68 PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



Question: How many acres are now in bearing in Fresno County? 



Mr. Fowler: I do not know exactly, but something like 42,000 or 

 43,000 acres. According to the Assessor's report it is 14,000 acres less 

 than the acreage of the year before; but, instead of 14,000 acres, it is 

 about 4,000, which would bring it down to just about those figures. 



Question: How many grapes can be raised to the acre — of Muscats? 



Mr. Fowler: In a first-class vineyard, 10 tons to the acre; but 6 tons 

 is considered a good crop. Now, that question brings up in its turn the 

 question of supply and demand. The consumption of raisins in the 

 United States is about li pounds per head. It may amount to a little 

 more than that, because it is calculated on the basis of a population of 

 66,000,000. The statistics for 1889, if my memory serves me right, gave 

 1^ pounds consumption per head in the United States. The statistics 

 for England give 5 pounds per capita. We must teach the American 

 people to eat more raisins — to eat our Californian fruits, both green and 

 dried. In our family we use not less than 360 pounds — or 60 pounds 

 per capita. The Thompson Seedless raisin makes a most excellent pie. 

 You can't do that with the Muscat, but they do it with other grapes. 



Question: What do Thompson Seedless raisins sell for per pound? 



Mr. Fowler: From 7-i to 8 cents. 



Mr. Gester: They can be bought in Marysville for 4 cents. 



Mr. Fowler: I am speaking of the average. I will say this: that in 

 Fresno County this year we were offered $20 a ton for choice Sultanas 

 and Thompson Seedless for shipment, but I did not take it. Gentle- 

 men, I have taken up a good deal of your time in discussing these 

 questions. I have taken rather a dark view in telling you about the 

 raisin industry and my views of the future. We have gone into the 

 subjects of marketing, commission, packing, and indiscriminate consign- 

 ments, and I am going to say a few words about cooperation. Coopera- 

 tion is a good thing, but cooperators do ridiculous things sometimes, 

 and, unless strongly supported, they go to the wall, and bring disaster. 

 Right there in Fresno County they organized a cooperative establish- 

 ment. Some of the packers resented this, and, immediately, there was 

 a bitter opposition between the two. The cooperatives went East to sell 

 their goods, and undersold the packers. I do not mean to say that if 

 they had marketed their product with the same skill and care that 

 those leading commission men did, that they would not have accom- 

 plished their object, but their action has brought a great deal of injury 

 to the raisin business there. The principle, however, is growing. Many 

 good people believe in cooperation and cooperative establishments, and 

 give their support to them. With the finest land and the best irriga- 

 tion district in the world, the day is going to come when the intelligent 

 people that are growing raisins in the State of California will bring 

 this industry out of the difficulties in which it is to-day. I have been 

 told that there is a prejudice in the English market against California 

 raisins. I do not know any reason why there should be prejudice. 

 The London merchants, of course, would be very reluctant to give up 

 their fruit business. The introduction of fine 'California goods cuts into 

 the trade they are supplying, and they would naturally say what they 

 could against our raisins. Now, I do not think they have any reasons 

 for that. First-class stores, like Lebenbaum's in San Francisco, -have 

 the finest raisins produced in the world. They are produced in Spain; 

 but how? Not only by caring for the vine, but also by giving that 



