EIGHTH DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL association. 17'.' 



has been marked, and the earnest desire on the part of all to excel and to 

 elevate the standards, is everywhere abundantly manifest, 



This exhibition has proved a great success, as is apparent to you all; 

 and to the Board of Directors of the association, to its President, the Hon. 

 Thomas Fraser, and to the courteous and efficient Secretary, Mr. Crawford, 

 and nil who cooperated with them, are due the praise and thanks of the 

 people of this district. 



In regard to the history and origin of these Agricultural Fairs it may be 

 well to say a word. Prior to the year 181Q, and dating far hack into the 

 centuries that have passed, Fairs were simply commercial marts, or market 

 places, held at stated intervals or seasons, for commercial purposes only; 

 but these Fairs, as now known and conducted, date back only to about the 

 year 1810, and for them we are indebted to a retired merchant of Albany, 

 New York, by the name of Elkanah Watson, with whom originated the 

 idea, and who caused a Fair to be held in that year, at which the various 

 exhibits were placed in competition, and premiums offered and given to 

 exhibitors of the best. That practical illustration of Mr. Watson's idea 

 proved a success. It at once commended itself to producers of all classes, 

 and to the people at large. During the succeeding years agricultural asso- 

 ciations were organized throughout the State, and State laws were enacted 

 for their government and encouragement; and now the success with which 

 the annual exhibitions of these associations are given throughout the coun- 

 try affords ample evidence of the popular feeling toward them. Hence it 

 is seen that these Agricultural Fairs are purely American institutions — the 

 result and representations of American enterprise. 



The primary object is to foster and encourage the various industries, to 

 encourage and promote improvement in inventions and productions, and to 

 hasten the progress of our producers and artisans-towards the highest stand- 

 ards of perfection, by bringing them with their products into close yet friendly 

 competition, thereby arousing within them a desire to excel; and while 

 stimulated by both rewards and rivalry, yet the end in view is attained, 

 a substantial good is wrought for mankind. And this competition is not 

 alone beneficial as being an incentive to improvement, but the critical 

 comparisons resulting therefrom place prominently before us the best of 

 everything, and establish new standards of excellence. 



The primary aim of these Fairs, then, is good, is laudable, is substantial 

 in the results attained and benefits conferred, and is only measured in its 

 height by the highest and grandest possibilities for man's advancement to 

 a plane of human perfection. 



Let us consider for a moment, briefly, the district here represented. The 

 counties composing this district have been, from the early days of our State, 

 mining counties, and, with the exception of our own County of El Dorado, 

 which has for a few years past been establishing a name as a choice fruit- 

 growing region, they are still considered by the people at large as essen- 

 tially mining portions of the State. While this is true of two counties of 

 the district, the other counties — Amador and El Dorado, and in particular 

 El Dorado — have been leaving the old and beaten rut of industry in which 

 they so long had run. These counties have been settling up with people 

 who saw in our fair foothill region higher possibilities and surer and more 

 permanent sources of livelihood than those theretofore known here; with 

 people who came to found permanent homes for themselves and posterity; 

 who came to delve in mother earth with the plow point, rather than the 

 miner's pick and shovel; who came to gather from our rolling hills and 

 mountain vales, not the golden metal, but the golden grain, and to coyer 

 our sunny slopes, not with the windlass and the noisy arastra, but with 



