TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



241 



DISCUSSION ON TRANSPORTATION. 



MR. STEPHENS. In a very few words I desire to make an explana- 

 tion as to the report of the Committee on Transportation. It has no 

 bearing whatever upon the raisin proposition, because raisins are not 

 transported as green fruits are transported. Your product is trans- 

 ported at fifty per cent of what it costs to move ours. 



We are all actuated by the same motives and the same desires and 

 we are all striving to attain the same ends. We are not here as alarm- 

 ists, and on this question of transportation and refrigeration I have 

 said that, with proper marketing methods, I believe the deciduous fruit 

 products of this State can be increased threefold, and I still maintain 

 that; but before we increase the crop threefold let us find the means of 

 distributing it and disposing of it at a profit. So far as Fresno is con- 

 cerned, and, to a great degree, so far as the apple interests and the dried 

 fruit interests are concerned, what I shall say does not apply, and we 

 are not at loggerheads. I have written as many articles and have been 

 the cause of promoting as much immigration to this State as any man 

 in it, and I am anxious to continue along the same lines if you will 

 find some way of disposing of our products at a profit. Last year there 

 were 58,000 trees in one holding dug up simply because they did not 

 pay, and the land was rented for $12 an acre to Japanese and China- 

 men. If the land would pay better at $12 an acre rent you must con- 

 cede that there is not much profit in deciduous fruit-growing. I have 

 a communication from the manager of that place, that there were 

 26,000 packages, as I recall it now, marketed from that one place at a 

 heavy loss. The varieties were many, and the trees were taken out and 

 the land rented as I say, antl it is some of the best land in the State. 

 I want, gentlemen, all of you to join together and find some means by 

 and through which we can dispose of all the fruit products of California 

 at a profit. When you do that you will not have to issue your magnifi- 

 cent pamphlets, because the State would be like the Klondike, you 

 couldn't keep the people away from it. If you will make all the fruit- 

 growers prosperous they will do more to advertise the State than all 

 the literature and all the lecturers you can send out of the State in 

 your interest. 



GENERAL CHIPMAN. Mr. Chairman, will you indulge me just 

 one minute on this proposition? 



VICE-PRESIDENT McINTOSH. Certainly. 



GENERAL CHIPMAN. Gentlemen, the shipment of green decidu- 

 ous fruits cuts a small figure in the fruit industry of California. The 

 trouble about this report is that it apparently is applicable to the entire 

 industry. What Mr. Stephens is seeking is right, and that is a better 



16 — F-GC 



