206 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



need reformed methods here as in other departments, and we should 

 encourage stock growing as a part of our diversified farming of the future. 



SOME SUGGESTIONS IN CONCLUSION. 



There is much in the present condition of all our industries, and greatly- 

 more in the future outlook, that is calculated to inspire hope. Some good 

 indeed will come from our adversities. The nickel has come to stay, and 

 with it has come a sense of the value of small things, and a necessity for 

 greater economy in methods and personal indulgences. No country ever 

 became permanently solvent and prosperous that rejected a penny as a 

 measure of value; we must yet come to that. France and Italy use the 

 centime — the fifth of one cent — and transactions are brought down to this 

 particularity. Heretofore an average California boy would not dismount 

 from his horse to pick up a nickel; the farmer returning home would not 

 get off his wagon to save a grain sack dropped in the road; he will do it 

 now. If he can only be persuaded to keep his small change and not spend 

 it at the saloons, he will have made a long stride towards solvency and 

 competence. 



Not one sack of wheat should ever go out of our State; our surplus 

 should go in flour, leaving the bran and middlings behind for our stock, 

 and to go back to the soil. If Minnesota can do this, why not we ? Bran 

 to feed cows goes from San Francisco to Red Bluff. What a commentary! 



This society, under its organization, has for its objects: To encourage the 

 cultivation of the soil, and the general development of all the agricultural 

 resources of this State; to foster every branch of mechanical and house- 

 hold arts calculated to increase the happiness of home life; to extend and 

 facilitate the various branches of mining and mining interests. 



In perusing your annual reports I do not find that scope of treatment of 

 these various subjects contemplated by your constitution. I venture to 

 suggest that each year there should be procured, from competent sources, 

 papers carefully prepared, setting forth the present state and condition of 

 special industries, with all attainable statistics. Your annual report should 

 be a compendium of facts relating to all the matters in your fostering care. 

 The great difficulty I have experienced in fortifying or establishing any 

 fact bearing upon our resources and their proper development has made 

 this suggestion seem to me of great importance. 



With a wider scope to your reports comes the demand for greater appro- 

 priations to carry out your useful purposes, and a wider distribution of the 

 valuable material you are annually gathering. Every farmer and fruit 

 grower in the State should have these annual reports on his shelf. If 

 these papers should crowd out or compel you to condense the • detailed 

 reports of premium lists and races, there would be no great loss. 



I am not a Prohibitionist, and hold to no very austere notions on the 

 temperance question. I am not a shouting evangelist, nor yet, I fear, a 

 good Christian; but, as bearing directly upon the future welfare of this 

 people, I cannot be blind or indifferent to the debasing influence of the 

 unrestricted liquor traffic, and the practical abolition of the Sabbath as a 

 day of rest and worship. 



We showed ourselves wanting in any high degree of civilization when 

 Ave failed to enforce the Sunday law; but we removed all doubt of the fact 

 when we repealed the law. 



I am not here to moralize on these subjects. It would be inappropri- 

 ate — possibly indelicate; but as bearing directly upon our desire to multiply 

 our population and increase the number of homes, as bearing directly 



