8 Transactions of the 



highly relished by all who visit our State during the fruit season, while 

 the superiority of our pears and grapes has created a market for them, 

 everywhere, limited only by the means of transportation and the dis- 

 tance to which they can be conveyed in good condition. 



Of the tropical fruits, we have for years and almost centuries at some 

 of the old Missions in the southern portion of the State, been producing 

 oranges, lemons, limes, and olives, and they are now becoming almost as 

 common in the orchards of those localities as apples, pears, and plums, 

 and are found in the markets of all the principal towns of the State, and 

 are preferred to any grown elsewhere and imported. Nor are these 

 delicious fruits confined to the south, but are being grown successfully 

 in all parts of the State as far north as Butte County, and all along the 

 foothills on either border of the great central valleys. 



In many of the southern counties successful experiments are being 

 made with other valuable varieties of tropical fruits and exotics. The 

 pineapple, the banana, the mango, the cocoanut, the plantain, the loquat, 

 the Chinese guava, yellow jambe, the date, and some other highly prized 

 varieties of fruit, have been perfected in the open air in this portion of 

 the State. As it is an important fact that many of the most valuable 

 fruits and berries now cultivated extensively in the United States are 

 natives of a more mild climate than that in which they are found to do 

 the best, we feel warranted in recommending continued efforts in the 

 cultivation of the above named fruits and in the introduction of other 

 valuable kinds from the tropical countries. 



STOCK. 



In stock, our California bred horses are proving superior in speed, 

 endurance, and general good qualities to the best raised in the Atlantic 

 States or Europe. The policy of our State and District Agricultural 

 Societies, in giving valuable purses to bring out the speed and bottom of 

 young and untried horses of all breeds and classes, is having a most 

 beneficial effect in the development of the most desirable and valuable 

 qualities of this noble animal. 



As the highest value of the horse is measured by his speed perform- 

 ances, and as his ability in this direction depends as a general propo- 

 sition upon the judicious crossing of the best blood and highest type of 

 nerve and muscle, and as this happy union of qualities can only be 

 determined b}* severe and actual test on the track or road, it is of the 

 highest importance to those who make the breeding of horses a business 

 for profit that some perfectly unbiassed and fair system for the trial of 

 the speed and endurance of young horses should be inaugurated. 



The Agricultural Societies of this State, recognizing the development 

 of the best and most valuable qualities of the horse as much a part of 

 their duties as the improvement of cattle for the production of beef or 

 butter and cheese, or of sheep for the production of wool and mutton, 

 have undertaken to inaugurate a system by which these valuable quali- 

 ties may be honestly and thoroughly tested. Their efforts in this direc- 

 tion have been so generally successful that millions of dollars have been 

 added to the value of the horses of this State, while at the same time 

 most valuable lessons in breeding have been inculcated. If it is better 

 to double the intrinsic and serviceable value of our horses than to double 

 their numbers without increasing their value, then this action of our 

 Agricultural Societies is commendable. 



Our short horned cattle, born and bred here, excel their foreign bred 



