10 



THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS^ COX\^NTION. 



emergency may arise. Fighting the white fly in the northern part of 

 the State alone cost $20,000. Surely the State can not spend money 

 more jnclicioiisly or to better advantage than in fighting the pests that 

 threatened her greatest industry. 



OPENING ADDRESS. 



By J. W. JEFFREY. State Commissio>-er of Horticulture. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Thirty-fourth Fruit-Growers' 

 Convention of California: One who can stand before the fruit growers 

 of Southern California and the other horticultural experts of the State 

 and address them upon their own business affairs without a feeling akin 

 to panic, must either know them as I do, or have a great deal of ignorant 

 assurance to undertake the task. I can not plead ignorance of what the 

 people will stand for. and must rely upon long acquaintance and' what 

 I may say to them for the fair hearing which I know will be given this 

 morning. Twenty years ago this month Riverside was honored for the 

 fxrst time by a visit from the present State Commissioner of Horticul- 

 ture. I was an ambassador of no mean pretensions, for I had with me 

 the entire navel orange crop of the San Gabriel Valley with which to 

 astonish the natives of Riverside at their citrus fair. Like Artemus 

 Ward, who loyally offered to immolate all his wife's relatives upon the 

 altar of his country, the people of my valley were willing to sacrifice 

 their every orange to give publicity to their town sites, and as the bearer 

 of these fruits I expected attention in proportion to the disinterested 

 surrender of crops my people had made. The exhibit when in place 

 consisted of a pyramid eighteen inches square at the base and a plate of 

 fruit at each corner. After looking over the Riverside tables I decided 

 that the fewer specimens I put up the better my exhibit would appear, 

 and I chucked the balance of the three boxes under the table. ^ly offer- 

 ing was finally smoothed up to public view, and I stood back to see the 

 nearby glory of the fruit of Two good and Cutter reflected from the 

 prisms of my alligator-skinned oranges, and to await the rush of 

 approval toward my table. It didn't come, though an occasional visitor 

 in pity lingered a moment to hekr of the wonderful citrus possibilities 

 of the upper San Gabriel Valley, which I may say have since been 

 lulfiUed in a measure that my ripe experience of ten months in the 

 State could not even foreshadow. By the end of the week I had eaten 

 the whole output of the San Gabriel Valley with the relish distinguish- 

 ing a tenderfoot, and cast about for some way to get even with Riverside 

 for not noticing my exhibit. Ejiowing that L. Holt was gifted in 

 expressing the wonders of California *s products. I paid him $60 for an 

 editorial column of appreciation, and the next morning it was seen 

 that my exhibit had eclipsed ami:hing at the fair. When I returned 

 home the weight of my newspaper testimonials was greater than that 

 of the fruit which had brought out such modest notice. It was the 

 first time I had ever subsidized a newspaper, and for years it worried 

 a tender conscience to have imposed upon so guileless a community as 

 the Riversiders then seemed to be. I knew they would not resort to 

 such questionable expediency to boom their citrus fruits. 



About three years ago my conscience ceased from troubling. At that 



