TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



37 



that go to build up a stable wealth. His farming has been extensive 

 rather than intensive. With all his eggs in one basket, the failure of 

 one crop has gone hard with him, and too often he has found that his 

 soil was unfit for the variety of fruit in whose development he has spent 

 his last dollar. 



If we would realize the great possibilities that lie before us as a com- 

 monwealth, we must correct these evils. In the place of great land 

 grants owned by individuals, and farmed in careless fashion, we must 

 have a vast number of small farms, each supporting a family of Ameri- 

 can citizens. In the place of a small variety of products, we must have 

 diversity, and diversity not only in each district, but also in the products 

 of each farm and orchard. In place of wasteful methods of culture, we 

 must make each acre produce to its limit. Instead of depleting our soils, 

 we must build up and maintain their fertility. 



It may be safely said that California is now making rapid strides in 

 the breaking up of large holdings into small farms, in the acquiring of 

 an intelligent and thrifty class of small farmers, and in the diversifica- 

 tion of products. In this diversification the development of the dairy 

 interests is playing an important part, and is destined, in the future, to 

 become one of the most important factors in maintaining the fertility of 

 our soils. It is in this respect that dairying is of the utmost impor- 

 tance to the fruit-grower. The two industries should go hand in hand, 

 as one is supplemental to the other. Every great fruit-growing district 

 should have part of its acreage, where possible, devoted to alfalfa. Every 

 fruit-grower who can produce this king of milk-producing feeds, should 

 devote part of his ranch to its culture, and keep a few cows. Many 

 ranches have spots of soil that will pay better in alfalfa than in fruit, 

 and in many districts alfalfa can be grown between young trees until they * 

 come to full bearing, without detracting from their productiveness. When 

 the trees are in full bearing, alfalfa hay can be bought, and there are 

 few orchardists who can not find a place to grow a few pumpkins, sugar- 

 beets and other succulents, which, with alfalfa and bran, will make up 

 a complete cow diet. These feeds, put through the digestive apparatus 

 of the cow, would bring in for milk and butter a regular and sure cash 

 income, the benefit of which, in a community whose main crop is ready 

 for market but once a year, would be felt in every line of trade. Dairy- 

 ing would thus help tide over the long period of waiting between crops 

 for the money that sometimes never comes. 



As I have said, the most important way, however, in which dairying 

 is supplemental to fruit-growing, is in maintaining the fertility of the soil. 

 Nature has given us a wonderfully rich soil, which we have drawn upon 

 lavishly; but nature's bank account is not inexhaustible, and a day of 

 reckoning will come if we do not make regular deposits of fertilizer to 

 protect our soil account from overdraft. We can secure chemical fertil- 



