The California building, though some distance back from the main
entrance, was on high ground and eligibly located as to attractive
surroundings and accessibility. The grounds for so large a structure
were necessarily extensive, and the work of clearing, leveling, sodding
and planting these grounds involved an expenditure much greater than at
previous expositions, where the grounds were smaller and required less
preparatory work.
Mr. Geo. C. Roeding of Fresno, our Superintendent of Horticulture,
giving his talents and time, as did Miss Withrow, for the love of the
work and the good he could do the State, collected from different
nurseries in California two car loads of fruiting trees, flowering
plants, palms and shrubs, and traveled to Seattle to personally
superintend the work of converting these grounds into a typical
California park, with clusters of palms, geranium beds and orange
groves. It gave to the Exposition a semi-tropic feature which visitors
greatly enjoyed, and which was highly appreciated by the Exposition
management as a rare and valuable acquisition to their already
beautiful landscape effects. It might be said, however, that the citrus
trees and other tender plants did not thrive well even in the Seattle
summer, and though the grounds thus planted, as a side attraction and
subject of favorable comment, were perhaps worth all they cost, yet
they were not so beautiful as they would have been under more favorable
climatic conditions. Mr. Roeding's work in the department was prompted
by love of his art and pride in his State. He contributed liberally
from his own nurseries and gave time and technical assistance that
money could hardly have bought, and for his unstinted services, not
only your Representatives, but all Californians, owe him a debt of
lasting gratitude.