342 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



feature that might suggest a dissent toward any individual element. Throughout 

 the state a general cooperative movement, deeply concerned in the passage o£ this 

 bill, gained the confidence of the legislature and impressed the Governor as well, 

 and here we have the results, concerning which we are gathered in this city to 

 discuss and interpret. A closer union carrying a more intimate interdependence will 

 naturally result in a greater efficiency to both the local and the state work. I am 

 pleading for the greater efficiency. 



With a closer identification between the state and the county work will come to 

 the county commissioner and his work added dignity, and a recognition of efficiency 

 that will work greatly to the advantage of the county commissioner and prove a 

 great aid in the execution of all the requirements of his office. With it, also, will 

 come a standardization of work throughout the state which will give additional 

 strength to the rulings in individual cases without which recognition, the work must 

 always carry the impress of being localized to a degree that detracts from its strictly 

 judicial character. That is, the work may be petty, rather than broad and com- 

 prehensive. In no degree can such an alliance detract from the local importance 

 and local hold of the county commissioner. In every respect there will be added 

 lo the local impress that added strength that the state office will impart. It will 

 bring the state commissioner in direct contact with the local board of supervisors, 

 and increase the confidence of the supervisors in the commissioner and the broader 

 aspects of his work. In such a cooperation the local elements take on a more 

 comprehensive nature. There is nothing of local coloring lost, nothing of local 

 popularity lost, and there results a larger influence of state-wide bearing and 

 importance. The state office needs this liberal support. California can not be 

 wisely directed in her numerous and intricate horticultural interests by the state 

 commissioner independent of the local worker. Those vast interests, each year 

 becoming more and more elaborate and complex, require the intimate relation and 

 close cooperation of all these agencies. 



California has come to value the general bearing of each local problem and need. 

 It is not sufficient that a county commissioner knows and deals with his own local 

 problems exclusively. The work is being so firmly established on scientific bases, 

 and the solution of problems, however local, has so much of general bearing that it 

 all makes for a more comprehensive understanding on the part of the local agent with 

 every other problem of every other commissioner, and insures the efficiency that is 

 being demanded of this branch of the work. This generalization can best be promoted 

 by the very intimate organization that is the subject of this paper today. While this 

 is true of the county commissioner, the state commissioner can only develop the best 

 within himself and within his office by the cordial support and energizing enthusiasm 

 of the county commissioner. After the county commissioner has demonstrated his 

 ability to master the local problems, thus showing his skill to comprehend the more 

 general ones, he needs the backing of a strong state center, which, on its part, is 

 able to accentuate these local achievements in their relation to the good of the 

 entire state. 



This is not an idea confined solely to the minds of county commissioners, but it 

 is a conviction that is rapidly growing in the minds and outlook of the prominent, 

 thinking growers whose interests are so directly connected with the work we are doing 

 in our local fields. Some day it will take shape. If the commissioners themselves 

 are too slow to grasp the situation and mould this developing idea into a coming 

 union of symmetry, based on our actual experience in the fields, in different sections 

 of the state, then the fruit men themselves will formulate a plan, along the lines 

 wherein their own experience have brought them and some scheme for a state 

 department of horticulture will be developed and carried through the legislature iu 

 order to standardize the very work with which we are so vitally connected. The 

 wiser course, then, it seems to me. is for this body of county commissioners to 

 inaugurate a definite movement, looking to this very end that there may be a definite 

 plan to present to these earnest fruit growers, based on our best judgment, after 

 carefully considering each local problem, and the final result worked out under the 

 patient cooperation of the state commissioner of horticulture and his able corps 

 of helpers. A closer cooperation, a more vital interdependence between state and 

 county commissioners can have but one tendency and effect, namely : the strengthening 

 and dignifying of both offices. 



To so standardize the horticultural work of the state will give to it prestige, 

 dignity and recognition far beyond that to which it can possibly hope to attain under 

 less intimate relations. And to the extent that this is accomplished, will the 

 efficiency and permanency of all that is best in the entire system be conserved and 

 advanced. 



