No. 129.] 435 



dominated over his "amor patriae," that our soil, climate and 

 seasons are well adapted to the growth of the tea plant, and that, 

 as there existed no natural obstacles to its successful cultivation 

 here, he had sent to China for seed, and intends to commence 

 growing it in the ensuing spring. 



Indeed, there is scarcely a fruit or a plant, a shrub or a flower, 

 a mineral or a vegetable of which any laud can boast, but what 

 is embraced in the limits of California, a "bright particular star" 

 in the constellation of States, the crowning gem in the tiara of 

 freedom. It needs but encouragement to develop her exhaustless 

 resources. Agriculture is the greatest and most important, as it 

 is the first occupation of man. Manufactures, arts, science, com- 

 merce, invention all follow in her train. It is for the purpose of 

 encouragement to the farming as well as the horticultural inter- 

 est, that we have here assembled, and this silver goblet, equally 

 creditable to him who gives and to him who receives, I am re- 

 quested by Mr, Slielton, the giver, to present to you Mr. Horner, 

 as a premium for the best variety of vegetables and grains, and 

 as a testimonial of his, and our, and the public appreciation of 

 your persevering and successful efforts here in the great and 

 noble field of agricultural and horticultural industry. 



In your case we have seen, while the public mind was absorbed 

 by the irresistible maelstrom of the gold mania, a single indivi- 

 dual in four years even more successful in developing the agri- 

 cultural, than others the mineral wealth which slumbers in the 

 bosom of our soil, under peculiar disadvantages, from want of 

 proper implements-, proper seeds, and sufiicient manual help, at 

 first aided by the labor of only three natives of the forest, till the 

 teeming soil, in grateful return for her cultivation, yielded her 

 riches, and in the fifth year, enabling you the present season, 

 wdth the average aid of sixty co-laboi^rs, to realize from 800 

 acres of land in the Santa Clara Valley, of 



Potatoes, 120,000 bush. 



Onions,.; 6,000 " 



Table beets, 4,'jOO " 



Turnips, 1,000 " 



Tomatoes, 1,200 " 



