TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



141 



About fifteen years ago large profits were made in growing prunes in 

 the south. This stimulated planting until large areas were set to the 

 trees, some of the land not being adapted to prune-growing under the 

 most favorable conditions. To-day this same blander is being made in 

 planting citrus trees. It is a part of the evolution of fruit-growing in 

 all countries. However, it has developed that the south, as a whole, is 

 not a success as a prune district as compared with the north, and here 

 is where we must admit that we fall short. But one swallow does not 

 make a summer, and prunes do not necessarily define a fruit-growing 

 district. Central California turns out the largest quantities of prunes 

 of any one district on the Coast, but Oregon and Washington can pro- 

 duce a better grade of that fruit, and Montana carried off' the cured 

 prune prize at the Chicago fair with the Pacific Coast States in the field. 

 Still we do not yield the palm to Montana in deciduous fruit-growing. 



Aside from small areas in some of the canons and mountain valleys, 

 we can not produce cherries that can compare with those grown in the 

 north, and must look to that region for the bulk of that luscious fruit. 



But peaches! After having grown up in the peach district of the 

 Sacramento Valley, I have yet to see and eat finer appearing and better 

 flavored peaches than are now grown in the Chino Valley. It has been 

 the habit of certain firms to ship peaches here from the north for 

 canning purposes. This might lead us to think that we can not raise 

 peaches good enough for that purpose; but the facts in the case are, that 

 at the prices offered by canners, we can make more money raising other 

 crops. 



Some canners, getting tired of this order of things, are running 

 nursery yards in connection with their legitimate business, and urging 

 farmers to plant certain kinds of canning peaches, at the same time 

 offering to buy their crops at higher prices than they have been in the 

 habit of doing. These same men claim that they must have the best 

 grade of canning peaches in order to compete w T ith the best grades put 

 up in the north. These facts sum up our ability to produce the goods 

 without further talk. , 



A few months ago one of the largest buyers on the continent, a man 

 who ships apples by the train load out of Pajaro Valley, told me that 

 that section produced the finest Bellflower apples in the world — flavor, 

 shipping, or storage qualities considered. He did not dwell on the 

 qualities of other varieties, but said that that particular variety developed 

 exceptional qualities in that particular locality. 



I believe that the same principle finds application in many parts of • 

 Southern California. Before writing this article, I asked two buyers, 

 shippers and retailers of fruit, where they obtained their best winter 

 apples. They both said, without hesitation, that they have never been 

 able to get better White Winter Pearmains than those grown at a certain 



