170 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



new elements of power, you will jet, each one of you, in the future, 

 continue to do just as much as you have done heretofore, and putting the 

 whole together, with the unanswerable logic of figures should show the 

 results that will be reached in eighteen hundred and seventy, and in 

 eighteen hundred and eighty, and in eighteen hundred and ninety, and 

 in nineteen hundred, you would smile complacently but incredulously, 

 smooth j'ourself down with the comfortable idea that with all the 

 capacity of Californians in that direction, you are not yet gullible 

 enough to swallow that, and as you walked away, would think and speak 

 of it all as "pleasant babbling, such as dreams are made of," and sure to 

 vanish at the first blush of the coming day. 



And yet, it is for your interest to believe, and to dare to trust this strik- 

 ing lesson of experience. I cannot tell you what California is, and omit 

 the boundless capacity to be — what she is to be hereafter — that is in 

 her. It would be to think only of the little, and omit the great. You 

 cannot do your part in working out her magnificent destiny unless you 

 grow to its full measure yourselves. If I can, in any degree, deepen and 

 strengthen your faith in- the permanence, as well as the magnificence 

 of her prosperity, I shall have done more for the agricultural, as well as 

 all other interests in the State, than I could possibly have done by 

 spreading before you in fullest measure, the doubtless extensive knowl- 

 edge that you expect a lawyer to possess, of soils aud crops and the 

 methods by which they are cultivated and produced. Indeed, I have 

 thus far assumed, that in inviting me to address you, you asked for an 

 outside and not an inside view of your great interests, and that if j'ou 

 had wanted to hear of crops or stock, you would have summoned 

 Bidwell, or Beard, or Coombs, or Martin, or Hood, to fill the place I 

 occupy to-night. It is good sometimes to look over our fences, and learn 

 what we can of the world beyond. 



I have spoken of the influence California has exercised abroad. At 

 home she has been going through a process of transformation that prom- 

 ises even greater results. Her valleys, for years believed to be worth- 

 less, are rapidly becoming the world's granaries. Up the sides of her 

 hills the vine is climbing, and its rich clusters everywhere gladden the 

 eye, and its blood " cheers the heart of man." The olive and the fig, 

 the fruits of Eden, abound everywhere, and even the tree of knowledge 

 of good and evil " — God help us if all who have tasted its forbidden 

 fruits in California are to find the gates of Paradise eternally closed 

 against them ! 



Within the last few years the culture of silk and the industries con- 

 nected with it have received a great impulse in our State. I look for- 

 ward to the time when in magnitude and importance it will hardly be 

 second to any other interest, and I should disappoint 3'ou and do injus- 

 tice to my own feelings if I did not pause to place such wreath as I may 

 upon the freshly made grave of the simple-hearted, single-minded, ear- 

 nest-purposed enthusiast who has done more than all others to infuse 

 knowledge, increase interest and secure the attention of our people to 

 this great source of wealth. Long as silk shall continue to be produced, 

 manufactured and worn, should the name of tho unrewarded martyr to 

 its introduction here, Louis Prevost, be held in grateful remembrance by 

 every lover of the best interests of California. 



I have not time even to enumerate the many interests that are being 

 fostered and developed by the agriculturists of the State. You know 

 more of them already than I can tell you, but do 3^011 also know that by 

 your varied industxy you are supplementing tho failing gold mines and 



