66 PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



If we take the Assessor's books of the years 1894 and 1895, we find 

 this to be the case : That the difference in the assessed acreage of raisin- 

 , bearing vines amounts to over 14,000 acres in Fresno County alone. 

 Now, don't understand me to say that 14,000 acres have gone out of 

 existence. I don't mean that. I mean that the Assessor's books show 

 that; because men have said: I will assess my land as vacant land, and 

 still have the vines on, and the assessments have gone in at that rate. 

 Now, the acreage abandoned has been 4,000 or 5,000 acres, as nearly as 

 I can estimate it. I get my information from men who are best posted. 

 Men who have traveled all through the district tell me that it is between 

 4,000 and 5,000 acres that have actually gone out of existence. That 

 statement shows the evil that exists and the exact feeling among a great 

 many of our raisin-growers. 



Again, there is another factor that comes in to reduce the acreage: 

 Nobody has planted. There has been little planting of raisin vines since 

 1891. Planting stopped about that time. A great many vineyards in 

 Fresno County were not paying enough last year to cover the expenses 

 of cultivation. Thousands of acres have not been pruned, irrigated, or 

 cultivated this year, owing to the expense. Under these conditions, 

 what must necessarily take place? A deterioration of every one of these 

 vineyards. Again, under existing conditions, the insect pests will come 

 into the vineyards, and it will be a hard matter to get rid of them. Now, 

 the people have not the money to spare for taking care of these vine- 

 yards as intelligently as they would like. 



Again, there is another factor, an important one, that will reduce the 

 output of raisins in Fresno County, or any other county. In the Han- 

 ford district, where they have the richest soil in the State of California, 

 this will reduce the output considerably. Can you take ten tons of green 

 fruit every year off an acre of land and move it away, and take about 

 ten tons of canes in the spring and burn those canes, without your lands 

 feeling it? How many, under the conditions of last year and this year, 

 will be able to fertilize their vineyards? How many? I think there is 

 no doubt that the question of fertilizing is an important one, and will 

 have an important bearing on the output of these vineyards. It will 

 reduce the output of raisins, not alone in Fresno County, but in every 

 other county in the State where raisins are produced. 



While these various causes will reduce the output of raisins in the 

 State, and in our district, particularly in Fresno, the outlook makes the 

 raisin-growers exceedingly discouraged. I am one of them. While I 

 believe this industry is going to improve in the next couple of years, 

 and believe it to be a fact that we will raise them at a profit, that profit 

 can never be gained when our raisins cannot be sold in the sweat-boxes 

 for 3 cents a pound. What do we gain by bringing a spirit of speculation 

 into that business, which we do not want? Small profits, coming regu- 

 larly in each year, which give a substantial living, is what we want. 



In the year 1890 we had a heavy rain that damaged raisins, and yet 

 there were thousands of boxes sent forward at that time. In 1891, 

 more or less of the same thing was done. It was not honest, and every 

 raisin-grower in the State is suffering from the effects of it. Some of 

 the best raisins that we grow are made from second-crop grapes. You 

 can make a prime raisin out of the first crop and a prime raisin out of 

 the second crop. There are many of my neighbors and friends in Fresno 

 County who pick their raisins and dry them very early in the season, 



