STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 19 



consisted of 93 head of thoroughbred short-horns, 55 head of Ahlerney 

 and Jerseys, 33 head of Devon s and Ayrshires, and 12 liead of graded 

 cattle — and this wlien there is not probably one in ten of the owners 

 of horned cattle in the State who has not more or less thoroughbred 

 animals, and who is not engaged in breeding up his stock. Califor- 

 nia boasts, and truly, too, of containing the largest pure blood Span- 

 ish and French merino flocks of sheep in the United States, and the 

 number of sheep owned within her borders is not less than 5,500,000 

 of as high grade sheep as any other State contains, and she produces 

 annually not less than 50,000,000 pounds of wool, and yet at a fair 

 embracing the whole State we And but three owners of thoroughbred 

 Spanish merino and but one owner of French merino sheep showing 

 specimens of their flocks, and but nine owners and 245 sheep are rep- 

 resented in the entire show, and not one pound of wool appeared on 

 the entry books of the Society. 



_ But leaving the stock department and turning our attention to cul- 

 tivated crops, we find, if possible, a still greater indifference of pro- 

 ducers to bringing their products to the exhibitions of the Society. 

 California stands first among the wheat growing States of the Union, 

 both as to the quantity and quality of wheat produced, her exports 

 amounting to from $20,000,000 to $25,000,000 yearly, and in 1878 the 

 Board offered $50 for best specimens of four varieties of wheat, $20 

 for best specimens of rye, and $10 for best specimens, each, of oats, 

 corn, barley, and buckwheat, and yet there were at the fair but two 

 exhibitors of wheat, one of oats, one of Indian corn, one of buck- 

 wheat, and four of barley — twelve sacks of grain all told. The Board 

 mention these facts, not to complain of any past management, but to 

 call attention to the general indifference towards the Society that has 

 heretofore prevailed among stock breeders and producers of general 

 agricultural crops. When we have found the real difiiculties that 

 have heretofore stood in the way of the complete success of the fairs 

 and the general usefulness of the Society to the producing industries 

 of the State, it will be better understood how to apply the remedy. 



The people in every department of industry must be made to 

 realize that the Society is extending to them a helping hand — that it 

 not only asks them to bring up for exhibition samples of their best 

 handiwork and products for criticism and comparison, but that it 

 proposes to lead them into the discovery and adoption of better and 

 more economical processes of manufacture and cultivation. The 

 Society must not present itself to them once a year in the capacity of 

 a beggar for favors in the way of contributions to the exhibition and 

 to its receipts, in order that it may make a creditable fair and pay 

 expenses, but it must be to all the industrial classes a constant 

 acquaintance and friend, holding out inducements to effort and sug- 

 gesting experiments and modes of improvement. It should keep up 

 a constant correspondence with all portions of the State, gaining 

 information from individuals and distributing this information to 

 communities, spreading among the masses the advanced ideas and 

 practices of the few. The Society should never be compelled to ask a 

 favor of a patron for which it is not at all times prepared in advance to 

 return more than an equivalent. It should be a practical educator to 

 the industrial classes of the State. The competition it inspires should 

 be of a friendly and honorable character, seeking more for the 

 information that is to be gained from the contest than for the pre- 

 miums that are to be won by the successful competitor. The fairs 



