Originally published in The Bee on May 18, 1914
[Note: Although the 1914 event in this story was the seventh State Farm picnic, it was the first student-run Picnic Day according to the Special Collections Department at UC Davis Library.]
DAVIS (Yolo. Co.), May 18 -- The seventh annual picnic of the State Farm at Davis closed Saturday night with a students' dance in the dining room at the institution and with a grand public ball in the town of Davis. The student body of the University Farm is receiving the congratulations not only of the faculty, the citizens of Davis, but of the 3,000 or more persons who attended the picnic. The day's entertainment, which began early and ended late, was entirely under the auspices of the students.
Farm is inspected
At the conclusion of the literary exercises at the grandstand, the visitors inspected the various buildings and saw the various departments of the institution in operation. Throughout the afternoon hundreds of persons went through the various departments of the Farm.
At the dairy, which handles milk from more than eighty ranches, the students were making butter, ice cream and cheese. At the blacksmith shop a number of students were repairing tools, farm machinery and preparing to shoe a horse. In the livestock department the visitors were the visitors were impressed with the cleanliness and system with which these sheds were cared for. The stock is all of the best quality and the annual livestock parade was of interest to all.
Judge Shields speaks
Judge Peter J. Shields of Sacramento was the principal speaker of the day. He told of the history of the farmer and traced the evolution of farming methods from the time of the wooden spade to the wooden plow and on through the generations to the gangplow and the combined harvester.
Judge Shields was introduced by Dean H.E. Van Norman as "the father of the University Farm." In his address Judge Shields declared that the time is past when men and women feel they should make their money in the country and then go to the cities "to live." With modern methods of transportation, telephones, electric lights and good roads, the residents of the country are no longer isolated, and they have the same opportunity of enjoying life as do those living in the cities.
Woodland aesthetes win
The Woodland High School won the junior track meet. Solano High School was second and Davis Third. Banners in purple and gold were awarded the winners of first and second places.
The poultry department of the Farm is an institution within itself. There are 34,000 chickens and twenty-one breeds. The poultry department now boasts of having enrolled as one of the most diligent students, a "farmette," Miss Marguerite Slater.
Miss Slater is young, therefore pretty. Her home is in Berkeley and when she is graduated from the poultry course next year, she intends to become a chicken farmer.
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