PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 263 



afforded will induce a greater population and more intense cultivation, 

 which will in turn bring about a corresponding development in drying, 

 packing and canning, and therefore greater facilities for marketing the 

 products. 



Between this city and the town of Biggs on the north, a distance of 

 twenty-three miles along the line of the Northern Electric Railway, 

 taking a strip one and one-half miles wide on each side of the track, there 

 are about fifty thousand acres of land in every way adapted to the 

 culture of fruit, and upon which there is already a large acreage under 

 production, and this production has been going on for a long term of 

 years and has resulted in a demonstration of the adaptability of. this 

 soil and climate to the purposes we are now considering, which removes 

 it entirely from the realm of uncertainty, and leaves nothing for the 

 imagination in connection with what would be the given result of an 

 investment of time and labor upon any of these lands. 



It is not the purpose of this paper to go into the figures of production, 

 as they have been more ably dealt with by others who are more famil- 

 iar with that subject, but the above facts are mentioned simply to 

 bring vividly before you a picture of what can be accomplished in this 

 immediate section alone, provided the available resources were put to 

 practical purposes. The value of an electric railway to this belt of 

 land can hardly be overstated. I believe that it is generally conceded 

 that it is of very great advantage for a grower to be able to market as 

 much green fruit as possible, and our railway in this section would 

 enable every fruit-grower upon that entire strip of land to market his 

 fresh products so far as the local railway facilities are concerned. The 

 hauling from any of the lands within that belt to such a railway would 

 not be serious and would not result in damage either by the wear and 

 tear of wagon transportation or by delays incident thereto. This is par- 

 ticularly true of an electric railway, because one of the chief advantages 

 of such a railway is the facility, with which it can operate small units 

 frequently. Under a system of electric railway which is properly 

 equipped with cars, a frequent service would be quite practical, so that 

 fruit could be loaded and moved expeditiously and it need not be subjected 

 to delays incident to a system which operates perhaps one long, cum- 

 brous freight train per day in which there is a great deal of switching 

 and banging about. It is obviously advantageous, for instance, in hot 

 weather, if a fruit-grower can load a car quickly and have it moved to 

 its destination without having it exposed too many hours in the heat; 

 this can be brought about only by such a system as an electric railway 

 would establish. 



To refer again to the belt of land between this point and Biggs, and 

 which you will all agree with me is just being hardly more than 

 touched at present. I am told by well-informed persons that the whole 



