DISCOVERY OF MARQUIS WHEAT 231 



fixed at about two dollars a bushel.^ Taking two dollars 

 a bushel as the average price, it is obvious that the crop 

 value of Marquis wheat for the year 1918 is upwards of 

 $600,000,000. This sum by far exceeds in amount the 

 whole fruit-growing industry in California which for the 

 year 1917 has been estimated by Mr. E. E, Kaufman at 

 $107,000,000."^ About a dozen years ago the California 

 fruit-growing industry was smaller than it is to-day and 

 it was then considered to be worth $60,000,000 per an- 

 num.^ Of this amount de Vries, in 1907, estimated that 

 Burbank's contribution was scarcely one per cent.,^ but 

 there can be no doubt that this contribution has grown 

 considerably since then as more of the fruit-trees have 



6 From data supplied by Mr. Irvine, the Assistant Secretary of the 

 Winnipeg Grain Exchange. 



7 For data concerning the value of the California fruit-crop I am 

 indebted to Mr. E. E. Kaufman, Field Agent of the Bureau of Crop 

 Estimates of the United States Department of Agriculture, and to 

 Mr. Howard C. Rowley, publisher of the California Fruit News. 

 Mr. Kaufman's estimates of the value of the fruit crop to the 

 growers for 1917 is made up as follows: 



Apples $ 6,431,000 Brought forward. . .$ 84,843,000 



Peaches 14,151,000 Figs 1,600,000 



Pears 3,523,000 Plums 3,000,000 



Oranges 23,738,000 Cherries 600,000 



Lemons 2,500,000 Grapes (table) 7,000,000 



Raisins 16,000,000 Grapes (wine) 6,800,000 



Primes 12,500,000 Olives 1,000,000 



Apricots 6,000,000 Berries of all kinds 1,000,000 



Other fruits 1,000,000 



Carried forward. .$84,843,000 



Total $106,843,000 



Using a somewhat different basis of calculation and including the 

 cost for boxing and packing of oranges and lemons, etc., and 

 adding $10,000,000 for nuts, Mr. Rowley has calculated that the 

 value of the California fruit crop for 1917 was not less than $150,- 

 000,000 and was probably between this sum and $175,000,000. 



8 Hugo de Vries, Plant Breeding, Comments on the Experiments 

 of Nilsson and Burbank, Chicago, 1907, p. 178. 



9 Ibid. 



