STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 33 



embodying in tlie published transactions, with tiresome minuteness, 

 where and how they went, and all they saw. 



It is doubtful whether the benefits derived from such a custom are 

 equal to the neeessarilj^ great outlay. It is believed that the objects for 

 which the practice was instituted may be attained in a much more 

 reliable and authentic manner, and with comparatively little expense. 

 Tbere are men of ability and practical experience in each particular 

 branch of industry in ever}- part of the State, who would, do doubt, if 

 requested, be willing to act as officers or committees of the Board, in 

 collecting and reporting to them annually facts and useful and reliable 

 information in the particular department for which they are qualified and 

 for which they should be appointed. 



We have geologists of high character and standing among us, whose 

 business calls them to a constant investigation of the geological struc- 

 ture and advancing development of our mining regions, and whoso 

 opinions have great weight, both at home and abroad. Let the Board 

 appoint some one of these as the geologist of the society, and ask of him 

 a practical report of the character of our difterent mineral sections, and 

 the ])rogress and improvement annually made in mining. Such reports 

 would be, of course, brief and adapted to the general reader; and being 

 published in the annual transactions of the society, would reach a class 

 of readers who would never see the elaborate reports of the State Geolo- 

 gist, now in process of publication. And here we think it not improper 

 to remark that while the General Government is directing its inquiries 

 and investigations to determine in what manner to manage or dispose of 

 the public domain embraced within that portion of our State usually 

 denominated mineral lands, so as at once to produce the greatest revenue 

 to her Treasur}', and be of the most benefit to the occupants of the same, 

 perhaps it might be well to inquire what the cflFect upon the future 

 wealth and industrj^ of the State would be were those lands to be dis- 

 posed of in such a manner as to invite and induce the permanent occu- 

 pancy and cultivation in vin^'ards of those millions of acres located on 

 the iiill and mountain sides, and in the countless valleys, which, from 

 actual experience and by the chemical analysis of the soil, and the favor- 

 able atmospherical phenomena, are proved capable of producing wines 

 and raisins equal, if not superior, to the most excellent productions of 

 the most favored wine producing countries, not excepting the celebrated 

 wines of the Johannisberg and delicious raisins of Malaga. Under our 

 present system of mining regulations and laws, very few of these acres 

 will be thus cultivated until the title to the same is vested in the culti- 

 vator. Their management or sale becomes a serious question of State 

 as well as national polic3^ It is the interest as well as the duty of the 

 people of the State to indicate to the General Government the proper 

 policy to be adopted in regard to them. It is better to take time by the 

 forelock, and control and direct that policy for our own interests and 

 the best interests of the Government, than, when too late, to condemn a 

 policy which may be to the detriment of both. Every department of 

 industry is equally interested in the question, for when you touch the 

 mines with the hand of oppression, you oppress every other interest; 

 and when you encourage and stimulate the development of the mines, 

 you encourage and stimulate every other pursuit. In this respect, if not 

 in the actual investment of money, we are all miners and all cultivators 

 of the soil. A convention, embi-acing all the States and Territories on 



