President Earless Address. 37 



we shall find that it will pay in money, pay in the plaudits we shall win from 

 all men, and in our own self-respect and integrity of soul. I should say here, 

 and I cheerfully do say, that I believe that the California fruit packers are 

 generally far less open to criticism in this matter of straight packing than 

 are the majority of eastern growers. You can not afford to pay freight on 

 trash two or three thousand miles. Yet there is some room for improve- 

 ment in the selection and grading of fruits from this pre-eminent horticult- 

 ural state. It can not be too often or too earnestly impressed upon fruit 

 men everywhere that to secure the best results the most scrupulous pains 

 must be taken, not only in growing fruit properly, but in careful handling,, 

 thorough grading, and unflinching honesty in packing. The man with a 

 high standard, well worked up to, is the man who will come out best in the 

 race, 



FRUIT PRODUCTION. 



The business of fruit production is growing to be so vast a one in many 

 sections of this country that the time has fully come for giving it more 

 thorough organization than it has had before. There are many considerable 

 sections of the country where it is already the-overshadowing industrial in- 

 terest, and it seems to me probable that in your great and glorious state of 

 California it will soon overtop every other producing interest. For you, as 

 for Florida and Delaware, and large sections of New York, Michigan, Illi- 

 nois, Missouri, Georgia, Arkansas, and other states, these questions of trans- 

 portation, distribution, a high standard of packing, and a high standard of 

 quality of fruits, are questions of overwhelming business importance. The 

 United States is the great fruit country of the world. There is no limit to 

 the possibility of our fruit production when insect and fungoid troubles are 

 handled by energy guided by science. There will be no limit to it except 

 that of pecuniary profit. We can furnish the nations of the old world with 

 fruit, as we do with bread and meat and cotton. There is no reason why 

 the peaches of California and Mississippi and Michigan and Georgia should 

 not be laid down in the European markets. I speak, temperately, and my 

 conclusions are based upon my own experience as a shipper of fruit. The 

 facilities for doing this do not at present exist, but they are known, and 

 within the reach of a properly organized efll'ort. Hence, I see a future for 

 the horticultural interest of this country that is glorious and vast as the blue 

 canopy of a summer sky. To reach any grand and rewarding results every 

 step must be taken with care and thoroughness. 



MICROSCOPIC FUNGI. 



Among the many obstacles to success in fruit-growing, the most de- 

 structive and most difficult to overcome are the myriad tribes of micro- 

 scopic fungi which assail plant and tree and vine and fruit. There is no 

 branch of our business which does not suffer serious annual losses from 

 these obscure enemies, and no climate or section so fortunate as to long. 



