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



submit in all earnestness this question: Why is it, when the produc- 

 tion of olives in America is practically confined to this State, with a 

 protective tariff, and the law of supply and demand so pronounced in 

 our favor, that we can not, by applying business methods, get the benefits 

 we are now sacrificing, but to which we are so justly entitled? 



PROF. HILGARD. I will say one word only in regard to the mat- 

 ter of olives. The Experiment Station of the California University has 

 found that we frequently get samples of oils sent to us with complaints 

 that they do not taste right; and it has happened that those samples 

 are the pure oil, and that the oil they want is the adulterated oil. I am 

 sorry to say that I have had on my table pure oil and adulterated oil 

 at the same time, and the adulterated oil suited best. Regarding the 

 pickled olive: A bulletin is now being printed on the subject, and it 

 will be distributed. We have tried the methods of using strong and 

 weak lye in treating the olive. Strong lye has proven not to be good, 

 as it is impossible to get a keeping olive with strong lye. If you insist 

 on shortening time by using strong lye, the olives will not keep. ' If 

 the olives are cured slowly by repeating the use of weak lye, and 

 especially if the additional salt is put in after the first lye is taken off, 

 you will get better results. There can be no rules given about the 

 quantities to use, because the olive that is irrigated differs from the 

 olive that is grown without irrigation. The strength of the solution 

 has got to be left to the pickler. With the weaker solution and using 

 it oftener, we have found that at the end of thirty-two months the 

 olives have been as good as they were the first day. You will get all 

 of this information from the bulletin we are going to issue. 



FEOST, AND HOW BEST TO OVEEOOME DAMAGE BY IT. 



By professor ALEXANDER G. McADIE, of San Feancisco, 

 Forecast Official of the U. S. Weather Bureau. 



PROFESSOR McADIE. Before taking up this paper upon the 

 method of frost-fighting, I would like to say that I have visited a great 

 many fruit ranches from Shasta to San Diego, and have heard a great 

 deal of testimony along this line, during the past four or five years. 

 Some of that testimony has been of this character: "Yes, I have tried 

 smudging, and tried it well, too; and all that I ever got out of it was a 

 heavy cold." I believe that under the weather conditions of the last 

 ten years, we can carry our citrus and deciduous fruits through great 

 deal colder periods with a loss of probably not more than five per cent. 



With the possible exception of the loss occasioned by insect pests, 

 there is probably no one cause of loss so seriously afiecting crops in 



