88 



TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



roll on without a drop of rain falling, and there is not within the whole 

 of it any land whatever that can be cultivated without irrigation. 

 * * * Can it be of any use whatever?" 



And yet within that very territory, from which, in 1850, it was pro- 

 posed to make the "Territory of Colorado," our brother and our sister 

 Californians have fairly wrought a miracle. No longer depending upon 

 the fitful and uncertain favors of the god of showers, those people of 

 the south have wedded to the desert the water Avhich, before their advent, 

 went to total waste. And from that happy mating of flood and field 

 springs every year a fruitage that has drawn the eyes of all the world 

 toward California. Where, but a short quarter of a century ago, the 

 wild things ruled a desert land, where only clouds of dust obscured the 

 sun, but where now his brightness is o'ershadowed by the smoke that 

 rises heavenward from thousands of domestic altars, where then the 

 widely scattered villages, clustering about the decaying walls of mission 

 and of monastery, now have sprung into being, like unto the magic of 

 Aladdin's tale, great cities, proud and wealthy as the metropolis of 

 ancient Greece; cities that, like Rome and Carthage, command the 

 willing tribute of a kingdom; cities that one who saw the land on 

 which they stand given over to baser uses, fairly scans in open-eyed 

 amazement and wonders lest he may be dreaming. And, tributary to 

 these cities, the golden globes of orange and of lemon dot the soft and 

 restful green of many townships and furnish widespread comfort and 

 luxurious wealth to thousands who have made them theirs. 



The wealth that made our pristine name and fame came first from 

 out the bowels of the earth. Our common mother, kind to all who live 

 beneath the California sun, gave up her treasures with a willing hand 

 and made our land the Mecca of the treasure-seeker. Not yet exhausted, 

 even only partly conquered, the wealth that California gave, in sound- 

 ing metal, to the treasuries of nations, is only part of what she still is 

 giving and will always give to him who asks her for her favors. You, 

 gentlemen of the Fruit-Growers' Convention, have given California 

 equal fame with him who, in our early days, came Avestward with the 

 tide that brought us men of mighty deeds. On you, your predecessors 

 and your successors, California looks with jealous and with loving eyes. 

 The miner, typical of California's early name and fame, sits safely in 

 the temples of our enduring love. But on a throne of equal height and 

 equal splendor, toward which we all with glad eyes turn and pay our 

 homage and our gratitude, sit serene and safe, within our heart of 

 hearts, the men and women who till the patient California soil and at 

 whose command the complaining locomotive takes, to other and less 

 favored lands, the wealth which you have made another synonym for 

 California. 



It will not, then, be very long before, following your lead, our valleys, 



