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TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



All this sounds very simple and scarcely worthy of our attention. 

 But the fact is we have come to the point in fruit-growing in California 

 where success depends not only on knowing the best methods, but on 

 having all details carried out thoroughly and intelligently. The great 

 need to-day is more intelligent labor in our orchards. The great manu- 

 facturer with his perfected automatic machines can use automatic men. 

 There is no automatic labor in the successful orchard. Every orchard- 

 ist needs to be an expert and have intelligent help. Our schools, from 

 the primary to the university, have been educating away from the farm 

 until the professions and business offices are crowded with poorly-paid 

 young men, while the farm and the orchard must take such material, 

 both for management and detail, as can be found, and this is often most 

 crude and inefficient. There are scores of places in our valley to-day 

 waiting for young men properly trained in agriculture, where the com- 

 pensation would be far above the average earnings in our professional 

 and business offices. And if there is a business or profession promising 

 more pleasure or pecuniary success than that of the capable and intelli- 

 gent California fruit-grower, I am not aware of it. 



DAIRYING IN CONNECTION WITH FRUIT-GROWING. 



By C. W. LEFFINGWELL, Jr., of Whittibb. 



It is the destiny of California to become, in point of population and 

 prosperity, one of the greatest States in the Union. We have here a 

 climate in which most men desire to live when once familiar with it. 

 We have in our great expanse of territory, a variety and richness of soil, 

 a world of undeveloped water, such as can not elsewhere be surpassed. 

 With such natural advantages, it is hard to realize how recently our 

 great State has begun to make substantial progress toward the fulfill- 

 ment of her destiny, and how backward is the condition of her agricul- 

 tural industries as compared with the farming regions of the East. 

 Among the factors which have retarded this development are the owner- 

 ship of immense grants by individuals, and wasteful and speculative 

 methods in farming and fruit-growing. 



As a State we have had too few main products, and the failure of one 

 or two crops has had too much effect upon our general prosperity. Again, 

 whole districts have gone mad over the planting of one kind of fruit, 

 and the failure of one crop has produced hard times. The individual 

 fruit-grower has bought more land than he could pay for, has set out 

 more trees than he could care for, and has recklessly strained to get 

 rich quickly, by devoting every energy to the growing of one fruit crop. 

 He has neglected to raise on the farm part of his food and sustenance. 

 He has failed in every particular to practice the thrift and economy 



