STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 30 



o 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



DELIVERED AT THE EIGHTH ANNUAL FAIR OF THE NORTHERN DISTRICT, 

 EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE. 



By Hon. W. II. PAEKS, President. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : It has been customary for the President, in 

 calling the society to order at each exhibition or fair, to make a few 

 remarks. Sometimes addresses have been prepared appropriate for the 

 occasion, and I do not know but what some one expects that I have 

 prepared such an address; but, unfortunately, Presidents are not always 

 chosen with a view to their capacity for delivering addresses, and at this 

 time you have such a President. I have not prepared such an address, 

 for the reason that my own business has occupied my whole time; and 

 whatever I say this evening will be impromptu, and such suggestions as 

 I think most appropriate. 



I certainly can congratulate you, as each President has had occasion 

 to do before, upon the success of this society. Although the numbers 

 here to-night are but few, compared to those who have assembled here 

 before, the fair, the exhibition, the result is a success. 



At the organization of this society, the successful cultivation of the 

 different fruits on exhibition here to-night was an experiment. The 

 organization was to encourage the cultivation of these fruits and the 

 grains which are bountifully supplied to us at this time. It is no longer 

 an experiment — no longer a problem as to whether we have a State capa- 

 ble of producing all the fruits desired by us; no longer an experiment 

 whether our State is susceptible of producing all the grains that can be 

 consumed by its inhabitants and sufficient for millions besides; conse- 

 quently the numbers are not so great now as formerly, of those who take 

 active part in developing the resources of our State. This, perhaps, 

 may be an apology for an apparent lack of interest in the citizens and 

 the members of the society. 



There are interests, however, in my opinion, of greater importance 

 now than ever before. We have demonstrated that we can produce them 

 in abundance and surplus; and now comes the question, what shall we 

 do with the surplus? When we first commenced producing, we had a 

 population of miners, who consumed all that we produced; and three times 

 the amount we produced we had to import. It is now reversed. We 

 produce more than all our miners and all our inhabitants can consume, 

 and we must look to a foreign market; and the question now comes, can 

 we compete with those who are more favorably situated in regard to the 



