24 



TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



situated shall be taxed the same, improvements separate. A man, at a 

 cost of $50 or $60 an acre, cleans off a Hillside where you can buy the 

 land adjoining for $1.25 or less an acre; he put in a vineyard, and the 

 vines are assessed for at least $15 or $20 an acre, yet it is impossible to 

 get an assessor or his deputy to go up on the hillside and assess the 

 land adjoining for anything worth mentioning. I do not think it is so 

 much the fault of the Constitution as it is owing to the sleepy condition 

 of the agricultural and horticultural interests in the State. They do 

 not look after their own rights. When there come up in the Legis- 

 lature those bills putting a burden upon them greater than they were 

 bearing before, they simply look around like a person who has been hit 

 with a club, waiting for another lick, and that is the end of it. 



At this time a recess was taken until 1:30 o'clock p. m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION-FIRST DAY. 



Tuesday, December 8, 1903. 



The Convention was called to order at 1 :30 o'clock. President Cooper 

 in the chair. 



PRESIDENT COOPER. I will announce the committees that have 

 already been named: 



Committee on Taxation— Hon. John Tuohy, of Tulare; John S. Dore. of Fresno; 

 Hon. A. M. Drew, of Fresno ; S. P. Saunders, of San Jose ; Frank E. Kellogg, of Santa 

 Barbara. 



Committee on President's Address— John Markley, of Sonoma ; George L. Hunt, of 

 Sacramento; Edward Berwick, of Monterey; A. X. Judd, of "Watsonville ; W. E. 

 Mcintosh, of Fresno. 



Committee on Resolutions — John Markley, Mrs. Dr. Sherman, Mrs. B. F. "Walton, 

 Prof. A. J. Cook, and Frank E. Kellogg. 



WHAT THE POSTOFFICE MIGHT DO FOR THE FRUIT-GROWER. 



By EDWARD BERWICK, of Pacific Grove. 



I appear before you this afternoon in a position in which I was 

 placed by the last convention at Los Angeles, in default of more avail- 

 able timber, that of President of the California Postal Progress League. 

 I demurred to the action of the Convention, but I told them I would 

 accept the office under the condition that I might pass it on to a bigger 

 man, mentally and financially, the first chance I got. I have not 

 found any bigger man, or smaller man, ready to take the office at any 

 price. If he is here to-day, I would like to have him come forward and 



