State Agricultural Society. 13 



As another result of a well directed correspondence, there were 

 exhibited at our last State Fair many of the industrial products of 

 China and Japan, and a number of Commissioners from the Japanese 

 Government, including a Special Commissioner of Agriculture, attended 

 the Fair in person, with an American as interpreter and agent. These 

 Commissioners were well pleased with our exhibition, and with the 

 evidences of agricultural life and prosperity generally. Among the first 

 visible fruits of this courtesy shown these people we may mention the 

 fact that a number of fine merino sheep and good blooded cattle have 

 been purchased by the Japanese and shipped to their own country, and 

 that some of the most intelligent and wealthy young men of Japan have 

 been sent out to this State for the purpose of learning practically the 

 stock raising business, and becoming familiar with our system of agri- 

 culture generally; that a large number of fruit trees of various kinds 

 have already been ordered from our nurserymen for the Japanese market 

 for the present season, and that the prospect now is good that Japan 

 will very soon become one of our best customers for our best blooded 

 horses, cattle, and sheep, and for a large amount of our nursery pro- 

 ducts, garden and field seeds, agricultural implements, etc. 



PRACTICAL FIGURES. 



We have been stating in general terms the adaptability of our climate 

 to an almost endless variety of valuable products, and the wonderful 

 fertility of our soil. To show that we have not overstated facts, we will 

 here introduce a few practical figures derived from reliable official 

 sources. 



By a careful estimate of the value of the agricultural products of our 

 State for the year eighteen hundred and seventy — a year of drought — as 

 returned by the County Assessors to the Surveyor General, we find that 

 value to be in round numbers sixty millions of dollars. Feeling a little 

 in doubt about the correctness of our figures, we asked the United States 

 Marshal for this State for the agricultural statistics of the State as 

 obtained through his census agents. His answer and table of statistics 

 very kindly furnished will be found in the papers accompanying this 

 report, and by them it will be seen that his estimate is identical with 

 our own. By the same returns the number of acres under cultivation 

 for that year was two million five hundred and ninet}^-six thousand six 

 hundred and twelve, which being divided into the sixty million of dol- 

 lars — the. whole product value — gives as a result twenty-three dollars 

 and ten cents the value of the product of each acre cultivated. We 

 would here state that this estimate of value is not based on export 

 prices, but on the prices actually obtained by producers that year. 



Again: by the returns of the Census Agent there were under cultiva- 

 tion that year twenty -three thousand three hundred and seventy-five 

 separate farms. Allowing each farm to have a separate owner or pro- 

 prietor, we have twenty-three thousand three hundred and seventy-five 

 farmers, or joint proprietors and cultivators of the soil. If we divide 

 the sixty millions of dollars equally between this number of proprietors, 

 each will have received as his gross profits two thousand and fifty-six 

 dollars and seventy cents. 



AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OP EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-ONE. 



Owing to the extreme drought the past year, it is probable that the 



