TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



91 



that will produce the raisin grape successfully. Long after this genera- 

 tion has ceased to live the raisin will be produced hefe m its excellence, 

 just as it has been on the Mediterranean hills and in Spain for a thou- 

 sand years. Consumption will increase and the markets will adjust 

 themselves. In time that part of California adapted to the cultivation 

 of wine grapes will be producing ten times, yes, a hundredfold, more 

 wine than we produce now, and this part of California which is partic- 

 ularly adapted to the production of raisins will continue to produce 

 raisins, and the most valuable land in the world will be that land which 

 is best adapted to the production of first-class citrus fruits and first-class 

 raisins. The most valuable land that I found anywhere in the world 

 was that producing the very choicest of oranges, sometimes with a value 

 even of $1500 to $2500 an acre, except a little land on the island of 

 Jersey, where they produce vegetables, some of that land bringing 

 enormous prices; but of vine lands the most valuable and most pro- 

 ductive and most salable were those producing the choicest of raisins. 

 I can only add this one word of encouragement: Those of you who 

 have vines and who produce grapes need only to stay steadfastly with 

 the production of grapes as an industry, and it certainly will never 

 disappoint you, because it is bound to become one of the most important 

 industries. 



RESOLUTIONS RELATIVE TO A PARCELS POST. 



MR. BERWICK. Mr. Chairman, I have some resolutions I would 

 like to read now. May I read them l)efore handing them to the 

 committee ? 



PRESIDENT COOPER. Yes. 



MR. BERWICK. The resolutions are as follows: 



Whereas, Our postal service is at present lamentably deficient in the matter of an 

 up-to-date foreign and domestic i)arcels post ; and, 



Whereas, The American express companies have found it possible to inaugurate for 

 the British postoffice a postal stamp rate, on British parcels, of 25 cents for 11 pounds, 

 to any postotiice in the United States, thus proving the practicability of profitably doing 

 the business at such a rate ; 



Resolved, That this Convention of the fruit-growers of California, assembled in Fresno 

 cit}^, this 9th day of December, 1903, hereby requests its Senators and Representatives 

 in Congress at Washington, D. C, to introduce and support such measures as shall 

 secure for the American citizen, through the United States postoffice, a parcels post at 

 least as cheap and effective as that now afforded by the American express companies to 

 the Briton. 



Resolved, That this Convention also requests the President, in conjunction with the 

 Postmaster-General, to conclude postal conventions for the handling of parcels up to 11 

 pounds weight, with all the nations who are at present members of the International 

 Parcels Post Union; this on as favorable terms as those enjoyed by the citizens of 

 Mexico and European lands. 



