THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS^ CONVENTION. 



17 



ADDRESS OF DR. DAVID STARR JORDAN. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Fruit-Growers' Association: 

 I have no particular message. I have been here presiding over an 

 Indian conference. I don't know yqy\ much about Indians, but being 

 chief of a tribe of savages, I was well fitted for any such work as 

 presiding over the conference. 



But I am very deeply interested in the fruit-growers ' work, the fruit- 

 growers ' convention — very deeply interested in this tremendous in- 

 dustry which is as yet in its very beginning. 



I was thinking awhile ago that primitive man was in very much the 

 same condition as the primitive bear that Charles W. Warner speaks of. 

 He was out gathering blackberries at one time, and he saw a bear coming 

 along. The bear was gathering blackberries. He took them in both 

 hands and ate all the green ones and ripe ones together, had not any 

 thought of selecting the ripe ones ; and Mr. Warner abandoned his pail 

 of blackberries to the bear, who was very much gratified to find that the 

 good ones had all been selected, so he didn't have to eat the green 

 ones and the prickles. 



Primitive man went into the woods and took what he could find, 

 ate his blackberries green and ripe the same as the bear does. He 

 used in those days to live in hollow trees or caves. By and by he 

 learned the trick of making trees hollow. By and by he learned the 

 trick of splitting trees up and making them into hollow houses, and 

 he learned a good many tricks afterwards besides those I have just 

 mentioned. He learned the same way in regard to fruit. He learned 

 after awhile there were places where there was good fruit and places 

 where there was not; he would go and camp out where the good fruit 

 was, just as a primitive man used to go and camp by the bays where 

 clams were to be found ; and in many places you will find great mounds 

 or hills of clam shells, the result of these visits of primitive man. Then 

 it occurred to primitive man that he could take the clams and place 

 them in other places, so he could have fresh clams to eat whenever he 

 wanted them. 



In the same way, he learned where the good fruit Avas and good 

 blackberries Avere ; that he could take the seeds and plant them wherever 

 he pleased, and so have his own berries ; and that he could dig up 

 roots and plant them wherever he pleased and so have them wherever 

 he liked. So he began to gather around his house these wild fruits of 

 various kinds. By and by he found that some bushes had better fruits 

 than others. Then he began to select out his seeds from the best berries 

 and things of that kind, and in the same way about the same time he 

 learned that with many fruits he could take one of the buds off of one 

 tree and put it on another and so get a better grade of fruit. 



And so this work of selecting wild fruit went on unconsciously and 

 finally consciously, and within the last generation men have learned the 

 fine art of developing fruits and making fruits. It is just as easy to 

 improve on the wild fruits as it is to improve on the hollow trees and 

 make houses by splitting up the trees and fastening the pieces together. 

 With these wild fruits enormous improvements have been made — un- 

 consciously at first. 



2 FGC 



