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



are upon the very verge of ruin because they have followed the advice 

 given in such matters as this. It is well to incorporate in the report, if 

 you will, the papers that have been read here and let the man judge for 

 himself, but don't recommend to him what he shall do in regard to these 

 matters. ( Applause. ) 



MR. WALTON. I indorse Mr. Stephens' remarks from a different 

 standpoint, and that is, that it is not within the province of this con- 

 vention to give any advice as to what variety of fruit shall be planted 

 in this State. I think when you come to look at it you will see the 

 injustice of it. 



MR. HARTRANFT. Mr. Chairman. I was going to indorse exactly 

 what Mr. Stephens said in exactly the same way Mr. Walton has placed 

 it, because I rather felt amazed that the convention should undertake 

 to give advice as to what particular varieties to plant. We have 

 had contests in this convention before regarding advice, pertaining to 

 the planting and other subjects pertaining to the coming of home- 

 seekers which have always been candidly considered and, I think, wisely 

 acted upon, and upon the ground that I should recommend probably 

 later, in other discussions that Mr. Stephens has alluded to, that the 

 convention do not go on record in that particular tone of voice. I 

 don't think we should be either for or against the planting of any 

 particular thing. The records stand. There are those that are self- 

 interested and those that are disinterested, and the man then has his 

 welfare in his own hand, both as to what to plant and what not to plant, 

 and I should be opposed, and always have been and always will be. for 

 the convention to say either for or against any particular thing of that 

 kind. 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY. I would like to make one suggestion here 

 as your Chairman. A man has no right to plant any more Tokay 

 grapes under present marketing conditions. A man has no right to 

 do a thing that would injure his neighbor. Now look at it from two 

 standpoints. He has the legal right to do it, and he has been exercising 

 that right with a vengeance. By simply naming the varieties of fruits 

 that this convention thinks ought to be extended, by inference limits 

 the varieties we think should not be planted. I hold that these land 

 schemers in the Sacramento Valley threaten to wreck the fruit business 

 itself, because if there are 10,000 car loads of Tokay grapes going into 

 the markets, it is going to demoralize the market for your peaches and 

 pears, and I claim it is a matter of self -protection for the growers of 

 this convention to speak out on such matters. You are up against a 

 crisis, and men are becoming bankrupt all over the State from listening 

 to the song of the siren, the land boomer. The sheriff is fixing a whole 

 lot of them up there every year, and there will be more of them that 

 have listened to the song of the land seller that has land to sell planted 

 out to grapevines to give it an apparent value as a venture, and the 

 very planting of the grapes has really deteriorated the value of the 

 land. They are trying to shut some of the land boomers in the Sac- 

 ramento Valley out of the mails by getting a fraud order against them. 



MR. HARTRANFT. I have just read^this report for the first time. 

 I am happy to report that for once I agree with Mr. Stephens. I 

 move that we consider the two together, and if we take the negative 

 take also the positive. 



