160 Transactions of the 



olives I received respectively the first premiums. In fact, my exhibition 

 contained all of these excellent fruits at the Fair, and for this reason I 

 claim special merit, and trust the committee will appreciate my efforts to 

 show the adaptability of the soil and climate of this part of the State to 

 their cultivation. I also claim for my exhibition special merit on the 

 ground of my early beginning in tins important industry and the many 

 early experiments made by mc at a time when the minds of nearly all 

 the people of California were turned toward the mines, and agricultural 

 and horticultural pursuits were considered of but little account. While 

 others were digging out the precious metals, to be shipped from the 

 State in payment for the agricultural and horticultural products of other 

 countries imported, I was thus early laying the foundation of an indus- 

 try which was in time to check the export of gold from the State and 

 develop her most valuable and lasting resources. It is true that my 

 commencement was small and seemingly insignificant, but all great and 

 valuable enterprises have their small beginnings, and should be measured 

 and adjudged by their results. My experiments and efforts have been 

 continuous from the Spring of eighteen hundred and forty-nine, when 

 my seed were planted, to the present time; and while from my location 

 the floods have done me much damage and thus retarded my operations 

 and prevented their extension, so that some others who commenced at a 

 later day have larger orchards and more extensive establishments, still 

 they have all bad the advantages afforded them by my pioneer experi- 

 ments. From this small beginning fruit culture in this portion of the 

 State has continued to develop, until it is now becoming one of the most 

 important industries of the country. If the committee, in making up 

 their decision, take into consideration the risks run and obstacles met 

 and to be overcome by the pioneers in new and untried fields of industry, 

 as 1 think they should, then I trust that my exhibition is at least entitled 

 to a fair share of consideration, and I shall hoj)e to receive the award of 

 the gold medal for the sixth department. 



Wry respectfully, your obedient servant, 



THOMAS K. STEWAET. 



STATEMENT OF J. E, NlCKESON, OF PLACEE COUNTY. 

 To the Committee on Gold Medals for eighteen hundred and seventy: 



Gentlemen: In coming before you as an applicant for the gold 

 medal in the sixth department, I desire; in the first place to state thai 

 [ shall presume thai in determining the degree of merit to which an 

 exhibition is entitled, you will not only look at the exhibition itself, but 

 will take into consideration any and all relevant circumstances tending 

 to affect that question either for or against the exhibitor. My statemenl 

 will be made upon this presumption, and I hope the exhibition may be 

 judged of accordingly. 



I will premise then by saying that since the existence of the State 

 Agricultural Society I have been one of its constant, and I may in truth 

 say, one of its principal supporters. Whatever has tended to increase 

 its interest, or extend its influence and usefulness, has been a subject of 

 lively interest with me, and has received my active and substantial sup- 

 port. So constant have been my exhibitions at the Fairs of the society 



