PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS , CONVENTION. 11 



Commissioners, to promote and care for the fruit interests of our State 

 and make appropriations to develop our farms and help carry on in- 

 vestigations along the line of horticulture and viticulture. (Great 

 applause.) 



SECRETARY ISAAC. The next number on the program is an 

 address by our State Commissioner of Horticulture, Mr. Jeffrey. 

 Mr. Jeffrey has had wide experience in horticulture in the State and 

 has been at many of our conventions, but to-day he addresses you 

 for the first time as State Commissioner of Horticulture. Ladies 

 and gentlemen, I have pleasure in introducing Mr. Jeffrey. 

 (Applause.) 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY'S ADDRESS. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: For the first time in almost a generation 

 a State Commissioner of Horticulture other than the Hon. Ellwood 

 Cooper has been chosen to administer this office and to preside at a 

 meeting of the fruit-growers of the State in convention assembled. I 

 appear before you to-day with some hesitation, a stranger to many of 

 you, and yet acquainted in some measure with the work to be done in 

 this office, and earnestly ask your forbearance of the many deficiencies 

 that may be shown in my administration of this great trust. To the 

 older members of the Convention this change of officials appeals with 

 peculiar interest and some misgiving, because of the fine personal 

 qualities of Mr. Cooper, his attainments in horticulture, his services to 

 the State, and his long association with them as their president and 

 friend. The younger members of the fruit-growing fraternity, who 

 equally respect and love the retiring Commissioner, also regret the 

 loss of their leader. This admiration of a good man is not confined to 

 this organization, or to any section, but the people of the whole State 

 join in tribute to his admirable qualities and in appreciation of Mr. 

 Cooper's public services of the last thirty years. I wish to be foremost 

 in the expression of these sentiments and to hope that this Convention 

 may indorse, and forward to this great advocate of horticulture, a tes- 

 timony of esteem that gives voice to these feelings in an official and 

 cordial testimonial. 



One need but refer to the records of thirty-two conventions to dis- 

 cover the wide range of their activities, and to understand that they 

 have been fruit-growers' conventions in fact, and made the forum in 

 which the fruit-growers could have sole voice in the consideration of 

 their own interests, free from interference and undisturbed. Not only 

 have subjects been given place here pertaining directly to the fruit in- 

 dustries and all other enterprises of farm life, but many great questions 

 have been wrought out whose value is but little remote from the main 



