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



people can get hold of that information. And that committee will fol- 

 low the service up and enlarge upon it wherever it is shown desirable, 

 and from year to year it will increase until it becomes, in my judgment, 

 of exceedingly great value. I think it would be a proper thing to do 

 for the State Board of Horticulture to make a slight appropriation for 

 this purpose, and I believe that the best thing to do would be to turn 

 the thing over to the State Board of Horticulture, which is engaged in 

 some degree with the Department, and whatever expense there is con- 

 nected with it they are in a position to pay. It will only be a trifle, but 

 it is something to pay for. I hope the matter will be discussed a 

 little bit. 



MR. BERWICK. I would like to say this : that in the past the 

 Commercial Museum has done this work for us and has charged us 

 nothing, and they have done it regularly and effectually. It now seems 

 to me hardly gracious to take it from their hands until they are ready 

 to resign it. 



At this time President Cooper introduced Mr. Eugene Goodwin, Sec- 

 retary of the Pacific Coast Commercial Museum. 



ADDEESS ON OONSULAE SERVICE. 



By EUGENE GOODWIN. 



Your committee has requested me to tell you something about the 

 State Department and its workings, and what it might do for the fruit- 

 growers of California. 



The State Department is the medium through which the United States 

 has its relations with foreign governments, and of course contains many 

 branches. The principal one in which you are concerned is the Bureau 

 of Foreign Commerce, presided over by Mr. Frederick Emory, whose 

 desires are to help in every possible manner every branch of industry 

 in the United States — fruit-growers, manufacturers, jobbers, and others, 

 and to assist them in obtaining knowledge in regard to foreign markets. 

 This is done through the medium of the United States consuls and 

 commercial agents who are stationed all over the world. 



Within the last few years the consular service has been greatly 

 improved, by taking from many of the places the appointment of these 

 gentlemen by politicians. All the consuls and commercial agents 

 have been placed under civil service rules, and they must pass exami- 

 nations as to their fitness and so forth. In this way a great many 

 politicians have been deprived of situations. I think it may be said 

 without fear of contradiction that within the last five years, particularly, 

 our consular service has very much improved. The gentlemen in Wash- 



