PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



THIRTY-FOURTH CONVENTION OF THE CALIFORNIA 

 STATE FRUIT GROWERS. 



Rn^RSiDE, Cal., April 28, 1908. 



Pumiant to call, the Thirty-fourth Fruit-Growers' Convention met 

 at the Loring Opera House, Riverside, Tuesday, April 28, 1908, at 

 .0:30 A. M. 



J. W. Jeffrey, State Commissioner of Horticulture called the meet- 

 ing- to order. 



Rev. Alex Eakin, of Riverside, opened the Convention with an 

 invocation. 



President Jeffrey. We are now ready for businevSs, and the next 

 on the programme is an address of welcome to the \asitors and members 

 of this Convention by the Hon. S. C. Evans, Mayor of Riverside. 

 (Applause.) 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



By S. C. EVANS, Mayor of Riverside. 



I don't know of any subject that could be of more interest to the 

 people of Riverside than the .subjects that will come before a Conven- 

 tion of this kind, and it surely behooves the people of Riverside and 

 of all Southern California to seriously consider the questions that will 

 come before you. 



I don't know what more I can say than to indicate that in some lines 

 particularly, perhaps in the lemon industry, the tendency of late years 

 seems to have been — perhaps it is a necessity to achieve best results — 

 to have the holdings in large tracts of land, so that the market can be 

 supplied through all the months of the year, and the lemons properly 

 handled and cured by those who are expert in that particular line of 

 business. And as we notice the drift of things, many of our orange 

 groves are going into large holdings, through combinations of people 

 and companies or corporations. Perhaps the best results come through 

 that method of handling, as illustrated in the packing-house system of 

 our Fruit Exchange. Of course the citrus industry is our mainstay. 

 It is ver^^ profitable. A good orange grove is better than anything 

 else in a money way — a poor one is a source of aggravation all the 

 time: but it seems to me that we ought to encourage the small grower 

 in the small fruits — anything that can be grown and produced, berries, 

 vegetables, all small fruits — and get as many people settled upon the 

 land and on the small tracts as possible. I know in this southern part 

 of the State where water is fairly scarce, and sometimes very hard 

 and expensive to bring upon the right kind of soil, that it is hard to 



