220 PROCEEDINGS OP THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



and to-day it represents a capital of fifty millions. If a corporation 

 could do that with Mellen's frood, what could you do with California's 

 luscious fruits? 



I took a few of these fruits to Germany and showed them to the 

 people there, and the importers and dealers came and asked, "How can 

 we get some of that fruit?" I didn't have to go to them and make 

 appointments and beg for an audience, but men with millions at their 

 back came and sought an audience with me, begged me to dine with 

 them, that they might impress me with their substantiality, reliabil- 

 ity, and efficiency in handling these goods if they could by any means 

 obtain an agency for them. It is an old story, but you know it. I had 

 to send to Liverpool for samples to cook and give away, and I had to 

 send for more to be put in a store to be sold at my account, so I could 

 say on a card they could be had in Germany ; and from nothing we 

 made a business that amounted, in probably one year, to seven hundred 

 carloads; and no less an authority than Philo Hersey, President of 

 the Fruit Exchange of Santa Clara Valley, remarked in a State Fruit- 

 Growers' Convention that the amount of our dried fruit in that year, 

 1897, was excessive and the price threatened to slump below the profit 

 line, but that this unexpected demand from across the sea stiffened the 

 prices and made the crop profitable, and, as he expressed it, it prob- 

 ably increased the price one cent a pound. If it did, it meant $1,500,- 

 000. If it stiffened the price one mill a pound it meant increased 

 receipts of $150,000, and all at the expense of $6,000. That was in one 

 small portion of Germany. The historian, Von Stephanie, begged me 

 to take those samples into Austria. He said, "You can get a great trade 

 there." The Russians said, "Why do you come to Germany? Come 

 to us." The Englishman said, "We are your best customers; why don't 

 you bring them to our country and show our people what splendid 

 things you have got? We would buy all you have." When I came 

 home and reported these facts to the State Fruit-Growers' Convention 

 in California they were impressed by it. They believed that that work 

 ought to be continued, and Mr. H. Weinstock rose in his seat and said, 

 "This work ought to be continued and we ought to raise the money 

 right here to do it with, and to start a subscription I will give $500." 

 They appointed a committee, with Mr. Russ Stephens as chairman, 

 consisting of one member from each county in the State, to raise 

 $10,000, and they were getting along swimmingly with the work when 

 the "Maine" blew up. 



MR. STEPHENS. I will state that we had over $8,000. 



MR. FILCHER. Some day it ought to be taken up and revived. 

 The market is there and the world is -there, and I want to tell you 

 nobody ever had too keen a demand for the things he is producing. 

 That will bring our Eastern patrons up to a sense of the fact that we 



