Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-11-05
OUR CITRUS FAIR.
IT'S VALUE AS AN EASTERN EDU-
GATOR.
Views of a Chicago Merchant Con-
corning 1t and Market
for Our Fruit.

1
for Our Fruit.
DR.. Latham, Secretary of the Citrus Fair
Association, has received the following let
ter concerning the approaching Citrus Fair
and the marketing of California fruits,
| which will be of interest to our readers:
CHICAGO, October 2s, 1886.
DEAR SIR: see by the papers that you
are to hold a citrus fair at Sacramento
| city in December, and there is some hope
| of the fruit being transferred to this place.
| This / think would be grand thing for
your part of the State. If we can get up
such display as you did last year it would
be of incalculable benefit to Central Cali
fornia. When people think of leaving the
north and central States on account of the
cold winters, the word northern California
seems to strike chill through them-they
do not understand the true situation they
do not understand that the orange, fig,
pomegranate and lemon can be success
fully grown from three to four hundred
miles north of San Francisco. Hence an
exhibit from your section would have
much more beneficial effect than if the
arbitrary terms of northern and southern
California had not crept into general use.
When speaking of that State, if the term
California was applied to the entire State,
people would associate with the name
land of flowers and sunshine.
Bring your citrus fruits your grapes, figs,
nuts, raisins and other products. Bring
the records of your rain-falls, your tenn
perature, your maps, showing the geog-
raphy of the upper part of the State, your
water courses, your canals already dug.
exaggerate nothing, but let the people here
know what you have; that they can get
lands at reasonable prices, and you can en-.
list attention and secure part of the emf
grafton that is turning their attention
towards the Pacific slope.
Having spent my early life in, and north
of Sacramento City, and travelled over
large portion of the lands, | know its capa-
bilities. Ny first venture as a merchant in
California was with an ox-train loaded
with goods at Sacramento City in October,
1S49, for Readings Diggings, now the town
of Shasta l did business in Sacramento in
80 and for fourteen years in Nevada City.
know the possibilities of that part of the
State. | know what can be done, and you
know what can be done, but the man who
thinks of emigrating may not know, and he
should be enlightened. They have seen
the paintings of Mount Shasta with her
Nevadas her lofty peaks with their heecy
coverings of white glistening in the
suns rays-at distance looking cold and
more suggestive to them of polar bears, of
wraps and snow-shoes, than land of citrus
fruits. And it is hard for the emigrant
who is seeking to find a warmer climate, to
realize that in full view of this evidence of
perpetual winter, there is such a climate,
as you have, from 1000 feet elevation ON
the Sierra Nevadas to the ocean.
Having spent thirty-seven years of my
life in California, am a Californian from
"Siskiyou to San Diego, and from the
mountains to the sea-" | know no north.
no south, but | have seen enough in my
travels East, and my residence here, to
convince me that if you want to get fair
proportion of the emigration you must be
up and doing. Yes, send your exhibit, and
have it so arranged that it can be renewed
and kept up for a considerable length of
time That can be done without loss to
any of the fruit-raisers, for as an article be-
gins to lose its sttractiveness, it can be sold
at price that would pay the producer, and
others can be put in its place.
Anything we can do to help make it
success we will do cheerfully. l have only
treated this subject from the standpoint of
populating the part of the State where l
know you have so many advantages to offer
those seeking homes. That it would be
great advantage to the producers to bring
your exhibits here in attracting attention
to California fruits, which to know is to ap-
preciate There has been a great changein
the demand for California fruit in the past
two years, and have no fears but all good
fruit raised in California can be marketed
on this side at profit to the producer, pro-
vided it is put on the market in business
like manner
| do not agree with the party, who, Tin
an interview with Mr. Weinstock, that is
published in the RECoRD-UNIoN, from the
Rural Press of October 23d), uses the follow
ing language:
My Judgment is that the Eastern market for
California fruits is limited, and any that is sent
here beyond that limit must depress prices and
bring unfavorable returns. The best evidence
of my sincerity in the belief that that the East
ern market for California fruit is limited, is in
the fact that while Ihave made very large in
yestments in Chicago real estate, | have made
none in California fruit lands. Had faith in
the idea that the East can consume all the fruit
that California can raise you may rest assured
that l would long ago have made liberal invest
ments in California fruit lands
We might ask the gentleman where the
money came from to make those very
large investments in real estate" Was it
not made from California fruit? We might
also ask hour ii is that so large number Of
California ytruit-grO1cers should place their
fruit in the hands Of man uh0 does not be-
here the same can be Soldl Notwithstanding
the gentlemans sagacity and want of faith
in California fruit lands, the same has con-
tinued to advance, and in the part of the
State where the fruit has not contributed
so largely towards buying the Chicago real
estate, the lands have become very high.
When we see the great quantity of local
fruit that is sold in this market we are
forced to believe, that with proper manage
ment, very much larger amount of Cali
fornia fruit could be sold here to profit
than has ever been done heretofore. We
believe the market will expand as fast as
the production of fruit increases, until all
the good fruit California will raise can be
marketed at profit to the producer. l do
not mean that it should all be marketed
here in the green state, for some of it might
be dried or put up in cans. l have faith in
the fruit lands of California, and for that
reason feel deep interest in the bring
ing of your exhibit of citrus and other
fruits to this city. Hoping to hear from
you, l remain yours, respectfully,
J. NJ HIxsoN,
of J. NJ. Hixson & Co.