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



In conclusion I will say that the localities I have spoken of in this 

 paper are, to my mind, not to he excelled in this State for citrus- 

 growing. They are free from scale, as the climate is such that many of 

 the scales that infest other parts of the State can not live here. Our 

 oranges catch the early Eastern market, when top prices rule. 



A parting word to the fruit-growers present : California grows the 

 best fruits in the world, and the world is beginning to want them. 

 Now, can not you, as growers and as intelligent men, get together in 

 some kind of an organization and market your fruits, both green and 

 dried, so as to make the business more profitable than it has been ? 

 Can not you make the umbrella large enough to take all the growers 

 under its protection, and not leave thirty to forty per cent outside to 

 cut your throats ? 



The address of Mr. Thomas was received and placed on file. 



DISTEIBUTION OF FRUITS. 



By a. H. NAFTZGER, of Los Angeles, 

 President and General Manager of the Southern California Citrus Fruit Exchange. 



Probably in no other class of products from the soil has there been 

 so great increase in volume in recent years as in fruit-growing. The 

 shipments from California orchards alone have increased from 16,000 

 carloads in 1890 to more than 66,000 carloads in 1900 — an increase of 

 more than 400 per cent in ten years. The census reports are not yet 

 complete, but the advance bulletins indicate a similar vast increase in 

 fruit-growing in every part of the country. As for instance: Delaware 

 shows a marked increase in everything except peaches, ranging from an 

 increase of 40 per cent on cherry trees up to nearly 1400 per cent in 

 prunes and plums. It is true that the plums and prunes in Delaware 

 are still in limited quantity, although the increase was more than 7,000 

 bushels. During the same period, the increase in pears in that State 

 was more than 130,000 bushels. Look at the comparative figures of 

 the colder State of Connecticut. During the decade, the number of 

 bearing apple trees increased nearly 50 per cent, cherry trees 60 per 

 cent, peach trees 489 per cent, pear trees 43 per cent, plum ^nd prune 

 trees over 1200 per cent. Like in Delaware, some of these products are 

 still in limited quantities, although the increase is marked. 



Fruit-growing has been stimulated by the genius of the people in 

 seeking new lines of profitable industry, but more particularly by the 

 consumptive demand for fruit. The luxuries of a few years ago have 

 become the necessaries of to-day. With a very large percentage of our 

 population no breakfast, luncheon, or dinner table is complete without 

 fruits in some form. There was a time when the delicious products of 



