10 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



East or across the ocean in Europe, we will have solved then, to a greal 

 extent, the problem of transportation; and particularly in the south, 

 you will find your railroad facilities better, cars will come faster and 

 rates will be cheaper, because this, to my mind, is going to settle to a 

 great extent the rates of transportation to the East. 



I was told yesterday by J. O. Hayes of San Jose that they raised this 

 year in Santa Clara County eighty million pounds of prunes. Sixty 

 million have been ordered from Europe, showing that there is a great 

 market growing for our dried fruits ; it is a market that will be brought 

 closer to us when this canal is completed. 



There is another question, too, which seems to me an important one— 

 it may not seem so important to some — they say it is a sort of hobby of 

 mine, but I believe it is one of the most important questions in this 

 State, considering the fruit we handle, and that is the construction of 

 good smooth highways over which you can transport your fruit and get 

 it to market in good condition. (Applause.) If there is a State in 

 the Union where the people in the rural districts can be so much bene- 

 fited by good roads, it is California. Our fruit is easily injured. If we 

 have it injured in any particular, that is used as an excuse to cut down 

 the price of it, but if you can draw two tons where you are now drawing 

 one, with the same motive power ; if you can make four miles where you 

 are now making two; if you can get your fruit to the places where it 

 is to be packed or whence it is to be shipped, in good condition, free 

 from dust and not jammed or bruised, we will save thousands of dollars 

 annually to the people of this State engaged in raising fruit. 



I did not come here to make much of a talk, but I am glad to be with 

 you. I know that the fruit industry of California is our great interest, 

 and is becoming greater every day. I want to see our citizens do every- 

 thing they can to encourage our horticultural and viticultural colleges 

 that we are building, so that we may educate our people and educate 

 our boys to go into the country and take advantage of the rich soil and 

 the fine opportunities that our State offers to us. California is a place 

 where the people can live happily in the country. California is a place 

 where we can be prosperous in the country, and we want to do all we 

 can to attract the attention of our people from our cities out into our 

 valley — a valley like the Pajaro Valley, a valley like the Salinas Val- 

 ley, valleys that lie north and south of us, with their rich soil, the 

 abundance of water, the great possibilities to build up in this State the 

 class of people you always find engaged in raising fruit and in that 

 high class of farming. That is what California needs — a population 

 in the rural districts — and I believe our fruit farms, where the man 

 with a small acreage can bring up his family, offer the best inducements 

 to this end, and their intelligent cultivation will tend in the future to 

 bring into our valleys the kind of people desired. We want legislation 

 for the purpose of protecting the interests of our horticulturists and 

 of our viticulturists. We want the legislation which will enable our 

 commissioners to see that nothing gets into the State w T hich is going to 

 be injurious to this great industry. We must be awake all the time ; we 

 must be watchful continually, because there is placed in your hands one 

 of the great industries of the State, and an industry which will continue 

 to grow greater and greater as the population of the State increases and 

 as the population of the whole country increases, because California, as 



