224: RURAL CALIFORNIA 



with a cattle show at a local race-track; that of 1856 

 was in San Jose and was prominently designated as 

 "not only a fair but a cattle show/' and deserved the 

 title, as has already been cited ; that of 1857 was of the 

 same complete character and was held in Stockton; 

 and the same is true of a display in Marysville soon 

 afterward. Thus the five great cities of the fifties 

 joined in declaring their conception of the desirability 

 of the proper development of American live-stock 

 industries in California and their confidence in the 

 attainment of it. The contribution of these pioneer 

 towns was not merely the arrangement of a popular 

 assembly to promote sport and extend trade, which is 

 always an urban motive in getting the country to the 

 town. It was more than that, for the exhibits, in the 

 live-stock lines especially, were largely imports made 

 by city persons and the offspring thereof bred on 

 their own country property. It was largely due to 

 the free money of successful city dwellers, therefore, 

 that California made such a quick start toward an 

 abundance of pure-blood stock, and the early oblitera- 

 tion of the Mexican types and the multiplication of 

 grades which manifested the prepotency of their 

 pure-bred sires as has been already claimed. 



While fruit production has never needed promo- 

 tive effort, animal husbandry has always been in 

 need of it, either in production, packing or commer- 

 cial handling, and has never had it in the effective 

 ways which the fruit industries enjoyed. The result 

 is that about seventy years after American farming 

 began in California, the fruit industries by their own 



