STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 173 



human affairs was ever met by a more liberal, kindly and wise spirit and 

 policy than that adopted and carried out by them. Let the mind that 

 is equal to the consideration of such measureless, boundless ruin, carry 

 out for itself the effect of withdrawing a proportionate sum in New 

 York. JS T ot one business house could go on with its business; not one 

 bank but would be ruined ; property would be almost valueless, and 

 bankruptcy and beggary would stalk into almost every home. 



There are people in California who would change our system for 

 theirs. It is as if we should take medicine because our friends are sick; 

 as if we. with plenty of good clothing, should go naked because those 

 Ave love beyond the mountains have lost their wardrobes. When they 

 tell us that, because the} 7 having no gold, use the best substitute they 

 can, that, therefore, we should send our gold away also, so as to be no 

 better off than the}' are, it seems as if old iEsop was a prophet also, and 

 foreknew their existence when he narrated the little bit of natural 

 history touching the wily animal that advised all his friends to part 

 with their tails because he had been so unfortunate as to lose his own. 

 It would, doubtless, have been very kind in them thus to save his feel- 

 ings, but how disinterested it was in him, may be another question. 

 When they can furnish us a better system in place of one that they are 

 most anxious to get back to themselves, it will be time enough for Cali- 

 fornia's to even entertain a thought of a change. 



The time allowed compels me to hurry through with the answer to 

 my first question. California, then, is the land of the olive and vine, 

 the fig and the mulberry, the orange and lemon, of fruits of every name 

 and kind, matchless in quality and beauty, and unlimited in quantity; 

 of flowers that clothe its hills and valleys with radiance, and fill its air 

 with fragrance almost the entire year; the home of all the cereals, 

 and most of all, that staff of the nations, wheat. Its valleys, 

 exhaustless for centuries; its foot-hills ready to take their place when 

 our farmers shall have learned, as they will learn, that in durability, 

 reliability, variety of production, capacit} 7 for irrigation, beauty and 

 healthfuiness. they are immeasurably superior . to the plains; the home 

 of animal life, where the physical is developed to an elasticity and power 

 of endurance not elsewhere known, and where the progress and power 

 of mind finds the best exponent in the unparalleled results they have 

 produced. Here is a climate that requires no long preparation for its 

 extremes of heat and cold, but leaves all resources to be made available 

 in continuous production and development. The hazards that attend 

 the labor of farmers elsewhere are here unknown. No unexpected rain 

 comes dashing over and destroying the crop that has exhausted a sea- 

 son's labor; no tornado devastates large sections at one fell swoop; the 

 lightning is not attracted to our stacks or our barns, but their owner 

 sleeps in peace, though the mower and reaper may have swept over all 

 his acres the day before. And if — for if there was no drawback, we 

 skoukhjfcie spoiled by unchanging prosperity — the earth is occasionally, 

 in the passage of the years, a little excited beneath our feet, we can yet 

 fall back upon the daily strengthening lessons of experience, that it is 

 because all the powers of- nature ai*e here exercised on a grander scale 

 than elsewhere, and that the earthquake is to relieve, not to destroy. 

 The tornado or the lightning do more damage to everything save nerves, 

 in one year, east of the Eoeky Mountains, than all that has been caused 

 by earthquakes in California since even its name has been known to the • 

 world. 



And now, with all these great advantages, and with an already 



