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



the growing of table grapes and there make a few observations. I was 

 told last Friday by a grower who is now in this audience that scores of 

 men in one locality had been bankrupted through purchasing land 

 previously stubbled over with indifferent grape cuttings just fco s<A\ the 

 land, and at exhorbitant prices. I know of one tract of several hundred 

 acres of sand syndicated to prunes, olives, and peaches and sold at 

 fancy prices just because the trees were there, keeping the purchasers 

 for years between hope and despair until the sheriff kindly intervened. 

 I was called upon some time ago to make a report upon 2.000 a<-res of 

 land set out to deciduous fruits by a syndicate and sold at $375 an acre. 

 It finally failed altogether, with a loss of half a million dollars to the 

 investors. And yet these half- fraudulent and most always ill-considered 

 ventures are profitable to the promoters, however much they hammer 

 down the reputation of the State as a good place for investment and 

 congest the fruit markets with an added burden of inferior products. 



But we can not take away the right of an American citizen to be 

 swindled, or to plunge into something he knows nothing about, and 

 under conditions with which he is altogether unfamiliar. So we can 

 not expect the public to come to the rescue on account of the suffering 

 investors. But the public should concern itself with the real menace 

 of this class of land booming, for it is the fruit-growing public that is 

 in danger. It is the men who have put their money, their brains, and 

 the very heritage of their children into the fruit business who are 

 coming to suffer most acutely from this unnatural and stimulated 

 system of land selling. The outlook is for continued exploitation, and 

 more and more low-grade fruit, and greater market depression, 

 increased uncertainty in land values and damage to all the interests of 

 the Commonwealth, whether directly or indirectly connected with the 

 cultivation of the soil. I leave this topic to the earnest consideration of 

 the convention, with the hope that every friend of the real and per- 

 manent development of our State will discourage every form of pro- 

 motion which is in fact retrogression. 



In leaving to your judgment the introduction of any other subjects 

 that may seem of moment to the members of this conference, and in 

 the work altogether of the week I hope that every delegate will feel that 

 this is his convention and take a lively part in the discussion. I have 

 not by any means exhausted the list of pertinent questions that might 

 with profit be considered. I thank you for your attention at this time, 

 and trust to be able with your assistance to make the convention a 

 success. 



We have fared along with this address with commendable patience 

 on your part, I am sure. This afternoon the program will be con- 

 tinued, and in presenting it after this morning's exercises I am 

 reminded of an early incident in my career. Thirty years ago I was 

 the oldest of an alleged choir of four brothers and five sisters, and we 

 sometimes attempted to sing in public, because, perhaps. Ave lived in a 

 tolerant neighborhood. At a Sunday-school picnic one time, after my 

 choir had sung for these patient farmers, as long as the Mayor, the 

 Governor, Lieutenant Governor and I have talked to you to-day, the 

 Sunday-school superintendent stepped forward to introduce the string 

 band of three pieces from a neighboring farm. "Gentlemen and 

 Ladies," he said, "we have had the singing, now we will have some 

 music." This afternoon the real music of the convention will begin — 



