STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 187 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



ADDRESS OF HON. A. A. SAEGENT, 



DELIVERED BEFOEE THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1865. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — I have been requested by the officers of 

 the State Agricultural Society to address you upon the education of the 

 industrial classes, with particular reference to the means by which the 

 legislation of Congress granting land for an agricultural college may be 

 made available to the State. It occurs to me that a report would be 

 a more convenient form in which to present suggestions upon a subject 

 of this character; but I comply with their request. The advantages of 

 a thorough education for those who discharge the practical duties of 

 life, who give motive power to all industries, and thereby create the 

 prosperity and enhance the securit}' of the commonwealth, need scarcely 

 be discussed. They are to a considerable extent secured in this country 

 b}' a broad diffusion of elementary knowledge and better facilities for 

 the scientific training of youth. The lights that once shone only on the 

 apex of the social structure have gradually gleamed downward, relieving 

 the shadows at the base. The result has been stimulated invention, 

 higher virtue and self-respect diffused through society, and intelligent 

 patriotism, which has given strength to the national arm and steadiness 

 to the national will during the desolating struggle through which we 

 have passed. 



The spot where we are assembled is one of no ordinary interest. 

 Here, within the memory of nearly' all of us, a busy city has grown up. 

 A few years ago the occasional visitant found, as the only evidence of 

 civilization, the little fort whose ruins are still in the outskirts of this 

 citv, where Sutter traded with the vanishing Indian tribes. In this 

 great inland valley, hemmed in by the Coast Eange and the Sierra JNe- 

 vadas, were widely separated, here and there, the rude homesteads of 

 pioneers. Now, the Sacramento and San Joaquin roll their waters 

 through hundreds of miles of cultivated fields; and thriving towns and 

 cities have started into existence on their banks. Central among them 

 all, because the centre of the creative railroad interest, and the principal 

 inlet of the trade that flows into the mountain communities, and over 

 the mountains to the empire beyond, is this city which now spreads out 



