PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 21 



At our district fair, held at Hanford in October, Mr. R. G, White, of 

 that city, had the Daniel Best crude-oil engine on exhibition. This 

 was an eight-horse power engine with three pumps attached, running at 

 an expense of only forty-eight cents for ten hours, using only twelve 

 gallons of Coalinga crude petroleum each ten hours. For each addi- 

 tional horse power it takes one and a half gallons of oil for ten hours' 

 ran. This oil costs, laid down in Hanford, four cents per gallon, or 

 about one tenth of what it would cost to run with steam. 



The completion of the canals around Modesto and Turlock has made 

 it possible for thousands of families to secure good homes on lands that 

 are easily worked, and with water are very productive, growing any- 

 thing in the fruit line that may be planted thereon. It is the writer's 

 opinion that some of the best olive lands in the State are in this sec- 

 tion. Merced and Madera, as well as Fresno, are also well to the front 

 in the growing of deciduous fruits. 



I have not the statistics of the shipments of fruits from Fresno this 

 season, but the output is very large and has been quite profitable to the 

 growers, as well as giving employment to thousands of men, women, and 

 children in the canneries and packing-houses. 



Tulare County, the home of the peach, nectarine, and prune, has 

 had a prosperous season, and the growers have done well in shipping 

 green fruits East, as well as supplying canneries in other parts of the 

 State. 



The Visalia cannery this season used 3,178 tons of peaches, and our 

 dried prune output for the season is 7,280,000 pounds. To substantiate 

 the claim that this county can grow more prunes to the acre than any 

 other portion of the State, I will mention one orchard (the Togni 

 orchard, near Visalia) of 39 acres, that averaged this season 342| 

 pounds of green fruit per tree, and the cured product 4 tons per acre. 

 This orchard is six years old. 



The shipments of green fruit East from this county this season have 

 been 275 cars, realizing to the grower from $75 to $150, and on Tragedy 

 prunes, $200 per acre. Of dried fruits (aside from prunes), the amount 

 shipped is about 50 cars, at prices satisfactory to the grower. 



A large quantity of our grapes has gone to the wineries and thus 

 made it possible for raisin-growers to all come under the same umbrella 

 (which they have not done) and get good prices for their crops. 



The producing capacity of our soils does not seem to be depreciating, 

 as I have reliable statements of sixteen tons of Thompson's Seedless and 

 Sultana grapes being harvested per acre in the Dinuba and Orosi dis- 

 tricts. 



Kern County has been carried away with an oil excitement, and 

 orchards and vineyards have been neglected, though there are thousands 

 of acres of as good fruit land in that county as there is in the State. 



