THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



9 



ADDRESS. 



By HON. M. ESTUDILLO, representing Governor J. N. Gillett. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: "A farmer," says 

 Bryan, "is a man who makes his money in the country and spends 

 it in the city, and a horticulturist is a man who makes his money in the 

 city and spends it in the country." The Governor is in thorough 

 sympathy with you and keenly interested in your efforts. He takes 

 a personal interest in the welfare of the horticultural and agricultural 

 interests of this State. Every bill that came before the Legislature, 

 which had a tendency to help those interests, received his support. 

 The Davisville Farm, the Agricultural College, and our own Experiment 

 Station received the Governor 's cordial support. In fact, the Governor 

 has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a true and enthusiastic 

 friend of the fruit industry of the State. 



If further evidence should be required regarding the Governor's 

 interest in the fruit industry of the State, I would refer you to the 

 appointment of the Hon. J. \V. Jeffrey as Horticultural Commissioner 

 of California. A word in reference to Mr. Jeffrey. I wish that he were 

 not present, for being a modest, unassuming man, I am afraid he would 

 blush like a sixteen-year-old maid. If he were not present, then I might 

 say all the nice things I wished about him. 



Gentlemen, this is a grand State, this glorious California of ours — a 

 grand Empire nestling on the shores of the bluest* of oceans, the 

 Pacific. I realize that the people have different problems in the different 

 parts of the State to solve. You fruit men, together with the rest of the 

 people, have problems to solve other than fighting insect pests, the 

 fertilization of the soil, markets, the best methods of packing and 

 transportation. And these problems, I repeat, are different in different 

 parts of the State. 



In the northern part of the State it is how to break up these princely 

 principalities into smaller homes; how to make them produce and 

 support millions where they now support thousands; how to harness 

 the streams that now flow unchecked in their mad career to the sea ; 

 how to make them light your towns and cities, do your bidding, turn 

 the wheels of commerce ; how to reclaim the vast inland seas and make 

 them blossom forth as the rose ; how to force a small tract of land to 

 support a family where it requires a thousand acres to-day. These are 

 some of your problems in the north. 



Here in the south the problems are : Hoav to cause a spear of grass 

 to grow where none grew before ; how to garner the precious drops 

 of water, how to conserve them ; how best to tap nature 's underground 

 supply, and how to thwart nature's thirstbeams after the water comes 

 to the surface; how to make a foot of land support a family; how to 

 turn the desert, sands, and the rocks into gold, milk, and flowers. 



Believing that the fruit industry should have every means of pro- 

 tection I would suggest that you ask your Legislature for adequate 

 appropriations in the future. You should advise and confer with your 

 representatives regarding your needs. I believe that the time has 

 arrived when more money should be placed at the disposal of the 

 office of the Horticultural Commissioner, for you can never tell what 



