PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 209 



fruit store and every fruit stand, was the prominent placard, " Califor- 

 nia Fruits." Near by a bushel basket full of Michigan peaches would 

 be a little carton of California fruits, both labeled at the same price. I 

 was proud of California deciduous fruit-growers; in fact, was almost 

 inclined to lie a little and insist that I was a northern California fruit- 

 grower myself and had a hand in producing the splendid display 

 before us. 



Of orange-growing up here I only know that we at the south hear so 

 much of your success that we begin to look to our laurels. If in the 

 little story I have to offer of a matter that is proving of exceeding 

 importance in the handling of our oranges at the south, there may be 

 anything of value to you northern growers, I shall be pleased. 



I shall not go into a general discussion, but by a brief object lesson 

 strive to enforce the importance of careful handling, and of knowing 

 how. 



Our southern California orange industry, during its brief career, 

 covering, as it does, but about half an ordinary lifetime, in which it 

 has grown from practically nothing to an annual producer of some 

 $25,000,000 or $30,000,000 in value, in the main has developed grad- 

 ually. But there have been a few errors of special growth, because of 

 important newly discovered methods in culture or marketing, quickly 

 put into practice. 



Though some of us at times have been somewhat impatient at the 

 tardiness with which improved methods have been accepted in general 

 practice, probably there has been no agricultural industry that has 

 developed with more rapid and substantial progress than our Califor- 

 nia orange-growing. Men who came to California in middle life, taking 

 part in the commencement of the industry, and in all its varied prog- 

 ress since, are yet actively engaged in the business. 



With its financial prosperity, its attractive features as an occupation, 

 and the esthetic effects of its orchards, giving a distinct characteristic 

 to the country, it has attracted to it intelligent men who have put 

 wealth and enterprise into the development of the new and interest- 

 ing industry with such success that it is now the acknowledged basis of 

 the phenomenal prosperity of southern California. While, for the 

 most part, the development and progress of the industry have been 

 gradual and continuous, it at times has received special impetus from 

 important discoveries which materially increased its prosperity and 

 promise of its permanency. Of these the introduction of the seedless 

 orange was the most important, at once bringing our California fruit 

 to favorable attention, and securing for it a permanent, growing market. 



The early organizations of cooperative methods of marketing, by 

 which now over half the entire product is marketed through a single 

 agency, marked a distinct era in the industry. It materially modified 

 14— FGC 



