Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-09-11
THE STATE PAIR.

The twenty ninth annual State Fair
opens to-day under very promising au-
spices. The applications for space, both at
the Park and Pavilion, have been much
more numerous than ever before, and the
want of greater accommodation at the Pa.
vilion has been made more evident than On
any previous occasion. In fact it is now
clear tina. new Pavilion will have to be |
built before the next Fair, and it is to be
hoped that the State Agricultural Society |
will recognize the necessity, and at once |
take steps to secure what is so urgently |
demanded. The exhibition of blooded |
stock at the Park this year will be excep.
tionally fine. The entries are very numer.
GUS, and represent the most distant parts
of the State. 1t is in short gratifyingly
apparent that California farmers are taking
hold of stock improvement with energy
and determination, and that the value of
blood and breed in all kinds of live stock
is being more generally understood and ap.
preciated every year. The display of fine
horses will be more than usually satisfac.
tory, and the speed programme promises to
afford full week of exceptional entertain.
ment to the visitors. The attendance at
the Fair will evidently lie large, and the
prevalence of agricultural prosperity
is never more certainly exhibited
than in this. In bad years
there are hundreds OF farmers who
do not find that they can afford the weeks
holiday demanded by the State Fair, but
when crops are fairly good and prices
remunerative they come here in large mum.
bers. The display Of agricultural ma.
chinery at the Park this year is more than
usually interesting, and by far the most
important improvement noticed is in plows
The newest patent in this implement con-
sists in the substitution of wheel for the
Landslide of the plow, thus getting rid
of the friction which made the steering of
the old pillow SO difficult, and at the same
time greatly increasing its efficiency. The
| practical man who examines the new pillow
will be disposed to wonder that so much
clumsiness and such unscientific principles
should have been adhered to for centuries,
and that the inventor, who long ago
revoiutionized almost every other tool en-
ployed by civilized man, should have been
so slow in applying his genius to the
plow.
1t is true, however, that the pillow has al.
ways been very conservative implement.
In Egypt to-day the same kind of pillow is
used which was old in the time of the
Pharaons. Pictures of its prototype can
be seen painted on the walls of tombs six
thousand years old. In Africa, among the
! interior tribes, plow is used which might
very well have resulted from Adams first
rude attempts to prepare the ground for a
crop after he was driven from the Garden
of Eden. There are parts of Spain
where an almost equally primitive and
clumsy machine is still used. In France,
up to the beginning of the present century,
a very archaic form of pillow was in use.
And even the Anglo.Saxon race, prone as
they are to improvement, have for more
than four hundred years employed an i'm
plement the fundamental principles of
which outrage mechanics at every STEP
The idea that plow ought to be hard to
hold and steer seems to have been adopted
at an early period as a cardinal maxim, and
| tI,,f ha g.
by the form OF the Landslide did not strike
any one as thing to be got rid of. The
new plow, however, would fairly stagger an
old.fashioned plowman, who prided him.
self upon his firmness of hand and adroit
steering. For the driver sits in sulky at
his ease, and in managing his horses turns
his pillow easily in any direction. The
friction obstacle has been removed, and the
power of the share is for the first time
entirely utilized in breaking up the SOIL
Our agricultural visitors will find abund.
ant instruction and entertainment in ex.
aiming this and similar useful improve.
ments, and in criticising the magnificent
stock at the Park. The exhibits at the
Pavilion also will attract and reward our
guests. There will be greater variety there
than usual, and the exhibition of produce
will be much fuller and more satisfactory
than In former years. Much attention has
also been paid to the Art department, and
a fine collection. of paintings, principally
by California artists of note, but including
several meritorious foreign pictures, has
been obtained. IL may be worth while to
call attention TO q somewhat unbusinesslike
lapse on the part of the managers. The
day before the opening of the Fair there is
OF course no charge for admission to the
Park. But on that day almost every thing
that is to be exhibited has arrived there,
and yesterday some thousands Of people
visited the Park, and practically saw, some
of the most interesting exhibits of the Fair
gratuitously. 1t is obvious that this kind
of thing must have tendency to diminish
the receipts when the Fair is actually
opened. The Park should be closed on the
day before the Fair begins, and then the
State Agricultural Society would have the
full benefit of all their preparations.