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



used, and new remedies and improved methods of application are 

 exploited. 



Many of the County Horticultural Commissioners are making ento- 

 mologists of themselves, and the work of several of them has been 

 recognized by the National Government. The constant and thorough 

 investigations by this body of intelligent workers in our fruit districts 

 have been of greater value to horticulture in our State than any other 

 feature of our industry. The work is carried on quietly, without dis- 

 play, and while it has seldom received public recognition outside of the 

 reports of the State Board, it has accomplished great results and is 

 destined to achieve more in the future. 



THE PRUIT-GEOWEE AND HIS WORK. 



By J. W. NELSON, of San Francisco. 



In all of the wide domain of industry there is no calling more 

 important to the welfare of the State and more concerned in its 

 upbuilding than that of the fruit-grower. Seeing that at present it 

 contributes not less than $40,000,000 to the income of the State, and 

 that in a decade this will be increased to not less than $100,000,000, 

 some idea of its value to the State may be formed. The fruit industry 

 of our day in California leads all others, and indeed, it is certain that 

 in time to come California will be the great fruit-growing State of this 

 wonderful country. Already the product of its valleys and hillsides is 

 sold in all civilized markets, and the fame of its fruits has reached the 

 ends of the earth. Owing to the fruit industry, great tracts of country 

 are being raised from a condition of poverty and barrenness to one of 

 fertility and smiling plenty. Twenty years ago the Santa Clara Valley 

 was for the most part for half the year, bare, brown, and forbidding, 

 while its people for the most part also were in a condition bordering on 

 chronic bankruptcy. Some benefactor of his race suggested^ turning 

 the unprofitable wheat and barley fields into fruit orchards, and to-day 

 Santa Clara Valley is a synonym for plenty and prosperty. We doubt 

 if, for its size, there is a richer county in all California. 



Even the golden treasures of '49 do not begin to compare with the 

 orchards of this State. Take Fresno, the home of a happy, prosperous 

 people, once a barren desert, made rich by fruit culture. What would 

 Los Angeles, Riverside, Pasadena, San Diego, Orange, and other famous 

 places in Southern California be without their citrus-groves, their 

 beautiful vineyards and orchards of deciduous fruit? We know what 

 they were in the day when the Mexicans and Indians were thinly scat- 

 tered over the land. In the main, no more God-forsaken localities 

 could be found on his footstool; but fruit culture, with its magic wand. 



