BTATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. IS'. I 



presence of the Chinese and the constant conflict among the laboring 

 classes which it engenders; and in part from the false impression, that we 

 are not yet divorced from that rude and somewhat turbulent period, when 

 men habitually went armed and the law of the land was often what the 

 camp made it. The typical Californian, in many peaceful homes of the 

 East, is a walking arsenal, with long hair and slouch hat, and profane and 

 vulgar tongue. People arc still reading Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and 

 Joaquin Miller. California is still a country of romance and adventure, 

 and a Californian is still an object of wonder and curiosity. 



The pilgrimage of the Knight Templars three years ago, the war of the 

 railroad companies last year, that made it possible to see California for a 

 small sum of money, and the recent coming of the hosts of the Grand 

 Army of the Republic this year, have done much to convey correct impres- 

 sions and force a clearer knowledge of what we are. But we should follow 

 up these impressions with accurate and reliable information; there should 

 be a bureau connected with this society to which the Legislature should 

 give ample means that should disseminate the truth widespread as to our 

 resources and the state of society. 



LACKING RELIABLE INFORMATION AS TO RESOURCES. 



And this leads me to state the second great cause for our slow growth, 

 which is a lack of correct and reliable information as to our resources. 



California, unlike any other State in the Union, embraces almost every 

 known climate, possesses widely diversified and distinct districts, peculiar 

 to themselves, and adapted to distinct and peculiar uses. One going into 

 Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, or, indeed, almost any State east of the 

 Rocky Mountains, knows the whole country when he knows a county. It 

 is &, question with him mainly of price of land, nearness to transportation, 

 schools, churches, and the like; not so here. He knows nothing of Tehama 

 County by learning all about Los Angeles County; he may know all about 

 Marin County and be totally ignorant of San Joaquin County, and he may 

 know all these and know nothing of the many charming and lovely places 

 to be found in Plumas, Lassen, and other mountain counties. What we 

 want is a bureau of information, supported and liberally endowed by the 

 State, to which any one can go and learn all that is to be known about all 

 parts of the State. 



How can we hope that eastern people will know where to go, when we, 

 ourselves, are ignorant of parts of the State remote from where we live ? 



LARGE LAND HOLDINGS. 



Third — I place among the causes of slow growth the fact of our large 

 individual land holdings, and an indisposition to subdivide and sell. * This 

 evil, I think, is fast correcting itself. Large farms are no longer relatively 

 profitable; the price of wheat and the falling off in yield are forcing a 

 change; a generation hence will witness the breaking up of the great 

 ranches; the statute of descents and the Probate Courts will settle this 

 difficulty, and meanwhile we can find abundant room elsewhere for a 

 healthy increase. 



IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE NEEDED. 



Fourth — We are permitting to pass by us into the sea one of the great 

 sources of wealth to the State. All our great valleys are susceptible of 

 irrigated agriculture. 



