much lioped-for rains, -wliicli liad been deferred during the ^Vin- 

 ter, failed to fall in the Spring, and it soon become very evident 

 that all the industrial interests of the State, which had but a 

 short time before seemed so promising, must suffer materially, if 

 not prove to a great extent a failure. \_JChe Board, therefore, 

 rather than risk a general Fair, with so poor a prospect of a cred- 

 itable exhibition, and with almost a certainty of a financial dis- 

 aster, reconsidered its former action, and determined to conform 

 its operations strictly and rigidly to the circumstances in which 

 the State and the Society were placed. The law, however, es- 

 tablishing the Society and creating the Board of Agriculture and 

 defining its duties, as well as the tenui'e by which the Society 

 holds some of its most valuable p)roperty, required that a Fair of 

 some description should be held. In an ordinary season, to select 

 one branch of industry, however attractive or imporfantT-anti be- 

 stow upon it the patronage and encouragement of the Society, to 

 the neglect of all others, would be as unwise on the part pf the 

 Board, as it would be unjust to those branches neglected. The 

 effects of the drought, however, tipon the cereals, and all the 

 various crops of the husbandman ; the scarcity of grazing for 

 stock, comyjelling the owiiers of cattle and sheep to drive their 

 herds and flocks to distant portions of the State and out of the 

 State for subsistence ; the empty treasury of the Society and the 

 general scarcity of inoney among the peoj^le, admonishing the 

 Board of the propriety of a light bill of expenses, all plainly in- 

 dicated the character the Fair should assume in order to render 

 it, even in one department, a success. 



It was evident that no other course than the one pursued 

 could, with safety to the existence and future prosperity of the 

 Society, be adopted, and even as to this, the Board was in doubt. 



At this period of affairs, the citizens of Sacramento, with a lib- 

 erality equaled only by their enterprise and perseverance, came 

 forward and, by subscription, placed at the disposal of the Board 

 over five thousand dollars, to be awarded as purses and premi- 

 ums for a horse show. 



The sum of six thousand nine hundred and thii'ty dollars were 

 offered in premiums and purses, so distributed as to render the 

 exhibition a feature of atti-action and a lesson of usefulness to the 

 admirers of all classes of horses, from the sturdy draught, to the 

 fleet and beautiful tlioroughbred. All preparations were careful- 

 ly, economically and well completed, and the Fair was held. It 

 proved a success in every respect beyond the most sanguine ex- 

 pectations of the Board. The maxim that " whatever is worth 

 doing at all, is worth doing well," having been adopted in the 

 beginning, it was strictly adhered to in every particular. The 

 very liberality of the purses, and premiums offered, gave tone 

 and character to the exhibition. The high value of the stakes 

 to be lost or won gave cvciybod}* the impression that tlie Fair 



