PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



35 



apples, but with apples grown in the low foothills and near the rivers 

 of the great valley where the first mines were, and where nothing- but 

 an early apple for immediate use is worth growing even to this day. 

 When the coast apples of Oregon and California are compared, there 

 may be no particular difference in the fruit perhaps, but California 

 has the coast apple business developed to a volume of prime clean fruit 

 and breadth of trade which have made the State famous, both at the 

 East and abroad. And this California coast valley fruit will always 

 be in demand for distinctive trade and particular markets, perhaps, 

 providing large groups of Californians work together for the develop- 

 ment of culture, protection, and marketing, as the people of the Pa.jaro 

 Valley have done during the last decade. It is likely that they will 

 meet new difficulties as they have met and vanquished the old ones. 

 The new problems will probably include those of a different nature, 

 and they may be largely pomological and commercial. I suggest a few 

 simply to indicate my meaning. 



First — The Pajaro Valley bellefleur is a demonstration that an apple 

 which is notable everywhere for being very exacting in requirements 

 for success does find in the Watsonville district conditions which bring 

 the fruit to a degree of perfection which is rarely, if ever, attained 

 elsewhere. It is altogether probable that there are other varieties 

 which will exhibit similar content and display other characters and 

 commercial suitability and attractiveness. The value of the bellefleur 

 was. I presume, demonstrated through the chance planting of it by 

 the pioneer orchardists of the valley. There should be provided in the 

 valley a means for testing out all old varieties which have not been 

 tried, and all promising varieties under competent pomological obser- 

 vation and comparison. 



Second — There are other varieties which attain acceptable characters 

 and local desirability in the main, but disclose some defects which limit 

 their value. This may be due to some requirement for full develop- 

 ment which the local conditions do not include or to some peculiar 

 behavior of the type which has been thus far prevalent. In either case, 

 the effort to retain the variety but to find a more suitable type should 

 be systematically made. This. too. is a matter for close pomological 

 study and comparison, and it is analogous to the effort which is being 

 made in southern California for the discovery or development of supe- 

 rior types of the Navel orange. 



Third — There should be close study made of the relative effects of 

 all cultural operations and all treatments for prevalent pests and 

 diseases upon the thrift of the tree or upon the duration of its effect- 

 ive growing period, or to discover unforseen influences which any 

 cultural or protective policy may exert upon the character of the fruit. 

 Some very startling claims in this line have been recently made in 

 distant places. Whether they are true or not they furnish a suggestion 

 that all cultural operations might be looked into lest they might have 

 some relations to obscure defects of various kinds. 



It is not necessary to multiply suggestions of this kind. They are 

 not new. They have been freely discussed by AVatsonville growers, 

 both individually and in the Orchardists' Association, and are, I 

 believe, generally approved. I mention them for two purposes : first, 

 to add what emphasis I can to the importance of the work: second, 



