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Between the fruit grower and the wheat grower there can be no jeal- 

 ous rivalry. We are not encroaching perceptibly upon the wheat area 

 of the State. We can produce all the fruit required for consumption 

 in this country without considerably diminishing the wheat acreage. 

 Indeed, the law that demands diversity of crops precludes the idea of 

 having all fruit and no wheat or barley or hay. France with her rich 

 acres of vines and fruits and her wonderfully diversified products, grows 

 over 300,000,000 bushels of wheat some years; in 1894 the yield was 

 343,345,391 bushels — an average of twenty bushels to the acre. And 

 this is more than three fifths as much as the entire crop of the United 

 States for 1892, and more than four fifths the crop for 1893. 



What we should all do now as_ patriots, as good citizens, is to find 

 some way to make profitable all the products of our wonderful soil and 

 climate, and to stand firm for the supremacy of agriculture in all its 

 forms in our beloved California. Let us not reproach each other nor try 

 to build up one industry by pulling down another. No one builds 

 wisely who builds upon the ruins of his neighbor. 



What is the situation of wheat and fruit growing in California? The 

 answer as to wheat involves to some extent an examination of the 

 world's market. As to fruit the answer relates chiefly to the home 

 market. 



At a recent meeting of the State Board of Trade the future of wheat 

 growing was made the subject of special discussion. Hon. Horace Davis, 

 one of our best informed citizens, addressed the meeting by invitation. 

 During the Midwinter Fair I heard him deliver a very interesting dis- 

 course before one of the congresses on this same subject. He seems to 

 think that over-production has had much to do with depressed prices, 

 and he saw but little encouragement for the California wheat grower. 

 Being asked whether the fall in the value of silver had not affected 

 prices, he replied that the wheat grower in silver countries was getting 

 the same for his wheat now as thirty years ago, and that silver had not 

 changed in value in those countries. He said, however, as I understood 

 him, that the purchaser sold the wheat for gold and bought silver at a 

 heavy discount with which to buy more wheat, and that this gave the 

 Indian wheat grower a competitive advantage. 



The United States Senate at its last session undertook, by a com- 

 mittee, to inquire into the causes of the depression in agricultural 

 products. The report of the committee is very elaborate and exhaustive. 

 As to wheat, the report shows that the low price cannot be referred to 

 over-production. 



Upon this point some statistics will be helpful and interesting. In 

 our own country the quantity grown does not necessarily affect prices. 

 We produced the largest crop, by about 25 per cent, in 1891, ever known 

 in the United States, but it brought a better price than a much smaller 

 crop the year before, or since. In 1892, our crop was nearly 1,000,000 

 bushels less than in 1891, and in 1893 the crop was more than 2,000,000 

 bushels less than in 1891, but prices were lower in 1892, and still lower 

 in 1893. 



In 1884, we raised 25 per cent more wheat than in 1893, and about 

 the same as in 1892, but we got 30 per cent higher price for a 25 per 

 cent larger crop, and yet we had added 8,000,000 people to our population. 



Looking over the globe what do we find? The annual average wheat 



