20 PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



AFTEElSlOOlSr SESSIOIST-FIEST DAT. 



Tuesday, December 3, 1901. 



The Convention was called to order at 1:45 o'clock. 



President Cooper announced the following Committee on Resolutions: 

 W. H. Aiken, B. N. Rowley, B. E. Hotchkiss, B. G. Hurlburt, Leonard 

 Coates. 



FEUIT OUTLOOK IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY. 



By I. H. THOMAS, of Visalia. 



I received some time since a letter from your Secretary, Mr. Isaac, 

 asking me for a paper to be read at your annual convention, upon " The 

 Future Outlook of Deciduous Fruits in the San Joaquin Valley." I 

 consented to write such a paper, provided Mr. Isaac would allow me to 

 add the citrus industry to the paper. This he did. 



In 1893, while a member of the State Board of Horticulture as Com- 

 missioner for the San Joaquin Valley, I made a report of the then con- 

 ditions of deciduous and citrus fruits in this valley, taking up each 

 county from San Joaquin to Kern. This report was published in the 

 Fourth Biennial Report of the State Board of Horticulture for 1893 

 and 1894. 



Since that time there have been a great many changes made in the 

 planting of deciduous fruits in this valley. Where mistakes were* made 

 in the planting of wrong varieties, orchards have been rooted up and 

 leading varieties planted; and in many instances where irrigation 

 brought the alkali to the surface too strong for stone fruits, trees have 

 been taken out and pear trees substituted, and they are now producing 

 profitable crops. The present outlook in the valley for deciduous fruits 

 was never better, as irrigation systems have been extended, bringing 

 large quantities of good lands within reach of water. The mode of 

 irrigating with pumping plants is now coming to the front, so that any- 

 body with a twenty or forty acre tract of land can put in his plant and 

 go to sleep at night without being haunted in his dreams with suits of 

 riparian owners and assessments for water. 



The discovery of oil in this valley solves the question of irrigation for 

 the orchardist, as it has made it possible for him to have water the 

 year round. All he has to do is to turn on a small stream of crude 

 petroleum and start his pump, at the cost of only six cents per horse 

 power per ten hours. 



