STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 341 



amusement and practice ignored by many, in all communities, and the 

 managers of these fairs are much abused because, forsooth, they encour- 

 age this profitable branch of natural wealth — the raising of valuable 

 stock, such as a Norfolk, an Ethan Allen, a Dexter and hundreds of 

 others, speedy and notable animals, worth from ten thousand to thirty 

 thousand dollars each. There are reasons why this amusement should 

 be tolerated at our agricultural fairs. The horse is, by all nations and 

 in all ages, universal^ 7 admired, and horse racing has been a matter of 

 admiration and is coeval with their subjection to man. The value of a 

 horse is increased a hundredfold by his extra speed and endurance. The 

 farmer and breeder exhibits his animal for their extra qualities, with 

 pride, and in the expectation of getting an extra price, which he readily 

 obtains; thus stimulating his neighbor to improve his stock. Any judi- 

 cious mode which will improve desirable qualities of the horse, particu- 

 larly speed and endurance, increases to a very large per cent, this value, 

 consequently wealth, and lessens taxation Trials of speed and endur- 

 ance of the horse are amusements, when well conducted, which even an 

 old fogy and the fastidious clergymen desire to witness. Thousands 

 visit agricultural fairs for no other reason than to witness the horse 

 department and trials of speed. This class of persons would not travel 

 so far to see a mammoth squash, an apple, or a sewing machine, so common 

 in this State, yet, being brought directly in contact with a great variety 

 of other interests than the horse, return with new ideas, and are better 

 informed men. Trials of speed, at these fairs, are necessary adjuncts; 

 they increase the receipts and produce the material aid, which could not 

 be produced otherwise, thus enabling these societies to pay their bills 

 and premiums. Without this aid, agricultural societies cannot prosper 

 or even exist. All good things are liable to abuse. Who knows but 

 that beautiful part of creation, the ladies, would not abuse the Suffrage 

 Act should they be allowed to vote? They might become our lords, and 

 we men, something else? There is one thing I am sure they would do — 

 vote for a horse race. Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, for dwelling so 

 long upon the horse. 



The great valleys, San Joaquin and Tulare, extending from Stockton 

 to Tejon Pass, three hundred miles, by an average width of fifty miles, 

 embracing twelve counties, containing over eighteen million three hun- 

 dred and sixty-eight thousand acres, a territory larger than all the New 

 England States, save New Hampshire. These counties contain land 

 susceptible of cultivation, six million of acres ; swamp and tide lands, five 

 hundred thousand acres. This amount of land good for cultivation does 

 not embrace land in the hundreds of little valleys in the mountains, and 

 on the foot-hills, now well known to be perfect^ adapted to fruit culture, 

 particularly the grape in most of its varieties. These valleys have been 

 little known or thought of outside of their resident population until 

 recently. Since eighteen hundred and sixty-eight more land has been 

 entered in the Stockton Land Office (over two hundred thousand acres) 

 than in all previous years. The land in the valleys bordering on the 

 Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Merced, Mariposa, Owens, Fresno and Chowchilla 

 Eivers are extensively rich in soil, being a sandy loam, alluvium, and 

 enriched for ages by the accumulation of decomposed vegetable matter 

 | and mineral washings from the mountains and hillsides; also, similar 

 lands bordering on King's, White, Kern and Tulare Kivers, and the 

 score of smaller streams which, like the larger streams or rivers, mean- 

 der through the land from the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and 

 empty their waters into the San Joaquin River and Tulare Lake, a dis- 



