STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 31 



classes of horses, from the sturdy draught, to the fleet and beautiful 

 thoroughbred. All preparations were carefully, economically, and well 

 completed, and the fair was held. It proved a success in every respect 

 beyond the most sanguine expectations of the Board. The maxim, that 

 " whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well," having been 

 adopted in the beginning, it was strictly adhered to in every particular. 

 The ver}^ liberality of tlie purses and premiums offered gave tone and 

 character to the exhibition. The high value of the stakes to be lost or 

 won gave everj'body the impression that the fair must be a grand suc- 

 cess, and no one went away disappointed or dissatisfied. The superior 

 grade and quality of the stock on exhibition indicates the certain and 

 positive improvement we are making in this very important branch of 

 agriculture. The game and speed exhibited by the California bred con- 

 testants for purses, both in trotting and running races, places California 

 proudly upon the turf record, by the side of, if not in advance, of any 

 other State in the Union. Indeed, we think we may be permitted to say 

 that the fair of the State Agricultural Society of eighteen hundred and 

 sixty-four, taking all things into consideration, has formed one of the 

 brightest pages "in the history of the turf, and very prominently fore- 

 shadows many brighter ones for our State and the society in the future. 

 While we congratuhvte the members of the society upon ti>e many 

 happy and useful lessons of the fair as an exhibition, we are also glad 

 to be able to inform them that, notwithstanding the extreme unfavora- 

 bleness of the season, it has proved an unprecedented financial success. 

 Every premium and purse was promptly paid as soon as awarded or 

 won, and even more than were oftei-ed. Every item of expense made 

 and audited bj^ the Board has been promptly and satisfactorily cancelled. 

 The halndsome sum of eight tliousand four hundred and twelve dollars 

 and seventy-two cents of the old indebtedness of the society has been 

 discharged, leaving the present indebtedness, including interest to Jan- 

 uary tlrirteenth, eleven thousand three hundred and thirtj'-four dollars 

 and sixty-five cents, against twenty-six thousand four hundred and sev- 

 enty-three dollars and fitty-six cents on the twelfth day of March, eigh- 

 teen hundred and sixty-three, when the Board of Agriculture was organ- 

 ized, and the affairs of the society were placed in its hands. 



When wo take into consideration the embarrassing circumstances, 

 both pecuniarily and otherwise, in which the society was found to be at 

 that time, and the difficulties it has encountered and overcome since, and 

 that it has still been able to work out, in less than two years, this sub- 

 stantial financial result, and regain to so large an extent the confidence 

 and good will of the community, we are forced to the conviction that, 

 with the enormous receipts of former years, the society should to-day 

 have occupied a very ditterent position among the useful institutions of 

 the State from the one in which we find it. Instead of being poor and 

 its energies crippled with the encumbrance of a large debt, it should 

 have been in the enjoyment of such means and facilities as would have 

 enabled it to exert a powerful influence in the direction and development 

 of all the material interests of the State. 



Tiie mineral cabinet of the society has not received so great accessions 

 during the last as daring the preceding 3'ear, owing to the general 

 depression of the mining interest, following the unhealthy excitement 

 of eighteen hundred and sixty-two and eighteen hundred and sixty- 

 three. However, many valuable specimens have been added to the col- 

 lection. The Amador County Agricultural Society has donated a cabinet 

 of over two thousand specimens, mostly from the valuable copper mines 



