San Joaquin Valley District Agricultural Society. 625 



pleted, and wharfage afforded the stately crafts of the deep, like Julia, 

 in the Hunchback: 



" She'll shine, be sure she will." 



OUR FAIR GROUNDS. 



It is as creditable to the Directors as it must prove to you, to witness 

 the improvements made in the race course by an elevation of the track, 

 and the construction of a new stand of double the capacity of the old 

 one, and the addition of fifty new stalls, and the needful supply of sheep- 

 pens to our Fair grounds. No pains have been spared to meet every 

 demand and supply every convenience, and yet, as an evidence of the 

 increasing interest felt by the farmers in our annual Fair, all these con- 

 veniences have been engaged. As a further evidence of the liberality 

 of the citizens, it affords me pleasure to state that these various improve- 

 ments were made at an expense of eight thousand dollars, cheerfully 

 subscribed by them for the purpose. These improvements increase the 

 capacity of the Fair grounds to more than double their extent when the 

 first Fair was held in this valley, and even now there is not a foot of 

 room to spare. 



CONCLUSION. 



The achievements that your orator twelve years ago (Eev. Thomas 

 Starr King) prophesied for your valley at the expiration of one hundred 

 years, will be fully realized in less than half that period. 



In conclusion, I cannot urge you too earnestly to diversify your agri- 

 culture. Let wheat, rye, barley, oats, and corn all claim your care, 

 but remember your isolated condition, your separation from the mar- 

 kets of the East, from the isles of the Pacific, and the Oriental 

 nations, by thousands of miles of land and water. Let your cotton, the 

 superiority of which is acknowledged in the marts of Memphis, share 

 your favor with the cereals. Give the dryer your fruit and the vintner 

 j-our grapes. Cultivate jute and ramie for your sacks, the sugar beet 

 for your sugar. Forget not the forest tree. Accord to hemp and flax 

 an ample trial. Eemember that alfalfa is thrifty, that the product of the 

 garden is always in demand; that the olive, the almond, and the walnut 

 are fully domesticated, and that all semi-tropical productions flourish as 

 if our soil had always been their abode; that the mulberry gives the 

 silkworm an existence, and that nearly all these varied offsprings of 

 the soil are so many encouragements to the erection and profitable 

 working of manufactories. Assuredly, with a valley possessing such 

 wonderful advantages, with the whole world for a market, we inherit a 

 wealth greater than that of any other equal portion of the wide world's 

 surface. To use the language of Moses, ours is " a land of wheat, 

 of barley, of wines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil, olive, 

 and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness; 

 thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are silver, and 

 out of whose hills thou mayest dig 'gold.' " 



79_(agri) 



