A GRIC UL TUB A L SO CIETY. 435 



year? We can afford it; and I opine that the people of these beau- 

 tiful hills and valleys, and of our one hundred miles of sea-coast, will 

 not be slow in realizing the vast benefits to accrue to them from the 

 Mendocino County Agricultural Association, but will lend it that 

 helping hand and bestow upon it that countenance, encouragement, 

 and favor which tfieir good intelligence will teach them it deserves. 



There are few people, whether in California or elsewhere, who are 

 more blessed than those of our own county. It is a well known fact 

 that we suffer but little from droughts; and taking into consideration 

 the markets that we have, and the amount of produce consequently 

 raised, we may say that, financially, the droughts so frequent in other 

 portions of the State do not affect us to any considerable extent. Our 

 pursuits are so varied, and so adaptable to the seasons of California, 

 that, if the season is inimical to one pursuit, we can follow another 

 for the time being; and so well is this understood by the farmers and 

 producers of Mendocino County that they rarely lose by dry seasons, 

 while the plains of the great San Joaquin, and in fact when the wdiole 

 •of southern California is parched and dried for want of rain, and 

 when stock are dying there by hundreds for want of grass, and the 

 whole population is despondent and in despair, by reason of the fact 

 that the Almiglity has failed to send them copious showers from 

 heaven, we of Mendocino County are enjoying a plentiful supply of 

 rain, our hills and valleys are covered with a plenteous supply of 

 feed for our countless herds— glittering in their coat of green, and 

 rivaling the splendor of the Garden of Eden. 



Our farmers go to their labor in their broad fields with an elastic 

 tread and with unfeigned delight, and wonder to themselves why, 

 above their brother farmers in other portions of the Golden State, 

 they should be thus favored and blessed. 



Our resources are varied and valuable. Our forests of redwood 

 and fir have already become famous in liistory. The ships of the 

 world anchor in our harbors and load with railroad ties, and other 

 commodities peculiar to our loved county, and transport them to 

 South America, and other foreign countries where they are in 

 demand. For twenty-five years the woodsman's axe has been heard 

 in OLir lumbering forests, and yet its inroads are scarcely perceptible. 

 The steam whistles of fifteen lumber mills awake the echoes of the 

 early morning, and at eventide sing the sweet lullaby of rest and con- 

 tentment. Our countless herds of sheep and cattle roam upon a 

 thousand hills, basking in the sunlight of God's favor, bringing 

 wealth and prosperity to their provident owners. Our wool com- 

 mands the highest market price of any in the State; is as a rule of 

 the finest quality, and is readily sought for by the numerous agents 

 of the Eastern markets. In such demand is it that, when the wool 

 season opens, agents for the great wool houses of San Francisco call 

 ^t your doors, anxiously desire to purchase your clip, and, if the bar- 

 gain is consummated, willingly pay you for it on the spot. Your 

 sheep ranches are in great demand, and almost daily we see men 

 from other sections of the State passing through our county in search 

 for grazing land. They come from the silver mines of Nevada; from 

 tlie business thoroughfares of cities; from the frozen regions of the 

 Eastern States; from the sterile regions of Europe, and lastly, from 

 the bleaching plains of southern California, to purchase grazing lands 

 in Mendocino. The}^ behold our grass-covered hills and enjoy our 



