44 PROCEEDINGS OP THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



MR. HICKMAN. There are so many problems that the whole session 

 might well be taken up with the consideration of this alone. Mr. Jef- 

 frey mentioned the Northern Spy a while ago and called to mind a row 

 of Northern Spy I have. They have reached their majority. They are 

 twenty-one years old, and no two show the same characteristics. But 

 every year some branches of one or two trees will bear profusely, the 

 other branches will bear nothing. This year there were scattered apples 

 all through and one limb was breaking with apples, and fine Northern 

 Spys, too. And all around the city are such kind of trees as the old 

 gardeners knew. For instance, the Black Detroit is one that is so 

 changed, the Ben Davis, the Baldwin, the White Winter Pearmain and 

 the Bellflower. With the exception of two White Pearmain trees, all 

 the other White Pearmain trees are overladen , every } r ear with apples, 

 have to be thinned very greatly. Why those Northern Spj^s should 

 produce so little fruit is one of the problems that I can't perceive any 

 cause for, because the other trees in the vicinity, none of them, are 

 troubled in that way. Sundry limbs from year to year bore profusely 

 to the point of breaking. 



MR. BERWICK. I want to make a confession, gentlemen. I told 

 you the truth but not the whole truth about the Oregon apples. They 

 do fetch a very great price up there sometimes. I was in Covent 

 Garden, London, about five years ago, in the office of Martin, Jacobs 

 & Co., whom you may know, some of you, as being the largest salesmen 

 there, and Mr. Jacobs was comparing for my benefit the sales of the 

 Oregon fruit with the Pajaro Valley fruit, and it did read very much 

 to California's disadvantage. It was a year of poor yield and poor 

 crop in Pajaro Valley and in Monterey County generally, and the 

 figures his clerk read me from their books ran as high as 27 shillings 

 per box for Oregon fruit and only about 13 shillings per box for Cali- 

 fornia fruit ; so I believe that some years, for first-class apples, Oregon 

 may get three dollars per box f. o. b. What I object to is that highest 

 figure going out as though it was the average price for the Oregon 

 apple. It is misleading to the Eastern or any other tenderfoot. 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY. Is there anything further before we 

 adjourn? 



MR. BERWICK. I would like to hear from the Governor. (Ap- 

 plause. ) 



GOVERNOR GILLETT. I haven't anything more to say than I 

 said this morning, except that I have been exceedingly interested in 

 what I have heard discussed this afternoon. I wish that I could remain 

 with you during the whole convention. It is just such conventions as 

 these that are important to the fruit interests of California, and I 

 know that when men engaged in the business, like you are, meet and 

 discuss these matters, it is going to be for the benefit of the entire 

 State. I thank you for the reception you have given me to-day and 

 regret that I have got to leave to-night, and I wish for this convention 

 every success, and for all others that follow hereafter. It is the growth . 

 of our State we are after, the development of our valleys, the increase 

 of our population, and it is the growing of fruit at good prices that is 

 going to cause the prosperity we desire. (Applause.) 



A recess was here taken until 8 o'clock p. m. 



