11 



I cannot, of course, inform you very correctly of the varied industries of 

 the county, but I will take it for granted that you have eyes such as will 

 search out for yourselves its capabilities, and by which you will be assured 

 that you have come to a place that none of you can afford to despise, and 

 that you perhaps would like to understand more thoroughly. You will find 

 too, after your examination, that this is the spot of all others that comes 

 up to the famous saying that " if you tickle the ground with a hoe it will 

 laugh a harvest." We can assure you that there is nothing that is worth 

 producing either in agriculture or horticulture that cannot in a measure, 

 and in most cases to perfection, be produced in Butte County, and the dif- 

 ficulty indeed is, to select, in the whole scope of horticulture, anything that 

 will not grow in Butte County. 



And we can also assure you that we do not require the abundance of irri- 

 gation that is required in some counties that are represented here, giving us, 

 I think, a special prominence in the matter of horticulture and agriculture, 

 reducing the price of the production of our cereals and fruit, and com- 

 mending itself to every horticulturist as the very home of fruits and flowers. 

 But to come to a special point, I have no doubt at all that I am expected 

 to represent to-day something that I cannot fully express, and that is the 

 great desire on the part of our people that you should feel entirely at home 

 among our citizens — among the people of Butte County. 



My embarrassment results not simply because you are a distinguished 

 class of people, an honorable class of people individually, but because you 

 represent to such a high degree the great qualities and conditions of life in 

 which we live. If I should attempt to express the sentiment which is 

 before your mind to-day, and deep down in the hearts of our people, 1 

 should say to you truly that every latch-string of old Butte is at the portal, 

 every door is open, and every heart brings its gladdest welcome to make 

 you feel at home while you are with us. I should say also, that all things 

 seem to combine to increase our gladness and swell our welcome. Those 

 flowers around us bloom for you to-day. The orchards are dropping upon 

 you their richest fruits, the vineyards are pouring out their vintages, the 

 very "trees of the field are clapping their hands," and the benedictions of 

 all hearts, I trust, will rest upon you and linger with you when you go from 

 us, until you again return to gladden us, and receive the most abundant 

 welcome that we can possibly confer. 



INSECT PESTS. 



Essay by H. P. Stabler, Yuba City. 



Fruit culture in California is now assuming vast proportions and every 

 department is being thoroughly worked up by energetic men. The Fruit 

 Union has proven itself eminently successful and insures a market for the 

 California fruit grower in the East for an almost unlimited output of green 

 fruit. The Dried Fruit Association will doubtless do the same for him for 

 his dried fruit. The success of these two enterprises at once puts the fruit 

 business in this State on a sound basis commercially, and no doubt will be 

 the cause of many engaging in the business in the near future. 



But there are yet serious hinderances to the ultimate success of the 

 business, which, if not overcome and counteracted, will in a great measure 



