PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 49 



THE NICARAGUA CANAL. IN RELATION TO FRUIT TRANS- 

 PORTATION. 



By Mr. Edward Berwick, of Monterey. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I congratulate you all on pur- 

 suing an industry that requires more versatility and intelligence than 

 any other avocation you could have chosen. I congratulate you, sir [to 

 the Chairman] on presiding over a body of the best men in the world. 

 I can prove that from Scripture: " By their fruits, ye shall know them." 

 Now, we all know that our California fruits are the best fruits in the 

 world, so we fruit-growers are, and must be, the best men in the world. 

 I also feel, gentlemen, that you need in your chosen avocation more 

 scientific knowledge than any other class of men. There is no -science 

 or ology, from A to Z, from agrostology to zoology, but has some connec- 

 tion with the fruit business. One of these sciences is the well-known 

 science of geography. Now, when you and I were boys together, we 

 learned a whole lot of long names and big numbers. Of all these 

 numbers I recollected but one, and that one was a wrong one. We 

 were told that the sun was 95,000,000 miles away. They have brought 

 it 2,000,000 miles closer, and I have not felt a bit warmer. But there 

 are certain figures that we all ought to know. We know a great deal 

 about growing the fruit, but about marketing and distributing the fruit 

 there is a great deal we do not know. Now, what I don't know about 

 marketing fruit would fill a book, and no doubt many present know far 

 more even about the Nicaragua Canal than I do. But I have got a map 

 here, the largest I can find. I hope you can see it. And I want to point 

 out to you one or two things in connection with this Nicaragua Canal. 



We have at present two methods, three I might say, of getting our 

 products of green and dried fruits shipped from California to the East. 

 The chief way is by the transcontinental railroad, the other way is 

 right down south around the Horn. There is another route by way 

 of Panama. I leave that out for these reasons: That in the shipments of 

 1890, $82,000,000 of products went by the railroads, and only $1,000,000 

 by way of Panama; and also that matters are usually so arranged by 

 the railroad companies as to make that route unprofitable to shippers. 



Now, gentlemen, you know we are suffering from an era of low prices. 

 You know that we should get our fruits into the markets of the world 

 more rapidly and in better shape. The cost of freight and refrigeration 

 eats up the profits on our fruits. There should be a way, and by the 

 help of this convention there shall be a way, of getting our fruits into 

 New York by cheaper transportation. There should be a way of getting 

 these fruits into the English market — the Mecca of all commercial men — 

 by a cheap and efficient route. 



You have all heard of the Nicaragua Canal. I will not trouble you 

 with details you are familiar with from reading newspapers. You 

 know, possibly, the exact distances that will be saved by using the canal, 

 by building steamships with refrigerator chambers, and sending them, 

 laden with California produce, through that canal, when built, to New 

 York or London. You know that already meats are carried from New 

 Zealand to London by steamers provided with such refrigerator cham- 

 bers, arriving there in good shape. Fruits are also sent from South 

 4 — FG 



