Siskiyou County Agricultural Society. 679 



in improving the order of things pertaining to agricultural pursuits, be 

 brought within the attainment of others ordinarily engaged in the same 

 vocation? 



It is for the accomplishing of this that agricultural societies are 

 established. Has this society ever adopted any plan by which they 

 expect to effect that object? I think not. We know it to be a fact that 

 one farmer raises a larger number of bushels of grain per acre than 

 another, and yet their lands seem to be equally fertile, and their irri- 

 gating privileges seem to be equal. Now, it is desirable to know the 

 cause of this difference. In other words, let the knowledge of the best 

 method of cultivating the soil be brought within the reach of all who 

 desire that kind of information. Would it not, therefore, be judicious 

 on the part of your Directors, to not only offer inducements to exhibitors 

 by an award of prizes to successful ones, but also hold out similar 

 inducements to those who come forward and make statements in regard 

 to their method of cultivating, so that the views and experience of those 

 whose success is satisfactory, may be known, and an opportunity offered 

 to all who desire to avail themselves of the information, and thus 

 acquire a knowledge of how to successfully cultivate the soil — and the 

 failure to make such offers, and hold out such inducements, is not alone 

 characteristic of this agricultural society, for I have no recollection 

 of any such inducement having been offered, either by the State Agri- 

 cultural Society or the agricultural society of any of the counties of 

 the State. In short, what is needed in this particular, is an inter- 

 change of opinion amongst our farmers, and a statement of their 

 experience and observation, the one to the other. In looking back over 

 the experience of the last eight years, can we flatter ourselves that our 

 condition is an improved one in an agricultural point of view? Can 

 we say that each one has, year by year, added something to his interest, 

 pecuniarilj' speaking; and have you a satisfactory assurance that in the 

 future the prospect is such as to induce you to believe that there is a 

 better time coming? Do the prices received for hay and grain en- 

 courage you to put an increased acreage in such productions? If not, 

 what then do you propose to do? If the industrial methods which you 

 have heretofore been engaged in do not compensate by satisfactory 

 returns, introduce new methods. What these new methods shall be, a 

 glance at the present condition of the county may help to solve. 



In looking squarely at our present conditio.n financially, and asking 

 the cause thereof, we are met by the reply, that the depletion of the 

 mines, the limited market tor home products, and the destruction of 

 stock of various kinds by the inclemency of the past Winter, has 

 brought us to it. Admit that this is so, should not the fact that such is 

 the case be an incentive to increased energy, properly directed, to re- 

 lieve you from embarrassment? Should not your experience in the loss 

 of stock warn you against a recurrence of a similar calamity; and yet 

 how many of you have taken the precaution against it? How many of 

 you have prepared to meet it, we shall know only when the Winter 

 is past. Does it not occur to you that the retaining and rearing of 

 large herds of cattle is calculated of itself, in the exhausted state of 

 stock ranges, to affect you financiall} 7 ? What in the continued levying 

 of taxes upon and the loss by actual starvation of this non-available 

 species of proper t} 7 do you promise yourselves? Would it not be to 

 your advantage to sow more grain, raise more hay, and after disposing 

 of what you could at such 'prices as you might obtain for it, for the 

 purpose of meeting such pressing demands as may be made on you, 



