The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-12
AN EASTERN DISASTER.

The review made by the Agricultural
Department on the fruit conditions of the
country for last year shows that the indus
try was disastrous and improbable, and
that this result was brought about largely
by unfavorable climatic conditions. The
railroad strikes of last July had something
to do with this evil result, but no State of
the Union was so grievously afflicted in this
regard as California.
We do not need any report from the Ag-
ricultural Department to inform us of the
fatalities which have already oyertaken
the Eastern fruit crop this year. We are
already fully advised that succession OF
fierce billiards has entirely destroyed a
very large part of the crop, and we are
aware that however disastrous may have
been the climatic conditions which so seri-
ously affected the crops of last year those
which have obtained this year are immeas-
urably worse.
In comparison with the conditions under
which fruit culture is prosecuted in the
Eastern States, even as far south as semi
tropical Florida, where even the orange
trees themselves, let alone their fruit, were
destroyed by frosts, those which prevail in
proach as near TO an absolute assurance of
bountiful crops as can be hoped for in this
world; and whatever the disadvantages
under which our fruit-growers have suf-
fered they are removed from natural condi-
tons and may be laid almost entirely at the
door Of excessive freight charges aggravated
by lack of adequate machinery for market
ing our products in the Eastern States. 1t
ought to be a very eloquent lesson to every
Eastern fruit-grower that California grow
ers can &c to the enormous expense of
packing their fruit, shipping it from two
TO three thousand miles, paying excessive
charges for freight and refrigeration, main
tanning costly agencies for the disposition
of the fruit, and yet sell it at profit in
the very center OF Eastern fruit production.
The importance of this consideration can
be more fully realized if we imagine
Eastern fruit-growers shipping their
products to California and offering them
for sale in competition with our own.
Nothing more absurd could be conceived.
The deduction from these reflections is
that California is the natural fruit-produc-
ing region of the country, and that when
the expense of marketing our fruit in the
East shall be adequately reduced, as 1t in
evitably will be in time, not only will it
be impossible for the Eastern States to
compete with us in most of the fruits
which they now produce, but the profits on
the industry in California will increase and
be generous and constant. The difficulties
under which we now labor do not prevent
us from making larger and more reliable
profits than Eastern growers now enjoy.
Every new orchard in California tends to
reduce the cost OF marketing fruit and in
crease the inability Of Eastern growers to
compete with us. The extension of the
fruit area in California therefore contracts
the Eastern fruit area and enlarges our
market.
All these considerations are independent
of one equally important, that we can
grow fruits here which are impossible in
the East, and it is in these that the largest
profit will be ultimately secured.