CHAPTER VIII. 



NO PRESENT DANGER OF OVERPRODUCTION. 



UCH controversy has been brought up at dif- 

 ferent times concerning the danger of the 

 trucking business being overdone in this terri- 

 tory. To familiarize ourselves with this, let us 

 consider the conditions that have prevailed in 

 former years. 



I remember that nine or ten years ago a 

 light shipment of ten cars of tomatoes going 

 out in a single day had a depressing effect on the Northern mar- 

 kets. The prices in New York at that time depreciated from 

 the mere anticipation of this quantity of tomatoes being thrown 

 upon the market at one time. However, a few years later as 

 high as 25 to 35 and even 50 car-loads of this same fruit were 

 placed upon the market daily and it seems did not have the effect 

 of reducing prices to as great an extent as those former light ship- 

 ments did. During the season 1909-10, over 100 car-loads of 

 tomatoes were shipped from Dade County per day for thirty 

 consecutive days, and wonderful to relate, although the market at 

 that time was not what we would consider high, it held its own 

 remarkably well. 



Whether this is actually due to increased consumption or not, 

 I am not in position to state. I think probably the weather 

 being very pleasant throughout the North during the months of 

 our greatest shipments, had considerable to do with it. It stands 

 to reason that when the people of the North find Spring at hand, 

 particularly after they have been penned up in their houses by 

 inclement weather for months at a time, their appetites nat- 

 urally have an abnormal tendency towards vegetables. During 

 the time of cold weather in the North everybody has naturally 



