STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 69 



pose of fencing stock worth onl}^ six million six hundred and three 

 thousand five hundred and forty-three dollars, and the annual increase 

 of Avliich is only two million two hundred and one thousand one hun- 

 dred and eig-hty-one dollars, out of the grain fields, or, which is the same 

 thing, or more truly the fact, for the purpose of fencing this stock in 

 that great field known as the commons. The strangest part of this 

 whole subject is the fact that a very small portion of this stock, or but 

 little of this big field — the commons — around which this fence is built 

 and maintained, belongs to the peo])le whose money and time goes to build 

 and maintain it. And yet, from force of habit, they persistently con- 

 tinue to impose this tax upon themselves in the vain attempt to sur- 

 round other people's cattle with a lawful fence, and thus relieve the 

 owners of the expense of a herder, and prevent the cattle from doing 

 damage. 



In view of these careful estimates, proving the impracticability of 

 maintaining the present system of fencing and farming, and abundantly 

 confirmed by the condition of our agricultural districts, as presented to 

 the eye and ear of anj^ one who may travel through them and become 

 conversant with facts as they present themselves, we submit that good 

 policy requires a fundamental change in tbe system in this State, and we 

 hope the Legislature will examine this matter in the spirit of compr-o- 

 mise and conciliation between the conflicting interests, and so act as to 

 bring the greatest good to the greatest number. 



A lavv was passed in eighteen hundred and sixt^^-four, applicable only 

 to a few counties, popularly known as the "Fence Law." The principle 

 of this law we believe to be correct, but the working features of it are 

 most objectionable, and should not be allowed to remain on the statute 

 book; but a general law, applying to all the agricultural portions of the 

 State,' embodying the same principle, but omitting the objectionable 

 features, it is believed would be of great benefit to the State. 



IRRIGATION. 



The great and unvarying characteristics of the general climate of Cali- 

 fornia, an alternation between a long wet or rainy season and a season 

 of equal length without any rain, and with frequent dry winds lapping 

 up the moisture from the surface of the earth with a rapidity almost 

 incredible to those who have not actually observed it, and at times seem- 

 ing to poison or blight and nearly ruin the annuals, which constitute the 

 principal agricultural products, induced the early settlers of the ancient 

 Spanish Missions, in portions of the State, to build extensive canals and 

 otiier appliances for irrigating the soil; and thus they rendered a boun- 

 tiful harvest as certain as the annual return of the happy harvest season. 



The absence of the fostering care and encouragement of a steady and 

 efficient Government was followed by the rapid decline of these ancient 

 and once prosperous settlements, and consequent decay and ruin of their 

 important agricultural impi-ovements. 



The advent of the Americans in this country having been followed by 

 a number of seasons of more than an average annual rainfall, we were 

 about to come to the conclusion that the costly irrigating preparations of 

 our predecessors were entirely unnecessary, and that the soil only needed 



