STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 81 



ADDRESS BY GENERAL J. BIDWELL. 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, SEPTEMBER 

 EIGHTEENTH, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHT. 



About nine p. m. John Bidwell, of Butte, was introduced to the 

 audience by I. N. Hoag, and delivered a neat and forcible speech, 

 commencing by extolling the exhibition as far surpassing its prede- 

 cessors. He said that if we went on progressing in the future as we 

 had done in the past, hardly any man could anticipate our future great- 

 ness; but although we had done much, much still remained to be done. 

 Wherever he had been upon the Atlantic seaboard, he had found a 

 dearth of general intelligence concerning California — her products and 

 her capacity. It would redound to the great benefit of this State if 

 there should be sent to the Department of Agriculture at Washington, 

 from some reliable source, specimens of our cereals and other products, 

 properly labelled and glass-jarred. He had raised some wheat upon his 

 farm which he defied anybody to beat, and he would like to have some 

 of that wheat exhibited in the Patent Office at Washington. He was 

 told there was some wheat in the exhibition which could beat his; if so. 

 all he could say was that it must be exceedingly good, for he believed 

 his wheat to be the best ever raised in California. It would be of real 

 advantage to the State, in his judgment, if the State Agricultural Society 

 would collect and forward specimens of our products to the Agricultural 

 Bureau at Washington If the masses upon the Atlantic seaboard could 

 see a worthy exhibition of our products, thousands would come here 

 who had at present no idea of leaving the East. He really believed that 

 within the next five years the population of this State would be more 

 than trebled, and thought that our State was capable of sustaining many 

 millions of inhabitants. In the way of manufactures we could, even 

 now, in our infancy, compete in the quality of the articles manufactured, 

 with any country in the world. We were only in the morning dawn of 

 our existence, and our career was onward and upward. The great labor 

 question of our country, he thought, would solve itself. He believed the 

 steam plow, if not already a success, was assuredly destined to be so in 

 a short period. He believed that steam, that great power which was 

 now moving the world, would eventuall}*, and that at no distant period, 

 be applied to pulverizing the ground; and that was nearly the whole 

 secret of farmiug. Failure of good crops generally resulted from want 

 of proper plowing — proper pulverizing of the soil The old plow should 

 be thrown away; it would not answer, as it rather polished than pul- 

 verized the soil. Nothing but steam would accomplish the latter pur- 

 pose. When he gazed around him and saw what had been accomplished 

 in this State, and then looked forward and attempted to grasp its future, 

 he was overwhelmed. He was proud to be a ^citizen of the United 

 States, and proud to be a resident of California, the brightest part of all 

 America. We had surmounted every obstacle in the way of making our 

 country respected, permanent and great, and we were imbued with all 

 the elements of perpetuity ; there was no nation in the world that would 

 nor dare to attack us. We were able to compete with foreign nations 

 either in the pursuits of peace or on the field of battle, and there was no 

 taller man upon this globe than a free American citizen. 



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