440 MENDOCINO COUNTY 



And I may here remark that in America some ot our greatest 

 statesmen leave the field to enter the halls of Congress. A striking 

 example is General Garfield, member of Congress from Ohio, who 

 was informed of his last nomination while following the plow, and 

 who is acknowledged by all to be learned, wise, and one of the great- 

 est debaters in either house of our national Congress. 



Says Cato: "Our ancestors regarded it as a grand point of hus- 

 bandrj^ not to have too much land in one farm, for they considered 

 that more profit came by holding little and tilling it well." And 

 Virgil says: "The farmer may praise large estates, but let him culti- 

 vate a small one." Pliny says that four hundred stalks of wheat, all 

 grown from one seed, were sent to the Emperor Augustus, and at 

 another time three hundred and forty from one seed were sent to the 

 Emperor Nero, accompanied by the statement that the soil, when 

 dry, was so stiff that the strongest oxen could not plow it, but after a 

 rain the soil was opened by a plow drawn by a wretched mule and 

 an old woman, harnessed together. 



Farming in the United States has certainly arrived at great perfec- 

 tion; and I think I can safely say that we would have excelled the 

 world — possessing the richest land that the sun ever shone upon — if 

 we had not held too much land. If we had been confined to small 

 tracts for farms, as they are in Europe, and thus been forced to utilize 

 all our land, to till it and care for it as they do, then, with the natural 

 industry of the American farmer, assisted by the improved farming 

 utensils and machinery that the inventive genius of our people has 

 placed at our command, no one can question that the art of agricul- 

 ture would ere this have been one of our greatest attributes, and that 

 we would have led the van of civilized production and prosperity. 



In this respect California is not behind her sister States. Land 

 within her borders has been plenty — more than sufficient for the 

 necessities of her people; so plentiful and so. easily cultivated that 

 her farmers have not been stimulated to care for it and educate them- 

 selves in agriculture to the extent which is necessary to make it pro- 

 duce to its full capacity. Yet our State ranks well ; and, considering 

 its youth and the many pursuits that lure its citizens, can readily be 

 classed as one of the best farming and stock raising States of the 

 Union. 



And we of Mendocino are not behind our sister counties. Our 

 farmers willingly produce all that our markets demand; and when 

 the valleys of our county are connected by railroad with deep water 

 and the great commercial City of San Francisco, so that the products 

 of our soil can be profitably transported to a larger and better 

 market, then we will take our rank as one of the first producing 

 counties of the State. We should all strive to have this much 

 desired and needed ultimatum reached — that is, communication by 

 rail with deep water. 



In conclusion, I will say that every citizen of the county should 

 lend his aid to the Mendocino County Agricultural Association, repre- 

 senting agriculture, an art so beneficial to us all, for it cannot help 

 be the means of benefiting us as a county and people. That it may 

 succeed in all its anticipations is my earnest wish, and I hope that of 

 all present. 



