678 Transactions of the 



ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



The following is a copy of the annual address delivered before the 

 Siskiyou Agricultural Society, in Yreka, by Judge E. Shearer, on Friday 

 evening, October ninth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four: 



Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: 



Again we have assembled for the purpose of holding the annual meet- 

 ing and making the annual exhibition of the Siskiyou County Agricul- 

 tural Society. Doubtless the question lias been asked, why have the 

 society selected, for the purpose of delivering the address customary on 

 this occasion, one who, it is reasonable to suppose, has had no practical 

 experience on the subject of which he is expected to treat. I am free to 

 admit, in regard to this matter, that I feel out of place, and the only 

 solution that I can give is, that the Directors could find no one else who 

 possessed the hardihood to undertake the task, and in selecting me, 

 they acted upon the principle that the sailor does in making a virtue of 

 necessity, and entering "any port in a storm." 



I shall endeavor to suggest to you some few considerations which I 

 deem practicable and important in the future management of your indi- 

 vidual interests, believing that the advancement and prosperity of our 

 county rests now mainly on that portion of our population engaged in 

 agricultural pursuits, for the reason that the other branch of industry 

 to which we were wont to look in earlier times for support — to wit: the 

 mining interests — has for years past been on the decline, and of the 

 miners, to a great extent, it may with truth be said, that "Othello's oc- 

 cupation 's gone." Not that I would have you suppose that I believe 

 that the precious metal has been exhausted in the mines now being 

 worked, and that new discoveries thereof may not be made in our 

 mountains and gulches, but experience has taught us that the yield 

 therefrom for a series of years last past has been greatly diminished, 

 and to such an extent that we cannot look for such a return for the 

 labor therein expended, as to persuade us to look thereto and rely 

 thereon as a basis for advancement and pecuniary prosperity, as we did 

 in former years. 



We have been pleased by an inspection of the various articles exhib- 

 ited in this Pavilion, and can speak in praise of the skill of those whose 

 handiwork has been employed in their preparation. At the Fair 

 grounds we have had an opportunity of observing the symmetry of form 

 and general comeliness of improved breeds of various kinds of stock; 

 and we have also witnessed trials of speed on the race course. J3ut this 

 observation alone is of no material advantage, if we shall stop only at 

 the gratification of beholding the spectacle, without the disposition to 

 learn something therefrom, and to emulate those who have taken the 

 trouble and incurred the expense thereof. How, then, shall the advan- 

 tages resulting to those who have been engaged in, and have succeeded 



