PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 13 



high value of good land throughout the State. So great have been 

 the revenues of the last fruit crop in the orange districts that the net 

 cash received by the citrus growers would pay for the construction of 

 the Owens River conduit, which President Roosevelt says is the most 

 remarkable undertaking of its kind in modern times. The deciduous 

 fresh fruit business of this year perhaps passes all records for steady, 

 lucrative prices; prunes in this valley and elsewhere have brought 

 riches to hundreds of growers; grapes have touched the highest mark 

 in many localities ; walnuts have sold twenty per cent above the aver- 

 ages of past years, and all through the lists from small fruits to melons 

 we hear the same story of satisfactory fruit returns. It is time the 

 voice of the croaker was heard no more in this State of plenitude, and 

 that the counsel of the hopeful and helpful be given the ear of the 

 orchardist. 



While the fruit-growers are deeply concerned with the causes that 

 have led to the successes of the banner year of 1907, they must also con- 

 sider the adverse influences that may greatly affect this prosperity in 

 the future. It is certain that the obstacles to profitable horticulture are 

 increasing. Our soils are becoming more difficult to handle, insect pests 

 lay heavier tribute upon our orchard crops, fungous and bacterial 

 diseases are becoming more frequent and virulent, and altogether the 

 practical and scientific exactions of our orchards, farms, and vegetable 

 fields are becoming more strenuous every year. Should we lose courage 

 in facing these growing adversities? On the contrary, we find in them 

 great encouragement, for in them is the compelling call to a higher 

 order of horticulture, advanced as is our State in this, her greatest 

 industry. Just as the difficulties of doing legitimate and profitable 

 business in this country have been exposed by the financial and investi- 

 gational events of the last year, to be corrected for good by the genius 

 of the American people, so are the vicissitudes of fruit-growing to be 

 better understood and mitigated by scientific investigation and specific, 

 practical detail in the growing and handling of California fruits. 

 These intellectual exactions of the orchard, and the bothersome require- 

 ments of detail will help to eliminate competition by the reduction of 

 unfit fruit, and will be followed by the greater elevation of our horti- 

 cultural industries and their final emplacement above most other avo- 

 cations where skill and business capacity are required for permanent 

 success. 



The United States Government is busy all over this State with 

 helping us in our present difficulties and providing against those of the 

 future. Powell is in Southern California for his third year, investi- 

 gating with his assistants the faults of packing and shipping citrus 

 fruits; Marlatt is there also with his helpers studying the use of cya- 



