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TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



defective, remedy the defects. It is suggested, if this is done, if that is 

 done, or if something else is done, that when those things are done there 

 will be a broader market. See that those things are done, Mr. Chair- 

 man and growers, before you plant and produce more than you can sell 

 at a profit. (Applause.) 



My friend Mr. Hartranft speaks of the great prosperity existing among 

 the deciduous fruit-growers of the Sacramento Valley. No such pros- 

 perity, Mr. Hartranft, exists there as does here. Will Mr. Hartranft 

 explain to us, as I did to you yesterday, why orchard property there 

 has been mortgaged for fifteen or twenty years and is still mortgaged, 

 some of the best in the State of California? Why is it that such a con- 

 dition should exist, if the growers of deciduous fruits have been pros- 

 perous? Now, find the Avay, Mr. Hartranft, find the way through which 

 prosperity will come to an increased acreage, either in raisins or in 

 deciduous fruits, and then you have a right to suggest that the acreage 

 be increased. I am willing to join hands with my friend Mr. Hartranft 

 or with anybody else who will contribute his time and energy and 

 money to develop the resources of this, God's greatest country upon 

 earth. Nothing equals it, and all I object to is that it should be con- 

 trolled almost wholly by half a dozen men. 



MR. JOHNSTON. Mr. President, I also am from Sacramento, and T 

 can not sit here and hear what my friend Stephens says without speak- 

 ing in reply. We are not on the verge of ruin in the Sacramento 

 Valley. Mr. Stephens says, why ^re the people from Fresno so much 

 better off than we are in the Sacramento Valley? When we get ninety 

 per cent of our growers in the Sacramento Valley to co-operate we will 

 be in as good a position as you are down here. 



MR. SPRAGUE. Mr. Chairman, I want to say one thing. I have 

 been inviting the people of the East to come to California, and I am 

 going to keep it up. I have not been inviting them here to plant raisin 

 grapes or to plant Tokay grapes, but I have said to them : Gentlemen, 

 it is the finest country under the sun to live in; it is the finest country 

 under the sun to make a living in. I don't know of any place under 

 the sun where a man can be so independent if he has got from twenty 

 to forty acres of land, and water to put on it, and knows what to do 

 with it. I said: Make a mixed farm, go into the production of several 

 things, have cows, and chickens, and turkeys, and grow some fruit; 

 don't put all your eggs into one basket, and you will make a living in 

 California and you will be glad that you came. (Applause.) 



MR. JOHNSTON. As I said, Mr. President, I am one of those men 

 from the Sacramento Valley, and I want to tell a little joke on my 

 friend Stephens. I was up on the American River last winter passing 

 along by a very pretty place, an elegant farm. I saw some men dig- 

 ging some holes in a field, and I drove up and said: "What are you 



