PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



THIRTY-SIXTH CONVENTION OF THE CALIFORNIA 

 STATE FRUIT GROWERS, 



HELD UXDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 



STATE COMMISSION OF HORTICULTURE, AT WATSONVILLE, 

 DECEMBER 7, 8, 9 AND 10, 1909. 



Tuesday, December 7, 1909. 



Pursuant to call, the Convention met in the Christian Church, Wat- 

 sonville, CaL, at 9.30 o'clock a. m. 



The meeting was called to order by President J. W. Jeffrey, State 

 Commissioner of Horticulture, Mr. 0. E. Bremner acting as Secretary. 



The Convention was opened with an invocation by Rev. D. T. Stafford, 

 pastor of the Christian Church. 



President Jeffrey. We will now listen to the address of welcome 

 by Mayor Walters. I have pleasure in introducing Dr. P. K. Watters, 

 Mayor of Watsonville. (Applause.) 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



By Dr. P. K. Waiters, Mayor of Watsonville. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, Fruit Growers of the State of 

 California: It is my pleasure as mayor of this city, to welcome you. 

 Not only is it my pleasure, but every citizen of Watsonville extends to 

 you a hearty welcome. Representing, as you do, one of the greatest 

 industries of this State, and coming, as you do, from every county, 

 every district of this State, I hope that you were selected to represent 

 this business according to your peculiar instinct for this. The fruit 

 industry of this State is one of the first, one of the greatest, one of the 

 most important of all the great industries of the State, and to you, 

 gentlemen, into whose hands the care, the fostering, the upbuilding 

 of this industry is confided, rests its case, whether it be adversity or 

 prosperity. 



This beautiful valley of ours, which you have chosen for your conven- 

 tion, the unchallenged home of the bellflower and the pippin, the place 

 where the rose ever blooms and the geranium never dies, was not a 

 thing of chance. God made it possible, but man did the work, and until 

 God made man with sufficient brain and brawn to pull and grub the 

 ■willows, with energy enough for the present and with that faith, hope, 

 and confidence for the future, this valley did not represent the appear- 

 ance that it does to-day. Yet the greatest age that this world has ever 



