98 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ANNUM. ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, AT SACRAMENTO, 

 ON WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SECOND, 



KKIIITEEN HUNDHKD AND SEVENTY-F1 VK. 



By Professor Ezra S. Carr. 



Gentlemen of the Agricultural Society : For the fourth time 

 in six years you have honored me with an invitation to address you, 

 and for the sixth time I have come here to be instructed and encour- 

 aged in witnessing what you have accomplished. 



Since the year eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, when I commenced 

 an examination of the agricultural capacities of California, I have 

 neglected no opportunity to compare your experiments in wheat- 

 raising, stock-raising, in wines and wools, and dairy products, with 

 those of older States. In working up these studies into lectures to 

 university students, or later, into a more permanent form, for the 

 benefit of our own and immigrant farmers, I have been more and 

 more impressed with the grand proportions and promise of our agri- 

 culture. 



In order to gather up the results of individual experiences, under 

 all the varying conditions presented here, in October last I addressed 

 several thousand circular letters to the farmers of California and Ore- 

 gon, and to every Grange, in which I directed inquiries to methods 

 and cost of culture, and endeavored to obtain estimates of annual 

 profit and loss in producing each of our principal staples, from eigh- 

 teen hundred and sixty-eight to eighteen hundred and seventy-four. 

 I wished to ascertain the necessary cost of producing a pound of wheat, 

 wool, beef, butter, cheese, honey, beet-sugar, of a gallon of wine, or a 

 bale of hay. 



I take this opportunity to thank those who have returned such full 

 and specific replies to those inquiries as to furnish the most gratify- 

 ing evidence of progress, and also a reliable basis for comparison of 

 the different branches of industry in the different localities. 



There has been a great improvement in the last six years in the 

 home aspects of farming, in the appearance and comfort of farm 

 buildings, and in the diversity of cultures attempted. Few men 

 would be content to read over a single page of any book, however 

 interesting; the book of Nature offers no exception to the law of 

 variety. 



There is a hopeful outlook in the direction of small vs. large farm- 

 ing, towards the concentration of the farming population into neigh- 

 borhoods ; in other words, of social improvement vs. social isolation 

 and deterioration. Also, towards the organization of producers, tend- 



