STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 199 



wool, cotton, and silk, and the California fabrics manufactured from each, you at this State fair 

 who have brought down here from the mountains the magnificent evidences of the boundless 

 resources of our mines, and you who have on exhibition at the stock grounds your fine-wooled 

 sheep, your cashmere goats, your beautiful and substantial cattle and matchless horses, will 

 then meet your Eastern brothers in honorable and proud competition for the favorable judg- 

 ment of the world upon the superiority of your products. And who that has witnessed your 

 contributions to this magnificent exhibition can for a moment doubt the result? 



The annual address was delivered by J. W. Winans, of San Fran- 

 cisco. The introduction was natural : 



After a long period of itinerant probation, which, accompanied and aggravated its earlier 

 struggles for success, we may at length congratulate ourselves and the whole country that the 

 State Agricultural Society has attained a fixed and permanent location, not only for the man- 

 agement of its official' business, but also for the holding and celebration of its annual fairs. 

 Through the fluctuations and turbulence of former years it was driven here and there, until at 

 last the ark has found its Ararat, and floats no more upon the billows of contention. You will 

 pardon my allusion to the scenes of earlier days, because they constitute events "of which," in 

 the language of the Latin bard, "I was a part." And what more favored spot in all the broad 

 domain of California could have been chosen for its site than this fair City of the Plains — the 

 Capital of the State — the center of its population, sitting like a queen in regal state, ou the 

 margin of the Sacramento? 



In their report to the Society in January, 1867, the Board say that 

 within the past year they have canceled : 



Of the old indebtedness the sum of $3,092 44 



Balance still out and standing, all in the hands of one party .3,851 38 



Cash on hand . 781 90 



The rent of the Park gives the Society an income of $125 per 

 month. 



The fourteenth annual meeting of the Society was held on the 

 29th of January, 1867. C. F. Reed was re-elected President; B. R. 

 Crocker, T. L. Chamberlain, and W. P. Coleman were re-elected 

 Directors; and the Board re-elected I. N. Hoag Secretary, and R. T. 

 Brown Treasurer. The time for holding the annual fair for 1867, 

 was fixed from the 9th to the 14th of September, inclusive. In the 

 mechanical department the exhibition of 1867 was the best that has 

 ever been made under the auspices of the Society. The same may be 

 said of the manufactured products, mill fabrics, etc. 



President Reed, in his opening address, gave expression to the uni- 

 versal impression of the fair: 



The exhibition which we see before us to-night is a reflex of the present state of the civiliza- 

 tion of the most enlightened nations of the world. It is a concentrated panorama of the indus- 

 tries and industrial occupations of the Pacific Coast. Go, if you please, into the lower hall, and 

 you will see there samples of our great staples and vegetables — wheat, oats, barley, corn, rye, 

 beans, Irish and sweet potatoes, onions, cabbage, beets, turnips, etc. 



Step into the wine-room and you will see a display of all the varieties of wine known to 

 commerce that would do no discredit to the oldest and best wine countries in the world. We 

 also notice samples of our butter and cheese. Our mowing machinery is a very attractive and 

 interesting department of our present exhibition. Never before has there been exhibited at a 

 California State Fair, or at any other State Fair in the world, so great an amount of really valu- 

 able and practical mining machinery as may be seen by stepping into the department devoted 

 to that industry. 



We may state that even the great Paris Exposition contained nothing that would compare 

 with the excellence and variety of minerals shown in the various cabinets exhibited here. 



For the interests of the State, perhaps no more important display is seen here than that made 

 by the enterprising proprietors of the various woolen mills. The articles exhibited comprise 

 all classes of goods made from wool. Besides a loom regularly running and turning off, in the 

 presence of the admiring multitude, a superior article for the winter dresses of our wives and 

 children, we behold here before us a complete exposition of silk culture and manufacture, from 

 the egg of the worm and the leaf of the mulberry tree to specimens of the best and finest silk 

 goods. 



Our stock exhibition — always superior — is this year, if possible, more excellent than of any 

 previous fair in the State. 



