AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 297 



r 



\NNUAL ADDRESS. 



BY M. D. BOE.UCK, OF SAN FRANCISCO. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: In the ante-bellum days 

 the great divisons of the. United States were those of North and 

 Soutii. Almost coincident with the close of our unhappy internecine 

 struggle came the discontinuance of the employment of these dis- 

 tinctive terms. Instead of the Mason and Dixon line, its pickets and 

 bloody outposts, a grand natural line was chosen, and the Rocky 

 Mountains, with serrated peaks and ice-covered domes, became 

 accepted as the natural division of the great Continent. Standing 

 on this gigantic divide with our face towards the frozen North, all to 

 the right hand is the East, and all to the left the West. The waters 

 on this side flow into the Pacific, with its coral reefs and palm- 

 fringed islands; the waters on that, flow intothe Atlantic, with its 

 fog banks and fiercer gales. From the same 'high standpoint, with 

 our face to the rising sun, we look upon an older life, upon that part 

 of our land where civilization and refinement have for a longer time 

 exercised their beneficent sway, where customs are more settled, and 

 where a history is to be found that dates back to Plymouth Rock and 

 bluff John Standish. But " Westward the star of empire takes its 

 way," and wheeling around until the level rays of the setting sun 

 glow in our face, we see the new world of the New World. A 

 younger and more stalwart country is there striving and contending 

 for existence. Younger and lustier, the push for position is con- 

 ducted in a more eager and less thoughtful fashion. Looking down 

 into this Western country, we see on its face the scars and tokens of 

 a troubled time. They who hover here and there look as though just 

 having concluded one contest, it was a doubt with them whether they 

 were about to enjoy a season of calm, or gird themselves for another 

 conflict. From terra incognita to a Territory, and from a Territory 

 to a State, are transactions that occupy but little time in transition 

 with us Americans. We go at it headlong, blindly almost, and, as in 

 the case of all headlong and purblind rushes, less common sense than 

 uncommon energy is displayed. That patience which took a thousand 

 years to build a cathedral, we know nothing of; we want Aladdin's 

 lamp to raise a palace in a minute. In the one case the structure 

 lasts until the crack of doom; in the other, there is the danger of its 

 being swept away by the flrst whirlwind. 



In inverse ratio to the amount of time it takes to settle a new State 

 does it take to become settled. I trust you distinguish the difference 

 between the settlements. The heterogenous compounds take a long 

 time to assimilate; there has to be rearrangement and ])roper placing 

 of the social strata; in fact, the new country has to give itself a good 

 shaking up as a sort of homoeopathic remedy for its first commotion. 

 38 



