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



of disposing of our products; we are not getting the right men at the 

 head of our organizations. Much of the success of California depends 

 upon the men who will make a success of these organizations. 



MR. BERWICK. I move that this Convention protests against the 

 arbitrary advance of two per cent commission by the commission men 

 of San Francisco on the sale of California fruits. 



MR. SPRAGUE. I move to amend by suggesting that a committee 

 of three be appointed to investigate the matter and report to this 

 Convention. 



Motion carried. 



President Cooper appointed the following committee: A. R. Sprague, 

 F. M. Righter, and Chauncey Gaines. 



PROF. CHILDS. Mr. President, I wish to make a few remarks on 

 one of the paragraphs in Mr. Aiken's speech in regard to the prune 

 industry of the Santa Clara Valley. During the past four or five years 

 we have had several dry seasons, and even last year, with a very large 

 crop, Santa Clara did not produce one half of the entire prune crop. It 

 is very likely that w^e will now have some wet and warm seasons, and the 

 valley will produce more prunes than we will be able to market in one 

 year. Our people are studying the conditions, and many of them are 

 doing what we had better do all over the State. A great deal of the fer- 

 tility of the soil is used in producing limbs and pits. Many of our best 

 orchardists are taking out every other tree, and last year I know of one 

 orchardist who had three times the number of prunes to the acre than 

 when all the trees had stood, and much better prunes at that, and it 

 costs less to take care of an orchard with one half the number of trees. 

 I believe that the best thing that could happen in the prune industry 

 would be to take out one half of the prune trees in this manner. 



MR. AIKEN. By cooperation, my friend Naftzger has made a 

 great success of things in Southern California. In San Jose it is said 

 we failed in the Cured Fruit Association; but we didn't; there is a little 

 misunderstanding about that association. The association never 

 intended to sell fruit; it was not organized for that purpose; it was 

 evidently organized to give the fruit crop to the packer for sale, and let 

 him take the money for it. So far, the fruit has been sold; but one 

 misfortune was that the packers who received their allotments owned 

 too many cars in the East for them to sell them in the time they agreed 

 to, and they have been thrown back upon the association. The associa- 

 tion has been trying, in the markets of the w^orld in the past year, to 

 sell those prunes and distribute the money among the growers, and it 

 is trying to do so now. 



MR. JACOBS. Mr. Aiken said that the trouble was the packer has 

 been compelled to throw back his cars upon the producer because he 

 could not sell them, and the reason the packers could not sell the 



