TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS 5 CONVENTION. 



89 



soil cured my trees. I have only one tree on the place now, out of 

 twenty acres, that has a sign of variegated leaf. 



MR. KOETHEN. I have an idea that Professor Cook struck the 

 keynote exactly. It may be from one of a dozen causes. 



VICE-PRESIDENT GRIFFITH. Professor Cook's theory meets a 

 circumstance of my own that I was going to mention. I recollect inci- 

 dentally a couple of trees, or a tree here and there on my ranch, that 

 had been cut down to be budded. In some cases I noticed that the 

 branch which had been pruned had budded out, and perhaps the bud 

 had failed, and that that branch was throwing out a very sickly, 

 miserable-looking spotted leaf, evidently coming from a wound there, 

 from a condition of weakness, a lack of something. It came from the 

 wound in that part of the tree, very evidently, the rest of the tree being 

 of a very good color. 



We now come to the programme for the afternoon. I am requested 

 to invite Mr. Rowley to speak this afternoon on the report of the Com- 

 mittee on Labor, on the subject of farm labor, put into his hands by the 

 twenty-seventh Fruit-Growers' Convention. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON FARM LABOR. 



MR. ROWLEY. As secretary of the California Employment Com- 

 mittee, I submit the following report for consideration: 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Twenty-eighth Annual California Fruit-Growers' 1 

 Convention : Gentlemen — At the twenty-seventh California Fruit-Growers' Convention , 

 held in San Francisco in December, 1902, the Hon. H. P. Stabler contributed a paper 

 dealing with the question of farm labor in California, and in that paper recommended 

 that a committee of fifteen be appointed for the purpose of perfecting plans whereby 

 an organized effort might be made to induce young men and men with families in the 

 agricultural districts of tbe Eastern States to come to California to reside and engage in 

 orchard and farm work. That committee, so far as possible, was to represent the various 

 fruit districts of the State. In conformity with this idea the following committee of 

 fifteen was appointed: T. H. Ramsay, Red Bluff; A. B. Humphreys, Mayhews; 

 Thomas Jacob, Visalia ; A. D. Bishop, Orange ; B. N. Rowley, San Francisco; G. H. Hecke 

 Woodland; E. W. Woolsey, Fulton; F. H. Swett, Martinez; Frank Wiggins, Los 

 Angeles; J. F. Mclntyre, Ventura; B. E. Hutchinson, Fowler; G. H. Cutter, Sacra- 

 mento ; Robert Hector, Newcastle ; F. B. McKevitt, Vacaville ; H. P. Stabler, Yuba City 

 and L. F. Graham, San Jose\ 



This committee without delay took up the matter assigned to it, and selected tbe 

 Hon. H. P. Stabler as temporary chairman. Mr. Stabler issued a call for the entire 

 committee to meet on December 11th at Paso Robles Hotel, Paso Robles, a quiet spo 

 where the committee could deliberate without fear of interruption. Twelve members 

 of the committee responded to the call, as follows : T. H. Ramsay, Thomas Jacob, 



A. D. Bishop, B. N. Rowley, G. H. Hecke, E. W. Woolsey, Frank Wiggins, J. F. Mclntyre, 



B. E. Hutchinson, G. H. Cutter, F. B. McKevitt, and H. P. Stabler, and the work of 

 organization was .at once proceeded with. 



The committee held several sessions during the three days that it remained at Paso 

 Robles, and fully outlined its plans for the future. The farm labor question was con- 

 sidered and discussed from every standpoint that suggested itself. 



