220 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



wholly commercial in spirit, policy and point of view, which is 

 perhaps only natural in a state where the fruit products reach an 

 annual aggregate value of something like seventy millions of dollars. 

 The effect is to concentrate attention upon varieties which have 

 achieved fame for profit, and to repress amateur devotion and in- 

 dulgencies. 



At the same time there is, and has always been, quite a disposi- 

 tion toward trial of novelties among commercial growers, espe- 

 cially manifested in search for specific characters which are seen 

 to be desirable rather than desire of newness for its own sake, which 

 is often a point of pride among amateurs. To this enterprising 

 and discriminating search is due the prominence of some of the, 

 leading varieties, which are chance seedlings recognized as meeting 

 special requirements and having grown great because they really 

 did so. The California grower is, therefore, quite certain 

 that he needs not varieties new throughout and of startling charac- 

 ters, but improved varieties which hold the good points of the old 

 and add other points. For instance, he calls for trees resistant to 

 disease, for improvement of the fruit in beauty, flavor and keeping 

 qualities; for varieties, similar in kind, which fill gaps in the ripen- 

 ing season so that he can employ help continuously, and shippers 

 and canners agree with him so that they can keep the cars moving 

 and the cannery plants at work. The grower says he must be care- 

 ful not to plant something different from what is already growing 

 and selling well in his region, and this is also the advice of the 

 trade to him. He can not risk much on varieties of entirely differ- 

 ent types, although most growers are always doing a little experi- 

 menting. Nor should he undertake too many varieties, because a 

 profitable orchard is not a pomological museum. There must be a 

 large quantity of uniform fruit to make any district commercially 

 prominent. 



For these reasons the number of varieties now planted is but a 

 fraction of what it was a quarter of a century ago, and, stopping at 

 this point, one might get the idea that the California grower was a 

 monument of conservatism and lacking in enterprise and adventure. 

 Subsequent chapters will, however, show that he has very definite 

 ideas of what he wants that is new, and that he has problems 

 enough to keep plant breeders busy for a century. This will be 

 done for each fruit by citing in its chapter particularly desirable 

 characters which California growers, shippers and canners have 

 described in response to the wide inquiry upon which this statement 

 rests. The writer was fortunate in securing 1,601 observations 

 from men who have their livelihood and fortunes involved in profit- 

 able growth and handling of California fruits, and what are given 

 as specific requirements of new varieties in California are not vain 

 imaginings, but deeply felt wants. 



