must be a ijrand sncceisis, and no one went away disappointed or -.^^ 

 dissatisfied. The superior grade an<l quality of the stock on , 

 exhil»iti(»u, indicates the certain a)id positive iin|n'Oveinent we ai'o 

 )iiakiiig in this ver}' iin])oi"taiil imuich of agriculture. The game 

 and speed exhibited by the California-bred contestants for purses, 

 both in trotting and running i-jices, places Califtrnia jjroudly 

 upon the turf record, by the side of, if not in advance of any 

 other State in the Union. Indeed, we think we may be pcrmii- 

 ted to say that the Fair of the State Agricultural Society of \ 

 lSt»4, taking all things into consideration, has formed oneoi'tho 

 brightest pages in the history of the turf, and very prominently 

 foreshadows n^any brighter ones for our State and the Society I 

 in the future. - 



While we congratulate the members of the Society npon the 

 many happy and useful lessons of the Fair as an exhibition, we 

 are also glad to bo able to inform them that, notwithstanding the 

 extreme unfavorableness of the season, it has proved an unprece- 

 dented financial success. Every premium and purse were 

 promptly paid as soon as awarded or won, and even more than 

 were ottered. Every item of expense made and audited by the 

 Board has been promptly and satisfactorily canceled. The hand- 

 some sum of $8,412 72 of the old in<lebtedness of the Society has 

 been discharged, leaving the present indebtedness, including 

 interest to January 13th, S11.384 Go, against S2(),478 5G on the 

 12th day of March, 18G3, when the Board of Agriculture was or- 

 ganized and the affairs of the Society were placed in its hands. 



AVhen we take into consideration the embarrassing circum- 

 stances, both pecuniarily and otherwise, in which the Society 

 was found to be at that time, and the difficulties it has encoun- 

 tered and overcome since, and that it has still been able to work 

 out, in less than two yeai'S, this substantial financial result, and 

 retrain to so large an extent the confidence and y;ood will of the 

 community, we are forced to the conviction that, with the enor- 

 merous recei])ts of former j^ears, the Society should to-day liave 

 occupied a very different position among the useful institutions 

 of the State, from the one in which we find it. Instead of being 

 poor and its enei-gies crippled Avith the incumbrance of a large 

 debt, it should have been in the enjoj'ment of such means jind 

 facilities as would have enabled it to exert a powerful intluenco 

 in the direction and development of all the material interests of 

 the State. 



The mineral cabinet of the Society has not received so great 

 accessions during the last, as during the preceding year, owing 

 to the general depression of the mining interest, following the 

 unheallliy excitement of 1802 and 18G3. However, many valu- 

 altle specimens have been added to the collection. The Amador 

 County Agricultural Society has donated a cabinet of over two 

 thousand specimens, mostly from the valuable copper mines of 



