TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWEES' CONVENTION. 



199 



expects to get for them and will in all probability get for them, and the 

 result will show a very handsome profit in the raisin business. 



Now take the prune. I am a grower of prunes. I obtained only a 

 2-| cents basis for my prunes this year, but the entire crop averaged me 

 nearly Si cents a pound. I don't want any better fruit business than 

 that. Of course, I should like to get a 5 cents basis, but we can't hope 

 for any such results; but the prune industry, at a 2-^ cents basis or a 

 2:1: cents basis, where the industry is pursued with intelligence, with 

 proper varieties of fruit and taken care of in a proper manner, is as 

 profitable a business as a farmer can engage in, and so I may say of 

 any one particular fruit industry now being prosecuted in this State. 



Mr. Chairman, the State Board of Trade is sending forth literature 

 inviting people to come to California. We are doing it honestly, in the 

 interest of this great commonwealth, and doing it largely upon what 

 we believe to be the truth, that the horticultural industries in the State 

 are the great attraction. 



In 1880 the exports of fruits from this State amounted to about 585 

 carloads of ten tons each. By 1890 we had reached over 16,000 car- 

 loads, and then we began to talk about overproduction. I remember 

 when I first began to attend your conventions that I was asked to address 

 the Convention upon this subject. For three successive seasons I com- 

 batted that idea, until finally I believe the Convention came to the 

 conclusion that it wasn't worth while to hear any more argument on 

 that subject. Because we had increased from 585 carloads in 1880 to 

 over 16,000 in 1890, it was supposed the world could not stand any 

 more fruit. In 1900 we had reached over 60,000 carloads, and in 1902, 

 taking the products of the orchard, vineyard, and garden, it was over 

 77,000 carloads of ten tons each. This has been taken into the avenues 

 of commerce, the money has come back to this State, and, as I have 

 figured it, it means $35,000,000 for these products for the year 1902 for 

 this State, and that is more than the value of the exports of all our 

 flour, wheat, barley, hops, wool, and sugar combined. You see the fruit 

 industry means something, Mr. Chairman, to the people of this State, 

 and if it is to live, it naeans a great deal more in the future. We are 

 not increasing our production as rapidly as population is increasing in 

 this country. Besides, we are greatly and constantly enlarging our 

 foreign market for our fruits. 



Let me say a word to the raisin-growers here. What was the condi- 

 tion of the world with regard to raisins before we began to grow them 

 here in California ? They were all produced in Spain and the countries 

 surrounding the Mediterranean basin, principally south of the Medi- 

 terranean. They were brought into this country under a tariff not 

 particularly high, because there seemed to be no necessity for protec- 

 tion. We got our raisins from abroad, and all the people of the globe 



