105 



Of raisins we shipped, in 1874, only two hundred and twenty pounds; 

 in 1885, we shipped six million two hundred thousand pounds, and much 

 more in later years. Our pack this year is estimated at nine hundred thou- 

 sand boxes or eighteen million pounds. 



Notwithstanding this rapid increase and this very large shipment of green 

 fruits, we have as yet scarcely given the mass of the people living east of 

 the Rocky Mountains a taste of our fruits. 



In a very interesting and deeply instructive report recently made by Mr. 

 W. H. Mills to the State Board of Trade, showing the result of the Grand 

 Army exhibition at Columbus, Ohio, this summer, some significant facts 

 are given, bearing directly upon the question of market. 



I quote: " Parties from southern Nebraska assured me that no California 

 fruit had ever been offered in their vicinity, notwithstanding they are resid- 

 ing upon lines of railroads. Parties in Kansas gave the same assurances; 

 the same testimony came from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and 

 Michigan." Mr. Mills then points out how our fruit is massed in Chicago, 

 and sold out at prices making it a luxury and depriving it of all value as 

 food, and suggests a remedy. He continues: "In this way the fruits in 

 their various seasons could be distributed to a population of from twenty 

 million to thirty-five million people. We can place all kinds of fruits in 

 eastern markets from two to three months earlier than they ripen in any 

 part of the country north of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas. 

 In this general region there are over forty million of people, a very large 

 proportion of whom would become consumers could the fruit be furnished 

 to them at anything like an economic rate." He says he found grapes 

 selling in Chicago at $200 per ton at retail, thus depriving people in the 

 middle and lower circumstances of life the privilege of even tasting them, 

 and yet the freight charged against the grapes in that market is only $50 

 per ton. 



If Mr. Mills' observations are sound, and they are corroborated by the 

 highest evidence, this market is very large. It is difficult to give an ade- 

 quate idea of its extent. Large as our shipments seem now, if each day 

 we could reach the eastern people our present yearly shipment would 

 hardly supply the daily demand for green fruits. 



When we come to our prepared fruits — dried, canned, preserved, and 

 crystallized — and our nuts, and our olive oil, and other prepared products, 

 we have the world's markets. Our raisins and prunes have already 

 pushed their way abroad, and our canned goods Mr. Lubin has described 

 as obtainable in Crosse & Blackwell's great fruit house in London. 



I have the greatest confidence in our superior ability to improve upon 

 methods, ultimately conducting us in California to the front rank in fruit 

 growing, as it has in almost every branch of agriculture and manufacture 

 in the United States. 



There will come a day when people who can have clean fruit, will cease 

 buying imported prunes that are handled by dirty peasants and finally 

 trampled into barrels and kegs with the bare feet; and so with currants. 



There are some considerations as to our eastern market not readily 

 assented to, and yet are beyond dispute. As a general fruit-growing coun- 

 try, the great west and northwest region, indeed the Middle and New 

 England States, are failures. The history of tree planting is the history 

 of discouragement and disaster. 



I am a member of the American Horticultural Society, formerly called 

 Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society, and have read the four volumes 

 of their proceedings with some care. Let me quote a specimen of troubles 

 presented and remedies suggested. 



