STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 170 



Governor Henry S. Foote delivered the annual address, and dwelt 

 at considerable length upon the products of California as he had 

 seen them since he had been in the State. A single paragraph will 

 suffice to show the wonderful developments that liad been made at 

 tliat day. He said: 



But u'hnt, I pray }'ou, wmild our friend:^ and fello-\v-oit.izens of the Atlantio, States think or 

 say oF mo weio I to mention here, partly of eour.se for their entertainment, a hundredth part of 

 the wonderful things I have lieard, and which seem to me well attested, tou-:hing the results of 

 farming- in Calil'ornia? Suppose, fo)- instance, I should say that in the year laSo one of our C'al- 

 ilbrnia farmers raised from ninety-nine acres of land a oroj) of wheat averaging; a little more 

 than one liundred and forty-nine busliels to the acre; that six hundred bushels of potatoes had 

 frequently been produced from a single acre of land; that upon another acre had been raised 

 forty tons of turnips; upon another an equal quantity of beets; upon another twenty tons of 

 tomatoes; and upon yet another that one hundred dozen of cucumbers per day had been grown 

 throughout the season, amounting in the whole to nine thousand dozen — should I notincur 

 serious risk of being charged with gross exaggeration? 



Where beyond the limits ol' California would a man be listened to with credence, who should 

 state — what no one now present certainly woulil question — that delicious peaches had been known 

 here to mature on trees only two years old from the pit? that repeated instances had occui'red 

 of a double crop, both of pears and apijles, being raised in the same season? 



• Who ever heard, save in California, of pumpkins weighing one hundred and twentv-nine 

 pounds? Of beets seven and a half feet in length? Of a stalk of Indian corn twentv-four 

 feet high? 



AVhere, except in California, can it l)e asserted or proven that strawberries ripen every month 

 in the year, and that it is possible to bring !o ])ei'iection two thousand pounds of this delicious 

 fruit from an acre of ground devoted to their cultivation? 



The Sacramento Union, of September 28th, speaking of the fair 

 that had just closed, remarked editorially: 



The question is settled — the State Agricultural Fair has been held in Sacramento, and we 

 feel justified in pronouncing it a triumphant exhibition for young California. Her productions 

 in tlie gi-ain, vegetable, floral, fruit, mineral, and animal world, astonished her own citizens. 

 The feature of this fair is the great variety of fine fruit exhibited, especially ap]iles and ])ears. 

 The numlier of fine stock present, was less than was anticijiated, but for quality and size they 

 would stand high in a lair in the Einjiire State. 



Speaking of the attendance: " Never in the annals of this juvenile 

 city of the plains have there been congregated here so many human 

 beings as the place contained on yesterday. Nearly if not every 

 county in the State was represented. From Siskiyou they came and 

 from San Diego, while the adjoining towns were almost emptied of 

 their population." 



The premiums awarded and paid at Sacramento amounted to 

 $6,550. At the annual meeting of the Society held in Sacramento 

 during tlie fair, San Jose was selected as the place for the fair of 

 1856. E. L. Beard of Alameda vv^as elected President, and S. J. Hens- 

 ley of Santa Clara, C. K. Garrison of San Francisco, J. C. Yount of 

 Napa, John A. Sutter of Sutter, A. H. Meyers of Alameda, Geo. H. 

 Beach of Yuba,^and W. W. Gift of Solano, Vice-Presidents; C. I. 

 Hutchinson of Sacramento, Corresponding Secretary; Eli Corwin of 

 Santa Clara, Recording Secretary, and L. H. Bascom of Santa Clara, 

 Treasurer. 



It is proper here to remark that the official records of the Society 

 for 1854 were said to have been lost, and the compiler of this history 

 has had to depend upon the press of that day and other records for 

 all information pertaining to the proceedings of the Society of that 

 year. Also, that there was no official publication of the proceedings 

 or transactions of the Society for 1855. The transactions for 1856 

 were published by the Executive Committee in pamphlet form, and 

 this custom has been kept up every year since, w^ith one exception. 



