6 



TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



a visit to our surrounding country and, as the spider said to the fly, 

 "We have many pretty things to show you while you are here." We 

 will show you an irrigation system which has reached a high degree of 

 perfection; one which has few equals anywhere in the world, and none in 

 this part of the country; one which carries the life-giving waters from 

 the snows of the Sierras down to the plains and delivers them to our vine- 

 yards and our orchards and our alfalfa fields just as surely as the venous 

 system carries the blood all over our bodies. I know you will enjoy a visit 

 to our vineyards and our orchards, and perhaps to the orange groves 

 which lie in the hills out yonder in the citrus belt, and when you 

 return to our city we will open our doors to you. We welcome you to 

 our public institutions. We invite you to inspect our schools, for we are 

 proud of them. We have an energetic Chamber of Commerce, which 

 lives in its own little home down in the park by the depot, and we are 

 proud of it and the energy it displays here. 



I now formally give into your hands the keys of our city, the old and 

 rusty keys, but they express to you the welcome which we extend to 

 you. We trust that your deliberations here will be both pleasant and 

 profitable, and that when you have finished them and go to your several 

 homes you will take with you pleasant recollections of your visit here 

 and that you will always speak kind words of us, as we shall of you, 

 for we will always like you better for having known you better. I 

 thank you and I welcome you. 



H. P. Stabler, of Yuba City, and A. M. Drew and W. R. McIntosh, 

 of Fresno, were chosen Vice-Presidents. 



PRESIDENT COOPER. Mr. John Isaac will act as Secretary of 

 this Convention. He is here at^my right hand. 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF HORTICULTURAL COMMISSIONER, 

 HON. ELLWOOD COOPER. 



Ladies and Gentlemen Fruit-Growers: This is the Twenty-ninth State 

 Fruit-Growers' Convention, and the second held under the auspices of 

 the State Horticultural Commission. 



We have met here to discuss fruit subjects and to improve our knowl- 

 edge so that we may be more successful in our undertakings and be 

 better able to confront the difficulties which beset us on every hand. 



It is to be hoped that the widest range of ideas will be brought out — 

 ideas bearing directly upon the main issues of the three leading ques- 

 tions that menace our prosperity: First, selling our fruits; second, 

 transportation; and, third, insect pests. 



Formerly, when the production was not equal to the demand, there 

 did not seem to be the same necessity for combined effort, for prices 



