Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-09-22
THE ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT VI
THE STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

culated not only to assist. California farm
ers, but to give to strangers and foreign
ers new conceptions regarding the resources
and the destiny of this State. Mr.. Larue
points out the highly significant and I'M
portant fact that the crops OF the last sea-
son have practically disproved the sound
ness of the prevalent fear that our wheat
lands were being exhausted by overcrop-
ping to a single staple. He shows that
land which has borne heavy wheat harvests
for many years is still producing with
vigor and fecundity showing no signs OF
exhaustion, and his inference that the
wheat Weld of the State will increase until
it has reached the enormous figure OF
100, ZOO, 900 bushels appears to be JUSTIFIED
by experience The next question dealt
with in the address IS that of trans
portation, and here it is impossible
to overestimate the value of the advice
given to the farmers. 1t is evident that
with the increase Of the crops the Difficult
ties of taking them to tidewater become
greater, and that these difficulties even
now practically prevent the farmer from
making his market to suit himself. De-
pendent as he is upon Liverpool rulings, it
is absolutely necessary, for his own pros
perity, that he should be able to seize
whatever advantages fuctuating market
offers, on the instant. But so long as hun
dreds of thousands of tons of wheat lie
scattered all over the valleys, and so long
as any rise in the market is certain to i'm
pose sudden paralyzing strain upon the
railroads, it is clear that there can be nocer-
tainty about sales, and equally clear that
large number of farmers must be liable to
lose the favorable market through their
inability to transport their crops. There
is but one remedy for this, and it is to con-
s.ruc5 spacious warehouses at tidewater,
and store the wheat there as soon as it is
cut. Mr.. Larue proposes that the farmers
should combine and build these warehouses
themselves, and there can be no doubt that
in following this advice they would effect a
very considerable saving in variety of
ways It is estimated that the expense of
selling the wheat, including brokerage and
all cognate charges, amounts to So, 100000
per annum. By far the greater portion of
this would be saved if the farmers did their
own warehousing, and in addition, they
would thus be able to take prompt ad-
vantage of any rise in the market. The
speculatlons INDUCED in by Mr.. Larue re-
garding the future of the markets for wheat
and stock are in the main sound 1t is
already certain that Great Britain must
soon cease to depend at all upon
her own crops, and that she must
look to this country for nearly all
her breadstuffs. The case of beef cattle
is, however, not yet SO clear. 1t is true
that the Western prairies can furnish beef
in practically unlimited quantities, but
here a question Of quality has to be con-
sidered. The proportion of really fine
American beef which finds its way to Eng
land is at present very small-far too
small to enter into serious competition
with the English stock, whose excellence
is its sure protection. Wild beef cannot,
at least for some time, hope to compete in
that field, and it is not yet apparent that
American stock raisers have decided upon
adopting more careful land consequently
less economical) methods. The breadstuff
market, however, is already in the hands
of the Western States of the Union, and it
is possible that these States may present
ly be able to furnish beef as well as wheat.
Mr.. Larue calls attention to an ad-
vantage in wheat growing which distin-
cuisines California above all other cereal.
producing regions, namely, the dryness of
the harvest season. There is no other
wheat country, in or out of the United
States, where the entire absence of humid
ity can be counted upon with absolute GER
tainty. Here, however, we know that from
June to October we can rely with full conf
dence upon uninterruptedly dry weather,
and that our harvests will be gathered
without encountering any of those dangers
and injuries which constantly befall the
harvests even of our Western States And
we think Mr. Llrue is right in saying that
this one fact marks California as natural
wheat producing region, and as one which
will always be found the best country in
the world for the cultivation of that sta
pie. This argument is in complete harmony
with modern philosophy, moreover. 1t is
the principle OF adaptation to environment,
which underlies the most important and
suggestive deductions of Darwin and his
school. Nature has always proceeded thus
IN the evolution OF her successful species
and genera, and Man can never be so sure
Of success as when he initiates the pro-
cesses OF Nature. We are glad to see that
MIR. Larue takes broad and sound view
of the tendencies OF labor-saving machinery,
and that he does not fall into the errors
which are so easy in this connection, Of APP
pretending the expulsion of labor from
wage-earning industries through the rapid
diminution in the demand for man.
ual help in agricultural occupations.
He is undoubtedly right in as
Stunning that the multiplication of labor
saving machines is always and necessarily
to the advantage of labor, since it results
in the production of new capital, and the
consequent development of new wants,
which call for an increased labor supply
under more favorable conditions As the
laborer is driven from the severe toll of
the harvest field, in fact, fresh occupations
which offer him better wages for less ex-
hausting work are thrown open to him.
Every labor-saving invention, rightly
viewed, is new link in the chain OF
progress which is lifting the masses of men
above merely servile employments, and
afording opportunities for the develop
ment and cultivation of their intellectual
faculties. And as the life of democratic
society must ultimately depend upon the
intelligence of its majority. so it is for the
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