200 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



General John Bidwell in his- annual address, among other things, 

 discussed the reclamation of our tule lands and protection of farm 

 improvements and farms as well as towns and cities in the valleys. 

 He recommended: 



First — The building of reservoirs at all favorable points to retain ■ 

 the water in the mountains. 



Second — The construction of canals so made as to occupy the short- 

 est possible distance between their termini, in order to secure the 

 greatest possible fall to a given distance, and thereby the discharge of 

 the largest possible quantity of water by a canal or channels of given 

 dimensions, and also in order to economize. 



Third — The raising of suitable levees along the banks of the rivers 

 and streams to retain the remaining waters within their proper chan- 

 nels. 



During 1867 the grand stand at the Park was repaired at a cost of 

 $1,266, and the machinery building was supplied with shafting and 

 power and pulleys to the cost of 13,433; $9,954 was paid for pre- 

 miums, and the old debt reduced $641, leaving a balance on January 

 1st, 1868, of $3,393. 



The fifteenth annual meeting was held January 30th, 1868. G. E. 

 Reed was again re-elected President, and H. H. Covey of San Fra^n- 

 cisco, R. S. Carey of Sacramento, and H. M. Larue of Sacramento, were 

 elected Directors. I. N. Hoag was re-elected Secretary, and R. T. 

 Brown Treasurer, hj the Board. 



The fair of 1868, though not so full in the mechanical and manu- 

 facturing departments, was nevertheless, as a whole, equal or superior 

 to that of 1867. In his opening address President Reed said of the 

 exhibition : 



jSTone but a prosperous people could make an exhibition like the one we here behold; none 

 but a highly enlightened and intelligent people can appreciate the benefits or enjoy the advan- 

 tage of such an exhibition. There is one feature in tliis exhibition so particularly striking and 

 so commendable to all the exhibitors that I cannot refrain from speaking of it in terms of high 

 praise and especial approval. I refer to the sjjirit of kindness and accommodation so manifest 

 on every hand. 



Judge J. B. Crockett delivered the annual address. Speaking of 

 the completion of the Pacific Railroad: 



This great link in the highway of nations is already nearly an accomplished fact. The sum- 

 mits of the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains have been scaled by the iron horse who has 

 frightened the buffalo and the grizzl}^ bear from their accustomed haunts and is pushing his 

 triumphant way rapidlj' across the arid plain of the Great Basin. In a few short months this 

 gigantic work will stand forth in all its beautiful and grand proportions an accomplished fact — 

 a marvel of engineering skill, a noble monument of national and individual enterprise — no 

 longer a mj'th, a chimera of the brain, but a glorious, visible, tangible reality, creating and dis- 

 pensing wealth, 25eopling the desert places, building up towns and cities with churches and 

 school houses, and distributing abroad the rich products of other lands. 



The Board in their annual report to the Society say : " We feel 

 called upon to congratulate the members of the Society and the 

 people of the State upon the fact which we feel a pride in, that never 

 before since the admission of our State into the Union has California 

 as a State, or the Pacific Coast as a whole, advanced so much in per- 

 manent and substantial prosperity as within the last twelve months." 



The whole receipts of the Society for the year $27,107 15 



Paid on old debt - 475 55 



Balance outstanding 3,134 00 



