594 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



OPENING ADDRESS. 



By Hon. L. J. Rose. 



Ladies and Gentlemen of the Sixth District Agricultural Associ- 

 ation: We meet again to hold our annual fair. Looking through a vista 

 of twenty-five years many pleasant recollections are brought back to my 

 memory. About twenty-five years ago the little acorn was planted which 

 each year has grown with increased vigor, and now the tree has assumed 

 fair proportions, and each year makes it more imposing and more yielding 

 of enjoyment. Then, on every side the lands for miles around were an 

 uncultivated and unclaimed treeless waste, which no one cared to own 

 even at $2 an acre. How changed all this is now. Lands are now subdi- 

 vided into lots and selling at the rate of $5,000 or more an acre. Beautiful 

 avenues are laid out leading to this park, lined on either side with shade 

 trees, and backed behind lawns and flower gardens are beautiful villas of 

 every style that architectural ingenuity can devise. As you drive along 

 these well kept and sprinkled avenues, the air is laden with the perfume 

 of the orange, heliotrope, jasmine, and the rose, whilst through the open 

 casement floats the merry voice and song of a refined population. 



A city is almost knocking at our gates demanding more room to spread, 

 whilst on the other side can almost be heard the boom of the waves as 

 they break on the shore, and the air is fresh and cool with the salt-laden 

 breeze as it comes, health-giving, rustling through the trees. Nor is the 

 change which has taken place in the features of the landscape more 

 marked than the change in the varied productions of the farm, the orchard, 

 the vineyard, and the improvements which have taken place in the vari- 

 ous breeds of all domestic animals, and especially horses. Then our speed 

 programme was very limited. There was no thoroughbred in all the bound- 

 aries of this southern district, whereas, we are now breeding them by the 

 hundreds, and of such quality that they are the peers of the best in the world. 

 Then a trotting race or a pacing race meant that a race made in three min- 

 utes was good time, whereas, we now have, in the stabling at our track, horses 

 which hold the record of the world. Not all have been reared in this coun- 

 try, but all are California bred, and we have good enough ones belonging and 

 reared in this district to feel that, in accordance with the number produced, 

 we have a fair share of the best; and when we remember Arrow, who is now 

 flying in the highest marks, with a chip on his shoulder challenging all 

 comers, and as we know by the telegraph having no defeats to date to ex- 

 plain away, we may be excused if we believe that the highest possibilities 

 are not beyond our reasonable expectations. We are as yet small begin- 

 ners, but we are laying good foundations. The telegraph has flashed the 

 news that the highest priced stallion ever sold is one out of a mother who 

 was raised in this county. Fifty thousand dollars was paid at auction for 

 this stallion by a gentleman from San Diego, and this might indicate that 

 he was coming back to this State. 



We take much justifiable pride in our orange culture, our grapes, and 

 fruits of every kind, and taking all in all, we may be thought reasonable 



