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its ripeness it could not be considered by an expert as being up to the 

 standard. 



Mr. Johnson: I have been requested to call the attention of the conven- 

 tion to a sample of Thompson's seedless raisins or grape. They are raised 

 two miles west of Yuba City, are enormous producers, and seem to be a very 

 fine article for cooking purposes. 



Mr. Slayden, of Oregon: Our fruits in Oregon are not the same as yours; 

 you are growing the peach, the apricot, the nectarine, and the grape; we 

 can't grow those, and our attention is called to the prune, the pear, and 

 apple, and we are bringing some of those productions down to your people, 

 and we are taking in return your productions, and, among others, the first 

 I saw were these raisins of Mr. Onstots. I want to say to you gentlemen, 

 as I have traveled up and down your beautiful country, I never saw such 

 trees in my life as I have seen here. I have crossed the Atlantic Ocean 

 eighteen times, always as a fruit man, but it has been reserved to me while 

 the recipient of your bountiful hospitality, which is as far reaching as the 

 fame of your beautiful fruits, that I have seen the finest growth of trees 

 and the finest fruits of those descriptions I ever saw in my life. When this 

 exhibition is taken to France I should be very glad to contribute my mite; 

 we have there in Oregon some fruits that I do not think the Pacific Coast 

 need be ashamed of; at the Mechanics Fair and our State Fair I had on 

 exhibition from young trees some twenty-four varieties. Those prunes, as 

 dried last fall, sixteen would make one pound, one ounce to a prune; in 

 the best French prunes forty to forty-five make a pound. I say the world 

 cannot match that growth of sixteen prunes to make up one pound, and 

 we will have those in two years in such quantities that it will be a moral 

 impossibility for the Turkish prune grown in Servia, Bosnia, Uerzogovania, 

 Monrovia, and all those countries, to find a foothold here at all. We are 

 going to drive them out just as much as we are going to drive out a good 

 many of those other things, including the Zante currant, which will be 

 raised here; just as well as we are driving out the raisins from Spain. 

 That time has arrived, gentlemen, and you are shipping your raisins clear 

 to those European countries; and the next move you will be cultivating 

 sugar from one end of California to the other, not only supplying the whole 

 United States, but your product of sugar will be shipped to Europe. 



Dr. Kimball: I would like to inquire the name of the prune that weighed 

 sixteen to a pound ? 



Mr. Slayden: That is the Silver Prune. There is a great discussion in 

 our vicinity in that regard ; we have our Silver Prune and our Coe's Golden 

 Drop — opinions are various in the matter — I think, however, the difference 

 is very slight between the two. The Silver Prune takes wonderfully well 

 East. We have the Silver Prune, the Golden Prune, and the Italian Prune 

 as the prunes of our State; they each and all of them are an acid prune, 

 some like the European, requiring a little sweetening as they are cooked. 



Mr. Smith: What is the difference between your Golden Prune and your 

 Silver Prune ? 



Mr. Slayden: I can scarcely tell you; they seem to me very much as 

 if they were first cousins — a little smaller, the Golden Prune is, and very 

 bright, like a piece of amber, when it is dried. 



Mr. Smith: Did I understand you to say that your Italian Prune was a 

 native of Oregon? 



Mr. Slayden: No, not at all; I think it is very similar to your Fallen- 

 berg, but I don't think you have the right name for either of them, because 

 the Italian Prune would convey the idea that it was a native of Italy. I am 

 at variance with most of our fruit growers on the subject; some of them have 



