• STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 195 



Charles Holbrook of Sacramento, and N. L. Drew of Sacramento, 

 were elected Directors. The Board elected for Treasurer, E. B. Ryan 

 of Sacramento, and I. N. Hoag of Yolo, Secretary. 



The new Board, after a full examination of the affairs of the 

 Society, prepared a bill for funding the indebtedness of the Society, 

 the issuance of warrants or bonds, and the creation of a fund, con- 

 sisting of balances in the treasury after paying current expenses 

 each year, to redeem these warrants. By Act of the Legislature this 

 bill became a law. Under this law all the indebtedness of the 

 Society was funded, and bonds issued on the fund i)rovided for tlieir 

 redemption. 



The Legislature having ap]:)ropriated the sum of $4,000 for the pay- 

 ment of premiums, the Board commenced preparations for holding 

 an annual fair, and fixed the time September 25th to October 3d, 

 1868. Governor Leland Stanford delivered the opening address. He 

 reviewed the triumphs of agriculture in other countries, spoke of the 

 rapid progress in the Western States, and attributed this progress to 

 the rapid increase of population by immigration, and said : 



To divert this vast moving population, wliich will increase year by year to oui' own shores, 

 two things are necessary to be aecoin].)lished : First, to spread out before the farming com- 

 munities of other States authentic information in the shape of reliable statistics as to the 

 productions of our soil and the noble field that is here offered for the industrious and energetic 

 farmer; second, to provide all who desire to immigrate, a safe, expeditious, and easy manner 

 of accomplishing their purpose. * * » "* * » " Of the varied interests of 



California none will reap richer benefits from a railroad across the continent than those depend- 

 ing on the pursuits of agriculture. By it the attention of the world will be attracted to our 

 State: its population will be augmented; new fields of industry will be explored, and new 

 markets opened for the products of our soil. Indeed, with the construction of the Pacific Rail- 

 road, its inducements for immigration, the vast commercial relations it must establish, the great 

 tay cities which as one of its results will, in twenty-five years, have a population of a million 

 inhabitants — all these will create fur tlie farmers of our State a market that will be almost illim- 

 itable in extent. It is well for agriculturists to consider the mighty future of the Pacific slope, 

 and tlie consequent influence upon their own future so closely connected with it. 



T. Starr King delivered the annual address. He urged upon Cali- 

 fornia farmers the importance of immediate steps to keep up the 

 natural fertility of the soil, and pointed to Japan agriculture as an 

 example well worthy to imitate in this respect: 



Japan is about as large as England and Ireland combined. So much of its area is hilly that 

 hardly more than half of it is fit for tillage. Great Britain imports food from other countries to 

 the extent of many millions annually. But Japan supports a larger population than England 

 and Ireland. She exports grain to foreign countries. She maintains tlie richness of her soil, 

 and has kept it at a high and even rate of productiveness through centuries that sti'etch back 

 beyond the decay of Greece, beyond the birth of Rome to the days of Solomon, possibly to the 

 age of Moses. She has done it by careful obedience to the laws of restoration which God has 

 written in the soil. She treats the soil as a factory. Wanting cloth from it she gives the woof 

 out of which the cloth is woven. She finds that nature will toil for man forever if man will 

 give her the elements for her miracles. She reverently ofiers to the wand of Providence the 

 filth of cities that it may be transmuted into flowers and bread. The civilized world is now 

 waiting for some method by which the sewerage of its great cities and towns can be deodorized 

 and concentrated into solid form, in order that agriculture may advance another stage and give 

 promise of perpetual permanence of -'seed to the sower and bread to the eater" — that is, give 

 an unyielding basis to civilization. California will i^rove no exception to the general law of 

 nature, which enforces economy toward the soil. Our land is rich, but its richness is a limited 

 •quantity, and after a few years will show the symptoms of too severe a draft upon its generosity. 

 The Creator does not increase its fatness by a yearly silt of overflow. He gives it to us as a 

 trust, and if we do not try to pass it over to our children with but little reduction of its vitality, 

 we are simply squandering our capital in our great harvests now and mortgaging also the patri- 

 mony of iDOsterity. 



_ Among the important features of the fair of 1863, were the exhibi- 

 tion of wine and brandy and raisins — products of the vine — and 



