PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 73 



the interest generally manifested in the show California was able to 

 make. 



I was just footing up to-day the results of our awards, and while we 

 do not think we got all we ought to have, California returns with fifty 

 gold medals, sixty-eight silver medals, about the same number of bronze 

 medals, and I forget how many honorable mentions. Altogether, two 

 hundred and thirty-nine awards were made to the California exhibitors, 

 and I think it is fair to say that it is twice as many as were given to 

 any other State in the Union. The awards were made by juries com- 

 posed of as good talent as could be found in the country, and were made 

 without any possible interference on the part of the exhibitors from 

 California. You hear a good deal about judges being influenced in 

 making awards at the different expositions over the country, but in 

 no exhibit with which I have ever been connected do I know of a case 

 where a juror has been influenced or attempted to be influenced, and I 

 think such an attempt would be injurious to an exhibitor. You show 

 your exhibits, and they make their findings and you abide by them. 



Incidentally, I will say that I think the Buffalo field for California is 

 a good one; this is the first chance we have ever had of getting away 

 back before the great masses of Eastern people. We have never been 

 with an exhibit farther east than Chicago. We found that the great 

 mass of the people have only an imperfect idea of the real characteristics 

 of California; we found them susceptible and very eager to learn the 

 facts and particulars. We found a demand for our literature that 

 amounted almost to greed, and I adopted there a different method to 

 any I ever adopted before in the distribution of it, by placing it out 

 neatly along the counter, each pamphlet by itself, so that the inspector 

 could see what we had, and allowed the visitors to take what they 

 chose, instead of having some one in charge of it and asking the visitors 

 if they wanted some of this literature. I found that where you allow 

 them to take what they want and only what they want, they will put 

 it away and take it home. To prove that this is the best plan in dis- 

 tributing literature, I will say that I never found a single scrap of our 

 literature about the walks on the ground, while they were littered with 

 advertising cards and scraps of paper from all over the grounds. Many 

 times we looked to see if there was any of our literature scattered around 

 in the scrap piles, and with the exception of some cook-books which 

 were handed out to every one who sampled our fruit, we failed to find 

 anything. The visitors would take those books because they had been 

 asked to, and did not like to refuse our courtesy. I believe that if those 

 books had been left to be taken by only those who wanted them, none 

 of them would have been thrown away. We found that the demand 

 for California literature increased. The problem that presents itself to 

 us is how are you going to get your matter in the best hands and get it 



