790 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



pound. All other products in like proportion. There has been much talk 

 during the summer of the extension of the Carson and Colorado Railroad 

 from Keeler to Mojave, a distance of about one hundred and twenty miles. 

 This extension will put Owens Valley in communication with Los Angeles. 

 A large influx of population and wealth will be sure to follow. The annual 

 address was delivered during the fair by the President of the association, 

 A. R. Conklin, Esq. He said: 



" This paradise is located in the center of a valley which is almost an 

 empire in itself, whose productiveness of soil is unsurpassed by any similar 

 scope of country on the known globe, whose salubrious climate is not 

 equaled, let alone being excelled, whose waters come down to us from the 

 everlasting snows, all contributing to make this a grand country, and one 

 whose future cannot be imagined, much less depicted, by the most fertile 

 brain. You have but to apply the magic wand of industry to your soil 

 and from it will spring forth the harvest of golden grain and the luxuriant 

 and nutritious grasses. Let the brawn and muscle of the miner but tap 

 the rock-ribbed sides of your mountains, and from them will come forth 

 such riches as will pale the Munchausen tales of Aladdin's cave. This 

 is a glorious heritage which has been bequeathed to you people, and see to 

 it that neither petty jealousies nor paltry spite shall cripple you in its devel- 

 opments; neither shall a want of enterprise and progression retard that 

 onward march to greatness, wealth, and happiness which will surely be 

 the reward of this people if they are true to their interest and faithful to 

 themselves. To you and into your hands have been confided this noble 

 charge, and unto your keeping has been consigned the guardianship of this 

 great treasury. See to it that as faithful stewards you will be enabled to 

 render a good account of your trust when you shall be called upon to hand 

 it over to those who are to come after you. Of one thing you may rest 

 assured, that the divine requirement of accountability will be exacted of 

 this people — ' That unto whom much is given much will be required.' 

 Then let us all stand united in the one great aim and object, that of the 

 development of the country and the enhancement of the happiness and 

 prosperity of the whole people, irrespective of sections or local interests. 



" I regret that I have not the statistical information relating to the counties 

 of Alpine and Mono, which would enable me to make to you an elaborate 

 report regarding their resources, their development, and their advancement 

 during the current year. But we know that the rough and rugged mount- 

 ains of Alpine, interlaced by the fertile valleys, which set up into her 

 sides, are rich and productive; while her grazing advantages are not ex- 

 celled by any. That Mono has, and we trust in the near future, will again 

 bequeath to the world, those vast riches of metals, which, in the past, has 

 made her such world renown as a mineral-producing region. 



" The wealth of Inyo County, as shown by the last assessment over former 

 years, has been of steady and healthful growth. Her population has 

 greatly increased. This gradual but steady acceleration has been the 

 result of her merits, and goes to show that it has come to stay. No spas- 

 modic additions have been made to her people; but it has come as the 

 legitimate results of the purpose to seek and build up good and prosperous 

 homes, where health may be found, and where wealth, in the near future, 

 as the end of honest toil, will abound. Her wealth has not, neither is it, 

 the outgrowth of inflation, or any result of excitement, or the greed of 

 avariciousness. Within her fertile vales there are over three hundred 

 thousand acres of arable lands. Of these, one hundred and fifty thousand 

 one hundred and forty-nine acres, valued at the sum of $416,429, are 

 owned, or under cultivation. Upon this vast domain there has been 



