STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 187 



ANNUAL ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY AT SACRA- 

 MENTO, CALIFORNIA, SEPTEMBER 16, 1886. 



By General N. P. Chipman, of Red Bluff, Tehama County. 



Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: In 1875 I immigrated to Cali- 

 fornia in a palace car. The halo which surrounds the '49er does not adorn 

 my brow. Coming here as to a sanitarium, my health was restored, but I 

 fell under the spell of your glorious skies, the luxury of your charms for 

 physical existence, the wealth of gifts bestowed upon you by a bountiful 

 Creator, the almost limitless variety of your productions and possibilities, 

 the uniqueness of your civilization, the grandeur of your mountains, the 

 exuberant fruitfulness of your valleys, the fascinations of your vast mining 

 operations and speculations. The sweet contentment of an older, a slower, 

 but solider and broader civilization, lost its hold upon me. I joined the 

 caravan of fortune hunters on this far off coast and became a Californian. 

 Like you I plunged into great enterprises, not content with the slower but 

 surer pathway to competence and happiness; like you I thought that wealth 

 could be struck from the forest, the mine, the soil, with the touch of the 

 enchanter's wand. Following your seductive example, I disdained small 

 change and small things. Like you I rioted in nature's gifts and squan- 

 dered her bountiful opportunities, and like you I am here to-day ragged, 

 hungry, and subdued, and am inquiring what shall I do to be saved. 



California has been born several times, Mr. President, but it is still in 

 the throes of its complete and final emancipation from the follies and errors 

 of its early days. We are to-day confronted with questions more serious 

 and far reaching than ever before in the history of our State. To speak 

 accurately, these questions have been ever present, but they went unheeded 

 and in spite of the warnings of experience; in spite of a gradual decadence 

 in certain directions; in spite of the sound advice of our best thinkers and 

 workers in the State, California has yet to make its highest and best his- 

 tory, and achieve its highest and best mission. Like the man of genius, 

 who relies upon inspiration and nature's gifts, and will not work, and who 

 finds himself outstripped by the plodder, California, with its unrivaled 

 advantages, is far behind many sister States in growth of population and 

 general development of its resources. 



In glancing through the reports of this society I find that our people have 

 been told many truths; have been frequently warned; have been over and 

 over again reminded of their neglect and misuse of opportunities. The spec- 

 ulative and trusting in chance tendency of our people has been uppermost: 

 they have scorned old fashioned methods; they have reached out for more 

 acres than they could cultivate; more mines than they could develop; 

 more water than they could use; and their energies have been directed 

 rather to holding together what they have than to development and use. 

 I am not saying we have made no progress, for I propose to show that we 

 have advanced, but we have not advanced as we should. 



