TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



201 



west? No; we must hold to diversification. Go on with your alfalfa- 

 raising. Sometimes it may be that there is more profit in alfalfa than 

 there is in fruit. I saw in a paper some months ago that I had taken out 

 peach trees and sowed alfalfa on the land. That is true, but the bare 

 statement of that fact does not show that raising peaches is not profitable 

 in that locality. I happened to be swindled, as to variety, in a lot of 

 peach trees. When they came to bearing I had peaches almost as 

 worthless as seedlings, and I took up the trees, and as I wanted alfalfa 

 I sowed it, and I have been quoted as an example of the fruit-growers 

 of this country and this State who were going out of the business of 

 fruit-growing. 



On motion, a vote of thanks was tendered General Chipman. 

 NEEDED HORTICULTURAL LEGISLATION. 



By HON. A. M. DREW, of Fres>-o. 



The right of the people to make rules and regulations for the control 

 and management of the affairs of individuals, as well as of the affairs 

 of the public generally, I presume will not be questioned; neither will 

 the necessity for such rules and regulations in relation to the fruit 

 industry of California be questioned. Such need usually increases in 

 like ratio with the growth of an industry. 



In the early days of our State, when the miner was content to 

 labor with the pick and pan, the rocker and the longtom, the question 

 of rules and regulations controlling that industry was left entirely to 

 the local community; but later, when the same miner became dissatis- 

 fied with this slow process and began to tear down the mountains with 

 the hydraulic monitor and to send those mountains by the rivers to the 

 valley, then the people arose and said, " So far shalt thou go and no 

 farther." 



When the fruit industry of our State was in its infancy and the sup- 

 ply was insufficient to meet the demand there was little need of rules 

 or regulations to control the production and marketing of the crop, but 

 now, with the great quantity produced and its enormous value, it has 

 taken front rank among our industries and has become the foundation 

 of our material growth and prosperity. With its 36,000 carloads of 

 oranges, 4,600 carloads of raisins, and about 60,000 carloads of other 

 orchard and vineyard products, making a total of nearly 100,000 car- 

 loads, representing a value in excess of the gold of our mines, it 

 warrants and demands the careful attention of the best minds of our 

 State that it may be protected, not injured; advanced, not retarded; 

 increased, not diminished. That the legislation already enacted for 

 the control of this industry has been of valuable assistance to it goes 



