174 



TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



delegates from seventeen countries of the world. Among the many 

 subjects presented, none proved of greater interest than that which 

 dealt with the soil and its products. It touched the keynote of human 

 dependence and interdependence in economic relations, and offered 

 something concrete and demonstrable as a working basis. England 

 was awakening to a sense of her failure to compete with Denmark, 

 Holland, and Belgium in the matter of domestic supplies; and aside 

 from the national aspects of the situation, individuals were arousing 

 themselves to heroic efforts to establish agricultural and horticultural 

 training schools for women as well as men; proprietors of great estates 

 were learning the technicalities of butter-making, cheese-making, 

 poultry-raising, etc., that they might stimulate these industries in their 

 own neighborhoods, and, as in France, multiply national schools. 



The small initiative taken at this council by the delegate from Cali- 

 fornia resulted in an "International Agricultural and Horticultural 

 Union" between the delegates of seventeen countries as a practical 

 demonstration of the "council idea." 



Facts and statistics, gathered in California, of the work of women in 

 the making of homes upon the land served as the stimulus to this 

 union. Upon my return to California, I was convinced that if the 

 registration of such work throughout the fifty-seven counties of our 

 State could go on — that if this registration and representation of con- 

 crete Avork could be made to center in a bureau of information — a great 

 deal of capital for promotion work in this State would be added to that 

 which men already represent in conventions and organizations. 



When it comes to queries and answers from far and near as to the 

 advantages of home-making upon the land, many of these bear closely 

 upon the concerns of women who make them. This is true, whether in 

 co-operation with men, or, as has been frequently the case, where women 

 have been thrown upon their own exertions in order to keep their homes; 

 in many cases developing small industries in raising and preparing 

 fruits, etc., for market. 



When I ventured to suggest to the few women present at the Fruit- 

 Growers' Convention three years ago that the keynote of this organiza- 

 tion was to be "co-operation," that every factor that was ready for 

 co-operation would therefore be welcomed, that those women who had 

 already entered the lists of producers were entitled to the recognition 

 of their work as being of economic value, and that their experience and 

 interest were needed in the deliberations of both men and women work- 

 ing for a common cause, I hoped that the response would be hearty and 

 generous. It certainly was such, so far as the hospitality of the Con- 

 vention was concerned. 



A small beginning was made toward the " Union of the Women of 

 California in Agriculture and Horticulture " at that time. Cards, setting 



