STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 173 



school, proper, but one — the California School of Design, supported 

 by the San Francisco Art Association. This school has been estab- 

 lished for twelve years. I have watched its progress, and made 

 myself familiar with its management since its commencement. It 

 has undoubtedly done a good work. Pupils have attended it from 

 all parts of tiie Pacific Coast, from San Diego to Victoria. Tlie aver- 

 age attendance is between seventy and eighty, thougii the roll some- 

 times mounts to upward of one hundred. About a dozen of the 

 graduates are now studying in Europe, a number are following the 

 profession in this State, and many are teaching the elements of art 

 in schools and seminaries. 



Without doubt the School of Design has done much to create and 

 elevate taste in this community. Hitherto the only branches taught 

 have been crayon drawing and oil painting; want of means has pre- 

 vented expansion. Means from some source should be supplied to 

 enable the Directors to supplement the present classes with others in 

 modeling, water colors, wood carving, etc. 



A gentleman who has recently visited the Eastern cities after an 

 interval of four years, an enthusiastic lover of art, and withal an 

 energetic practical business man, tells me that the evidences of im- 

 provement in taste, mechanical and artistic, is everywhere so observ- 

 able as to be almost phenomenal, and sees it in the color and designs 

 of buildings, in the external architectural ornaments, even in the 

 signs; in fact, all things, external and internal. 



This is real progress, and what we want to see is such palpable evi- 

 dence of improvement in California. We want to carry the refining 

 influence of art into the household of every farmer and mechanic 

 in the State. Judicious selection of color in the painting and papering 

 of our houses, appropriateness of ornament, elegance of form and 

 fitness of purpose in our domestic utensils, are indications of this 

 grateful influence. It will come gradually, but I am sure it will come 

 in time. Let us do what we can to hasten it. 



Directors, members, and fellow-citizens, to-day we leave the past 

 behind us, and in this new palace of industry we inaugurate a new 

 era. Older countries may have had their golden age in the past; 

 ours is in the future. 



