THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS* CONTENTION. 



99 



ditions of the last two seasons, an abimdance of moisture with no 

 damaging frosts. Also, the good prices realized have stimulated growers 

 to take better care of their orchards than formerly. New plantings 

 are not large in proportion to the total acreage, and before they can 

 come into bearing it is reasonable to expect that markets will have 

 grown sufficiently to need all that will be produced. 



The lemon business reciuires an expensive equipment properly to store 

 and care for the product during periods of dull markets. Considerable 

 loss is occasioned each season, and especially the present season, owing 

 to the increased crop and dull markets, because of failure to supply 

 this equipment. The large grower, who ships his own fruit, has a 

 great advantage over the small grower. The circumstances of the case 

 force him to realize the need for taking care of his product. In fact, 

 unless the small growers can unite in forming associations, they can 

 hardly expect to succeed. This, of course, has been done for years in 

 many localities, and with excellent results, yet in other places the 

 growers are still groping in the dark, and in such seasons as the present 

 they become serioiLsly discouraged. In lemons, as in all else, in union 

 there is strength. 



MR. WILLITTS. The reputation of the lemons that Mr. Allen 

 refers to as ha\ing driven foreigners out of the market, was not built 

 upon the fruit that was taken from the tree while it was yellow. The 

 practice is now general among the best packers to pack this yellow 

 fruit under entirely separate l)rands. Any knowledge that can be 

 given to the growing of fruit that will mature while it is still green 

 will do more to advance the reputation of California than ami:hing 

 else that can be done — even careful handling. It does not matter how 

 carefully you handle yellow lemons, you can't make them keep very 

 long. Mr. Rumsey said we had been neglecting oranges for lemons, 

 but large concerns have oranges and lemons both; and in the winter, 

 when lemons are growing fastest, we get a rain, and people can't get 

 intu the orchards to pick for a few days. Then, instead of picking the 

 lemons that are getting yellow, they pick the oranges, and the lemons 

 are neglected, and by and by they come in yeUow and go on to the 

 market, and those are the ones that come up against the foreign lemons, 

 in the circular that Mr. Teague read. It is not the fault of the lemons : 

 it is the fault of the growers. We grow lemons here that wiU keep 

 as well as any lemons grown on earth. ^Ir. Powell has called the 

 attention of the growers to such things, as well as careful handling, 

 and it will probably be as well received as has been his work in the 

 oranges. 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY. Now. Prof. E. J. Dickson will talk to 

 you upon the "University Farm School.'* 



