58 PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Bogue: One clause of that paper calls to my attention the con- 

 dition of fruit-growing in the past. In 1894 there was raised the largest 

 crop of fruit ever raised in this State. In 1886 western New York raised 

 the largest crop she ever grew. It has never produced as much in any 

 other season. I have made the assertion time and time again that 75 

 per cent, of the trees planted within the last three or four years never 

 came into production. We know that 99 per cent of the orchards in the 

 State of California have got the red flag. Is there another State in the 

 Union to beat it? Go to western New York to-day, if you have time, 

 and see the thousands of barrels sold on the Erie Canal. They have 

 bought and paid for this fruit in cash, and we are raising our fruit, 

 and picking it, and sending it there for them to reap the profits. The 

 transportation of fruit was the subject under discussion at this session 

 of the convention, and I have heard of nothing but Chicago and New 

 York. It was the same two years ago at Los Angeles at the special 

 session appointed to take up this subject. There are other cities besides 

 New York and Chicago. As I have said hundreds of times, we have got 

 to go in and do this selling ourselves, and if we don't we may just as 

 well sit down first as well as last. 



SHALL WE LYE-DIP OR PERFORATE OUR PRUNES ? 



By H. N. Bakngrover, of San Jos£. 



Growers generally have asked themselves this question time and 

 again, and many are still undecided. Solar heat is not sufficient to dry 

 prunes, without first treating the skin of the fruit. It was discovered 

 in the first stages of the industry that dipping in a solution of lye 

 would break or check the skin, and thus allow evaporation to take place 

 more rapidly; hence this method was generally adopted. The results, 

 however, were not always uniform. A lye solution that would check or 

 cut the skin of some prunes properly would not affect others, or would 

 cut them too much. The mistake of going from one extreme to the 

 other was frequently made. Uncut prunes " bloated" and made poor 

 fruit, while overcut prunes were unsightly. Seasons varied ; perhaps 

 there was too large a crop, and the fruit developed too little sugar, so 

 that fermentation set in too readily; perhaps it was unfavorable weather, 

 or you were handling fruit grown on different soils and under different 

 conditions from what you were accustomed to. All these conditions 

 naturally tended to make the results unsatisfactory. 



The average fruit-grower of California is nothing if not progressive, 

 and is not satisfied with varying results. He strives to excel; and, 

 above all, desires to turn out a uniform product. By experiment we 

 found our climate and soil admirably adapted to prune culture, and we 

 had a right to expect a superior dried product. Growers have not spared 

 expense, but have, as a rule, purchased the best apparatus to be had. 

 A large amount of the profits of prune-growing have been consumed by 

 the employment of the labor required to handle the crop; but that 

 would not have been so bad had results been uniform and entirely satis- 



