THE CITRITS. 



ITS CULTITRE IIS CALIFOEJNIA. 



By B. M. LELONG, 

 Secretary of State Board of Horticulture, and Chief Horticultural Officer. 



THE CALIFORNIA FRUIT INDUSTRY. 



The most important of all California's varied industries at 

 the present day is fruit-growing. It has rapidly come to be a 

 great productive industry, and has overshadowed all others in 

 its extent and importance. Stock-growing, mining, agricul- 

 ture, viticulture, have all been overtaken and passed on the 

 road, and to-day the production, handling, and marketing of 

 the various fruits of the State give employment to a larger 

 number of people and have more capital invested in them than 

 any other class of enterprises in California. Horticulture is the 

 staple industry of the State, and everything that will affect it 

 for either good or bad is watched with great interest. The 

 condition of the weather in the Eastern fruit sections, the 

 records of the thermometer in our own State, the climatic con- 

 ditions affecting the bloom or the setting of the fruit, the 

 coming and spread of pests or diseases, are all watched with 

 the keenest anxiety, for they mean to the State at large good 

 or bad times as the indications are favorable or otherwise. 

 Out of this pursuit has grown numerous organizations having 

 in view^ the advancement of the industry on various lines. 

 These are both public and private. There are State and County 

 boards of horticultural commissioners, whose duties are pro- 

 tective; fruit-growers' associations; cooperative associations for 

 curing and marketing fruits, fruit exchanges and fruit unions, 

 besides district and county horticultural societies. All these 

 are the outgrowth of this industry and all are working to 



