In collecting data for this address, I have made extended inquiry 

 as to the actual profit obtained from fruit growing in the fruit-growing 

 sections of the State. The instances of a net average profit of $100 a 

 year continuing for a long period are not rare. Mr. A. T. Hatch, one of 

 the most experienced fruit growers in the State, has given the assurance 

 that the fruit lands of California are yielding a net annual profit of from 

 $50 to $100 an acre. The fruit product of ninety-seven acres at Vaca- 

 ville, hanging upon the trees, was sold during the present season for 

 $18,000 in cash, the payment being made before any of the fruit was 

 removed. About three years ago W. L. Buck of Vacaville, purchased 

 from Thomas Wilson of that place 150 acres of laud planted to orchard 

 for $90,000, being at the rate of $600 per acre. The trees planted thereon 

 were for the most part in bearing at the time. They are now in full 

 bearing, and the fruit product of this year on the trees is estimated to 

 be worth $30,000, or $200 per acre. 



But let us here use the most conservative figures, furnished by Mr. A. 

 T. Hatch, and declare that $50 an acre is the reasonable expectation of 

 profit to the fruit grower. Lands upon which this profit may be realized, 

 may be had for $100 an acre. Here then an agriculture may be prose- 

 cuted which returns a net annual profit of one-half the original value of 

 the land. It is, or should be, well known to you, as it is well known to 

 the cultivators of the soil in the great agricultural States of the West, 

 that an annual profit of from six to ten per cent would be regarded an 

 extremely satisfactory result on the lands valued at from $40 to $50 an 

 acre. But there are large areas of land in California which may be pur- 

 chased for from $30 to $40 an acre, and which if devoted to those produc- 

 tions, permitted by the higher possibilities of climate, would make them 

 worth from $300 to $500 an acre within a short period of time. When 

 the Eastern mind has accepted the conclusion, for which the people of 

 California have contended for many years, the accession of population 

 will be as rapid as has been observed in the Western States. When it is 

 understood that lands, which may be purchased for $50 an acre, are easily 

 susceptible of becoming worth three or four times that sum and that 

 lands valued at $100 per acre may readily become worth $500 an acre, 

 the intending immigrant will be no longer deterred from casting his lot 

 with us, because the number of his acres must be diminished. The true 

 standard of estimation of the value of land is not by any unit of area, 

 but by the unit of fertility, and by the standard of units relating to the 

 possibility of a higher use for the land. Acres may express the extent 

 of surface, but when value is under consideration, climatic possibilities 

 and fertility are the controlling factors. The true method of determin- 

 ing values is by productiveness rather than surface extent. 



A recapitulation of the foregoing considerations presents our State as in 

 the very infancy of its development. The industries upon which we are 

 founding a commonwealth have had less than twenty years of history. 



We have but recently, even but now, acquired that intelligent percep- 

 tion of our environment which will enable us to avail of the higher 

 possibilities of our soil and climate. 



