18 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS 1 CONVENTION. 



county were compelled to maintain an efficient Horticultural Commis- 

 sion, appointed solely on merit and supported by an able corps of 

 inspectors. These appointments should be divorced from politics and 

 governed entirely by fitness for the work required. I shall carry this 

 idea into the administration of the State Commissioner's office, for 

 merit will govern every appointment, and no one in the State will 

 expect any other policy to prevail. Time will not permit further 

 reference to the work that this office should do, nor to many other 

 topics that demand attention. 



At the risk of your impatience I must pay tribute to the chief of 

 the forces that stand for betterment of fruit-growing in California — 

 the men and women of the country homes, the artisans who have built 

 the grandest horticultural structure in the world, and have established 

 here the highest degree of rural civilization upon the face of the earth. 

 Twenty-seven numbers on this Convention's program are represented 

 by these people. And who shall say their achievements are not far be- 

 yond those of all other forces combined ? These are the architects of the 

 State's real grandeur. These are the people to whom the elimination 

 of an unfit fruit is greater than the creation of a hundred varieties, 

 the delineation of suitable soils for the cultivation of their crops of 

 more value to them than an encyclopedia of horticulture, the posses- 

 sion of an honest nurseryman of more worth than another farm. They 

 are here to speak for themselves. They pay for all, and all should 

 listen. All honor to the fruit-growers of the State. May their pros- 

 perity never grow less nor their influence in these conventions be 

 abated. 



THE CHAIRMAN. Ladies and Gentlemen : The next on the pro- 

 gram is an article from Edward Berwick, one of our oldest and most 

 honored members. Mr. Berwick will now read a paper on ' ' The Fruit- 

 Grower and the Parcels Post." 



THE FRUIT-GROWER AND THE PARCELS POST. 



By EDWARD BERWICK, of Pacific Grove. 

 With prunes and raisins at five cents per pound and canning peaches 

 at from forty dollars to ninety dollars a ton, it may be hard to persuade 

 the fruit-grower that he wants anything more this side of Paradise. 

 Of course, Ave must except* the extermination of the white fly and the 

 control of the pear blight. He may feel a little exercised as to the 

 labor question; but, as sales f. o. b. are easy, he can afford to let the 

 other fellow worry over the old vexatious transportation troubles. In 

 Los Angeles four years ago the fruit-growers were telling quite a diifer- 

 ent story. We were then as unanimous as Jonah in the belly of the 



