Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-09-14
PRESIDENT L. RuE's ADDRESS.

most important points while the State Fair
is in progress. The recommendation for q
new Pavilion is not new, but it is none the /
Less seasonab!e Four years ago President |
B1ruck made similar suggestion, and
every year since then the need of greater |
accommodation has been growing. Mr.. |
La Rue speaks the truth in saying that |
the revenues of tie State Agricultural |
Society are diminished by the insufficiency |
OF the accommodate at the Pavilion. |
The Fair has In fact long since outgrown
the capabilities OF the old Pavilion, and
we trust that before another FAR occurs
the Society will have acted on the practical
suggestion of its President, and built
new structure which will be large enough
for the growth Of mary succeeding years.
Mr. La Rue's recommendation as to the
prolongation Of the Fair is also reasonable
and to the point. One week is not time
enough to make anything like thorough
display of the stock, horses, and sgricult.
Oh nuo obhCi piOuuStiOus VI tuO otdSC
The speed programme under the present
arrangement crowds everything else out, at
the Park. The visitors ara obliged to
defer their attendance at the Pavilion
until evening, and one result of this is
such a crowd that it is impossible for those
who are present to obtain more than a
passing and fragmentary glimpse of the ex.
hibits. There should be time enough for
everyone to pay leisureiy and prolonged
visits to the Pavilion, not only at night but
in the daytime. The speed programme
should be postponed until the stock ex.
hibitions and competitions have been dis
posed of. The stock exhibitions should be
awarded far more space in the general
programme, and greater attention should
be given to trials OF work animals.
new pillow and other agricultural nipple.
nents, and matters of that kind. ALI this.
of course, demands more time. 1t cannot
be done under the present system. And
the RESULT is hurry and scramble, and the
unavoidable slurring over and belittling of
many important things. a fair of two or
three weeks would certainly pay the So
ciety much better than the present short
one, and it would attract great many
people who do no. now come because they
live far away and the time is SO short.
Mr.. La Rue's proposition to collect crop
ttof,a Fra, klrI u.
practical one, and promises the best re.
suits. These men are in position to know
precisely the amount of wheat and other
cereals harvested every year, and if returns
from the whole of them can be obtained
with certainty their figures must furnish q
thoroughly trustworthy estimate of the
crop. The proposal to pay them certain
amount for doing this work is probably
sufficient to secure the dispatch of the re.
turns punctually, but in any case the State
Agricultural Society and the District So
cieties together ought to be able to check
these returns pretty effsctually, and to see
that none of them were neglected or
omitted in making up the yearly estimate.
BY the prir ting o. convenient blank forms,
which could be supplied regularly to the
thrashers, this plan ought to be certainly
feasible. On thu question of diversified
farming Mr.. La Rue holds very positive
opinions, and they are not in accord with
those of some of bis predecessors in office.
lie believes there never can be diversified
farming to any considerable extent on the
plain lands of Ca ifornia, in the absence of
irrigation, and that the cultivation of com.
paratively large { facts to the cereals must
prevail. In conr cotton with this opinion
We will examine ais suggestions regarding
labor on the farm. He thinks that the
only way to meet the difficulty of getting
the farm work dene is to bring up the boys
to agricultural parsuits. But it must be
realized that if diversified farming in Cali.
fornia cannot be Hoped for, neither will it
be possible to give TO life on the farm that
attractiveness which young men are un.
prepared to forego.
4
that If We cannot have diversified farming,
neither can we h:sve class of farmers such
as exist in the Eastern States. Our boys
viii naturally and inevitably need and de-
mand more satisfactory life than wheat.
growing offers them. The bare, SUM- corched
plains, the unsheltered farm. buildings, the
dearth of work half the year, the desultory
character Of the occupation, must all tend
to repel and disgust ambitious and gre.
garious young people. Nor is it to be ex.
pected that any action of the older genera.
ton can arrest this movement toward other
occupations. Our children will look for
better things than they can find on the
farm, and it would not be creditable to our
civilization if they did not do SO. The
peculiarities of California farming must
control those who follow that business.
In their search for stable labor element
they will be driven to employ an element
which lacks the restless ambition that char.
acterizes the rising generation. Where this
Will be found we are not now prepared to
say, but the demand invariably produces
the supply, and therefore we need not fear
that the problem will prove insoluble.
All that MIR. La Rue says about California
farming we believe to be true, but what he
does not seem to see is, that, admitting the
correctness of his views, they really furnish
an explanation of that indisposition ON the
part OF the rising generation to take to
farming, which he regards as SO unfor.
tunate.
His suggestion for seed.farm is of the
first importance. The advances which have
been made of late in this direction are such
as to prove the practicability of changing
and improving every kind of cereal as
easily as stock is changed and improved,
by proper cultivation and cross. breeding,
At the experiment farm of the Rural Ne,c
forter most interesting and important de-
velopments of this kind have lately been
made. 1t has been found possible to pro.
duce wheat which will yield from fifty to
sixty bushels to the acre, by the judicious
union of two kinds, neither of which
separately had yielded more than half that
amount. This shows what can be done.
and therefore it is certain that seed. farm
such as Mr.. La Rue proposes would be of 10.
calculable value to the agricultural interest
OF California. In fact such an institution
might in few years of experiment produce
results which would double the yield of
cereals, while it is evident that the cost of
its maintenance need not be at all consid.
cradle. We commend this idea serdially
to the State Agricultural. Society, and to