STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



323 



AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE UPPER SACRAMENTO AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, AT 

 CHICO, SEPTEMBER THIRTIETH, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE. 



By Hon. GEO. BARSTOW. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: We are assembled in one of the largest valleys 

 of California, surrounded by the products of the field, the orchard and 

 the vineyard, and by the increase of the flocks and herds, to consider 

 how best we can improve the gifts of all-bounteous Nature. 



THE MODERN FARMER. 



The peasant farmer of one hundred years ago, for whom it was enough 

 to eat and drink, who lay down upon his bed of rushes in perfect content- 

 ment, while the busy housewife spun and wove the fustian in which he 

 was dressed ; who cut down the oak of the forest to warm himself, and, 

 mounted upon his strange lumbering vehicle, was jolted once a year to 

 the village fair — that being nowhere exists in America. His portrait 

 is a picture of the past. The farmer of to-day is another creature. He 

 thinks for himself. He has a part in the government of bis country. He 

 uses agricultural chemistry. It is not enough that lie has sheep, he 

 must have the best breeds, blooded horses, oxen — the sight of which, in 

 a California landscape, gives him a better picture than Flemish artist 

 ever drew. 



MODERN AGRICULTURE. 



The ceaseless new wants which modern civilization has evoked, make 

 it necessary for the farmer to exchange his products for furniture, for 

 home comforts, for new implements of husbandry, for money. He must 

 have the threshing machine, McCormick's reaper, and the header. It is 

 not enough to grow the grain. Without exchange, his crops cannot 

 bring him even the appliances of productive, wonder-working modern 

 agriculture. This involves the necessity of a good market, and for that 

 commerce comes in, to play her part in this grand drama of nature and 

 ar t — culminating in the model farm and the perfect farmer. The rail- 

 road, the mighty steamship, the telegraph are called for; the canals that 

 unite the seas, all the vast enterprise of foreign countries, become agents 

 and helps ; but chiefly the power of multiplying products and the means 

 of transportation within our own borders, are the needs of California 

 to-day — and hence I have chosen "Internal Improvements" as the most 

 fitting theme for this occasion. 



