S^ATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 205 



We have occasion to boast of the rapid increase in the assessed valua- 

 tion of the State, but we may well be proud when we analyze the increase. 

 It is in the real estate, the soil, the source of all wealth, and power, and 

 comfort. In 1878 the value of real estate and its improvements was assessed 

 at 1467,026,552. In 1888 the same assessment is $909,635,331, while ex- 

 clusive of railroads, the State shows this year only $174,409,378 in wealth 

 aside from real estate and improvements. This is a fact that will startle 

 the publicist and statistician, while it will gratify the pride of a Cali- 

 fornian, for it shows that our wealth and its increase are due to the high 

 farming of our soil. True, part of this realty is in city property, but every 

 vara of it gets its value from the fields and the fruits of rural industry. 



This great exhibition, the harvest-home of California, is the proof and 

 sample of what the farmers of this State are doing. It is ineffably Cali- 

 fornia manifest in the flesh. To the eye of the trained observer it offers 

 evidence of facts of the highest importance to mankind. It proves that 

 the utilities of the soil are nobler here than elsewhere, and as the utility of 

 the soil is refined, the value of the product per acre increases, and with 

 that increase goes the most important economic fact that can be urged in 

 behalf of our noble commonwealth — that fact is, the small acreage needed 

 here to support a family and secure a competence. I know men who have 

 sought California within the last six years, fugitives from misfortune or 

 stricken in strength, wondering only if the clouds would ever lift, and if 

 the sun would ever shine again for them. Encouraged to begin life over 

 on twenty acres of California soil, planted in vines and trees, these men 

 are now on the road to fortune. Surrounded with plenty, with sunshine 

 without and within, they can heartily repeat what a venerable Sutter 

 County farmer said to me once : " When the message comes to me, I am 

 ready for the great change; but I go, believing that the Good Architect of 

 all things commands me to a country that is no fairer nor richer nor kinder 

 than California." 



Let the word pass through the nations that California is the poor man's 

 land — if a man can be called poor who is willing to work — and that here 

 a home on twenty or forty acres is worth a principality in lands less favored. 

 And let us who are here, in the midst of this constant ferment of nature 

 toward useful production, bid welcome to all honest comers who are will- 

 ing to work, so that our seven hundred miles of rich foothills and our val- 

 leys in whose vast areas you might lose ancient Egypt, or Greece, or Italy, 

 will blossom with the homes of millions of free men, who, as each radiant 

 day yields to each radiant night, will turn their prayerful hearts to the 

 source of all good gifts, and with voices reverently joined, say with us 

 God bless the commonwealth of California. 



