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OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



ations of that association. I was so impressed with the wisdom of the 

 Fresno plan that I thought I saw clearly the way out of depressed 

 prices for our fruits. To return to walnuts. I was offered one quarter 

 of a cent a pound ahove the price to be fixed by the associations. This 

 offer was made thirty days prior to the time the price was fixed. If the 

 association walnuts were in the open market, why should any business 

 firm offer a higher price for the association's grades outside the associa- 

 tion? I confess I had my suspicion of the management. Evidently 

 the product was not in the open market. The large purchasers prob- 

 ably had the promise of the nuts, or in some way were assured that 

 they could get the control, and that may have had something to do with 

 fixing the prices. Outside of this purchasing combination there were 

 many buyers to the extent of several carloads each. These outsiders at 

 least had the belief that they could not enter the combination of 

 purchasers, and that to buy from the combination they would have to 

 pay half a cent above the prices to be fixed, hence entered the field out- 

 side the associations in the hope of saving one quarter of a cent per 

 pound. Thirty-five cents per one hundred pounds above the price fixed 

 by the associations was freely offered in Santa Barbara. It is true that 

 any association having a flat offer for the entire output would be justified 

 in making a great effort to have a price made to conform to the offer; 

 that is, if the price was high enough to warrant a living profit to the 

 producer. I hope that this question will be fully discussed and that 

 the members will receive much light from the experience of those who 

 are in the associations. That we will arrive sooner or later at the 

 proper solution of this question is my honest conviction. 



Insect Pests. — This subject, second in importance to the fruit-grower, 

 has received our attention at every convention since organization. 

 We have made great advances in combating the destructive enemies. 

 The theory which I have advanced in my opening addresses for many 

 years grows more and more fixed in my mind as the only intelligent 

 one and which eventually will be universal throughout the civilized 

 world with all the cultivators of the soil: that is, to keep these invading 

 foes in subjection by their natural enemies. Twenty years ago, what 

 was called the San Jose scale was making terrible havoc on the decidu- 

 ous fruits and fruit trees in Santa Clara County. To-day this pest is 

 scarcely known by the fruit-growers. Later, the Icerya purchasi, com- 

 monly called the "white scale," threatened the citrus industry in South- 

 ern California. To-day there is not a citrus-grower in that region who 

 fears this enemy. Still later, the ravages of the black scale on the olive 

 was such a menace that it was a question whether the product would be 

 sufficient to meet the expense of fighting the pest. Still later, the 

 purple scale made its appearance in Southern California and spread 

 rapidly on the citrus trees, and was even a worse enemy than the Icerya 



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