, is ample for the support of any 

 moderately sized, economical family, with a reasonable prospect of being 

 able to lay by a small reserve for a stormy day. 



Evidences of the fertility of the soil and of the salubrity of the climate, 

 certainly are not wanting. We have those evidences before us to-night, in 



