THIRTEENTH DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 669 



but a few years ago, enriched the manufacturers of other States and coun- 

 tries. 



We might, and perhaps ought, in justice to other contributors in this 

 hall, mention other and equally important exhibitions in every branch of 

 industry, but time will not permit, and in behalf of the Board of Directors 

 we request each and all to accept our sincere thanks for the exhibition here 

 made. 



Last, but by no means least, is the splendid exhibition at the fair grounds. 

 In this department California is rapidly becoming the banner State in the 

 Union. We may be proud of the judgment and enterprise of our leading 

 stock growers. 



The plump, long-bodied, and short-legged Berkshire swine, the fine- 

 wooled and symmetrically-formed Spanish and French Merino sheep, the 

 broad-quartered, velvet-coated Durham cattle, the beautiful, fleetfooted, 

 peerless thoroughbred horses, to be seen there, are all the results of improve- 

 ment brought about by observation and experiment, judgment and science, 

 learned through the medium of agricultural societies. 



We have seen that the principal improvements in agriculture date from 

 about the beginning of the nineteenth century, and at about the same 

 period we should expect to find the active causes which induced it or gave 

 it such a striking impulse. The system of annual fairs, and exhibition of 

 farm products and farm implements, dates from about the end of the 

 eighteenth or beginning of the nineteenth century. They brought people 

 together in honorable emulation, and gave them opportunities of observa- 

 tion and improvement, which thousands of years of isolated and individual 

 exertion and experience could not have afforded them, and we see the 

 results. To just such associations as this, more than to any other cause, is 

 the nation indebted for its wealth, its power, its good government at home, 

 its honor and consideration abroad. Yes, fellow members of the Northern 

 District Agricultural Society, through such associations the people of the 

 United States are prepared to be the heroes, not only in war, but in peace; 

 fitted to become the heroes of any emergency, whether it be to put down a 

 rebellion with the sword or maintain a principle with the ballot. It becomes 

 not only an individual interest, but a patriotic duty we owe to our State 

 and country, to support these associations not only with our money, but 

 with the sanction of our presence, and the contribution of our handiwork 

 and the product of our soil. The man wdio does not think it will pay to 

 do so does not comprehend his own interest or his duty to his country. 

 Our past history, through the instrumentality of our agricultural and 

 mechanical societies and the cosmopolitan character of our people, is one 

 unparalleled in the world. But little over a quarter of a century ago Cali- 

 fornia was regarded by all of us who were attracted to her shores in that 

 early day of no earthly value except for her gold. Gold was her only 

 product, her only export. Seeking, digging, washing., and hoarding gold 

 was the only occupation of her people. Now we produce all the necessa- 

 ries and nearly all the luxuries of life. If we have done this much and 

 made for our State so proud a record under the circumstances in which we 

 have been placed in so short space of time, what may we not anticipate 

 for our noble State hereafter? 



In conclusion, we again congratulate the agriculturists, the miners, the 

 manufacturers, and each and all the representatives of the various indus- 

 tries of the State, that they have chosen so good a country for their homes, 

 and upon the bright and cheering prospects for the future, warranted by the 

 increasing interest manifested in exhibitions like the present. We feel 

 under many obligations to them for the success of our efforts in bringing 



