PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 9 



protecting one of the big industries of this State— and I want to thank 

 the people of this city for the work which they did. They showed the 

 right spirit, and the people of the State will appreciate what was done 

 in Marysville and the energetic manner in which the war was carried 

 on against this pest, which, if it spreads, will do injury to the whole 

 State to an extent that we can not contemplate. 



As I said, there are a great many things for the people to give thought 

 to and study out. You have got to be wide awake all the time, and I 

 know you are. The Horticultural Commissions of the State and of the 

 different counties must pull together in harmony, for you are all work- 

 ing for one common end. This State of ours, with its climate and its 

 soil, is peculiarly adapted to fruit growing, and there is no reason why 

 we can not supply the entire country with its fruits, green and dried, 

 and we are going to do it and are doing it to-day. But there are several 

 things which we have got to take hold of and which are of vast impor- 

 tance to us in bringing about the desired results. 



One of the great problems to-day confronting California is the trans- 

 portation question. If you are going to make your fruit industry a 

 success you must have the best, the cheapest, and the quickest transpor- 

 tation. You must be able to get your fruit to the markets of the East 

 in the best and quickest way possible, and that is something that is 

 going to take a good deal of time. But I am satisfied that, if you stand 

 together, if you make a united effort, this thing will finally be settled 

 and we can get our fruit to these markets a great deal faster and a 

 great deal cheaper than we are getting it now. I believe the building 

 of the Panama canal will be one of the great factors in settling this 

 question. Of course, one road can not very well carry the great amount 

 of fruit that is produced in our orchards, but we will have three — the 

 Western Pacific, the Santa Fe, and the Southern Pacific. With proper 

 car equipment antl with fast trains, these railroads ought to be able to 

 handle the fruit of this State and handle it quickly, and get it to 

 the East quickly, and that is what we want — to get it there as 

 soon as possible and at a rate that is reasonable and fair and just; 

 and as soon as the canal is completed, which I think will be in ten 

 years, possibly a little longer, there will then be another means of 

 transportation by which we can get our fruits to Europe and along 

 the Atlantic coast cheap, and that will tend to bring down rates 

 to this coast. So the question of transportation is one on which the 

 people must be continually at work to see that rates are reasonable and 

 that cars are supplied, so that when we grow our fruit it does not rot 

 ■on our hands or on some side track, but that it reaches the great cities 

 of the country in splendid condition and where it can be sold for a fair 

 price. 



