96 



THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



The trouble with some growers (of course there are none of them 

 here) is that they are too penurious or too shortsighted to spend enough 

 money to properly care for their groves. Perhaps you will be interested 

 in the following expense account of my twenty-acre lemon grove, which 

 produced 18,932 fiftj-pound picking boxes during the year of 1907 : 



Tools and implements, 20 per cent charged off $08 54 



Frost plant labor 11 04 



Harness, 20 per cent charged off 11 38 



Expense, bookkeeping, telephone, office supplies, etc., including 



$25 per month charged to orchard for my management. . . . 602 77 



Horse feed, cost of same 251 31 



Cultivation 270 38 



Picking lemons 2.307 00 



Pruning 104 43 



Irrigating 363 05 



Fertilizing 545 28 



Total $4,662 44 



Or $233 per acre. 



I have mentioned a few of the most important things. There are 

 others necessary to success, but if the average grower will follow the 

 blazed trail, and give the same watchful care and attention to detail 

 that is given by the average successful business man to his business, 

 he will succeed. 



MR. TEAGUE. Since I wrote that portion in regard to the foreign 

 lemon, I received a couple of circular letters, which were sent out by 

 the foreign fruit brokers in New York to the trade throughout the 

 country, knocking California lemons. These circulars were sent to 

 me by one of the dealers handling our lemons, but who has only been 

 handling them a short time. I would like to read a short extract which 

 illustrates the sort of competition Ave have from the foreigners, and 

 how much better it Avould be if we could supply these markets ourselves 

 and could regulate better: 



It is true that California lemons are selling very low. which is due largely to the 

 condition in which they are arriving, being so bad in a great many cases that they 

 are not bringing freight charges. In view of the fact that California oranges are 

 bringing so much more money than the lemons, and the market is steadily advancing 

 on oranges, it does not seem probable that they would monopolize the time of the help 

 on lemons, when they can obtain so much more money for the oranges. Therefore, it 

 would seem most probable that they would divert their attention to the latter. Also 

 bear in mind that the general condition of the majority of California lemons to be 

 shipped, being overripe, as advised you before, one can imagine the condition that 

 they .will be arriving in a little later on with warm weather, as it is reasonable to 

 question that they are not getting any better by remaining on the trees or in store 

 houses in California. 



That is one. Now, here is another : 



The past ten days has brought out a considerable change in the lemon situation. 

 The buyers generally seem to have little faith in the keeping qualities of the Cali- 

 fornia product. In fact, the shippers themselves seem to feel the necessity of selling 

 at any price in order to move them, and many large operators are of the opinion 

 that when the trade are wise to the situation, that heavy purchases of imported 

 lemons will cause an immediate and considerable advance in price. 



This was sent with this note attached: "Mr. Teague — Why don't 

 you kill him? The California stock is now killing the Dago. We 

 bought one car of imported lemons last year, and don't expect to buy 

 any this." (Applause.) 



