STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 185 



than your honored citizen, Hubert H. Bancroft, of whom California 

 may well be proud. The fact is, that the spirit he expressed runs so 

 well through California farinint>- o))c'rations, as well as every other 

 enterprise and business, that 1 hope you will pardon me for quoting 

 the substance of some of Mr. Bancroft's remarks from the Record- 

 Union, dated January 1, 1876: 



"There is something indcscril)al)ly fascinating about California; 

 an atmosphere both social and lerial; fascinating in its sunshine and 

 its rain, and in its great heart. Culling from the strength and beauty 

 of every nation, and winnowing oft" the chaff of their crudities. See 

 him. A young and healthy infant, but a giant well formed, fat and 

 saucy, one leg sprawling to the Atlantic, the other reaching to China. 

 [Bancroft has it kicks China, but he meant it innocently doul)tless, 

 although now, perhaps, it may be almost regarded as a legitimate 

 pun. This article need not be spiteful however.] One hand playing 

 with the snows of Alaska. [There is a California audacity in that, 

 considering that Oregon, Washington Territory, and British Colum- 

 bia intervene; but Bancroft was looking to the future, and thought, 



perhaps well, wait and see what 'the survivor of the fittest' does.] 



The other hand delving through Arizona, and pushing a ship canal 

 through Nicaragua. Courage, strength, and beauty are in every limb 

 and feature. Pinch the bantling, it does not cry, it scarcely squirms; 

 fire could not destroy it; starve it with droughts, or duck it with 

 floods, it only rolls its eyes, winks, and finds ' its bottle full.' [That 

 expression Bancroft knew all mothers would understand, and he cer- 

 tainly never wickedly meant the whisky bottle, although California 

 has had its experience of it.] California and her people are the 

 greatest social and natural problems in the world — the mixing of 

 races and its results." 



Aptly as Bancroft understood the people, it reminds me that the 

 poet Pope, perhaps twice fourscore years ago, expressed it in two 

 lines: 



"All nature's difference 

 Makes all nature's peace." 



But Pope's field was more a dream than a reality. The limits of 

 little "Great Britain" were so circumscribed, while California seems 

 almost limitless, unless compared with the whole United States; and 

 still it was through California enterprise, that the great highway was 

 constructed from Sacramento and San Francisco to the Atlantic. 

 What, therefore, may be the future of California ? "What may it not 

 be," in fact ? 



The annual tables of rainfall, etc., which Dr. T. M. Logan com- 

 piled from 1849 and continued to his decease in 1875, have since been 

 supplemented by Dr. F. W. Hatch, and the United States Signal Ser- 

 vice; a branch of which is established in Sacramento City, doubtless 

 as a recognition of Dr. Logan's twenty-five years work, and the 

 duties are faithfully performed by the meritorious young officer, Ser- 

 geant Barwick. It may not be long before the duties will be greatly 

 enlarged, and the incumbent promoted to the rank and pay of Cap- 

 tain, as (xeneral Hazen, Chief United St.tes Signal Officer, has inti- 

 mated, all their efficient officers deserve such recognition, and he 

 has indorsed a bill now before Congress for that purpose. It is in 

 view, therefore, rather of the increased importance that will be 

 attached to the Sacramento station of the Signal Service corps, as 

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