1889.1 TEANSACTIONS. I "^ G r^ ^A 



As the meeting was held at this season of f^e^ar, ^f^i»,ontn»^j^ 

 earlier than nsiial, for the purpose of seeing aHJ'lfiaj-ning^^TC^J; 

 onr country could do in producing tropical frnits7SK^^6'r,§' now"^^ 

 to be introduced in the reahn of the "Orange Queen," an( 

 tropical home, with all her retinue in the line of the citrus 

 family. 



In the hall of exhibition we found lier in regal state and un- 

 disputed throne. We found with her, as with the peach, apple 

 and pear that improvements are continually going on in quality, 

 flavor and form. Tiie orange will soon be shipped to our mar- 

 ket with special names, such as "Homosassa Majorica," "Early 

 Oblong," "Sweet Seville," "Maltese Blood," "Noblesse," "Par- 

 son's Navel," and last but not least, "Washington Riverside," 

 and many other names of less note. Tiiese names will be put 

 upon the parcels of boxes instead of the shippers or growers 

 alone. Every means were granted us to test the quality of the 

 different kinds, until some of us were obliged to succumb and cry 

 enough. When you take into consideration the hundred differ- 

 ent kinds, more or less, and perhaps as many friends of each, 

 you can form some idea of the herculean task we went through 

 (pleasant though). They have certain rules for testing the 

 merits or quality of each variety, with a scale of ten points of 

 merits; an orange loses one point for a peel or skin that is more 

 than one-eightii of an inch thick; if it is three-sixteenths of an 

 inch thick, two points; four seeds, or more, one point ; too much 

 acid, one or more points; too sweet, one point. Most of the 

 oranges we have here would not rate more than six or seven 

 points. 



It is hardl}' fifteen years since this industry acquired promi- 

 nence. There were but a few hundred small groves twenty years 

 since, and now probably there are more than ten thousand. 

 The commercial advantage to railroad interests is vast; while to 

 fill one car it would take twenty-five acres of cotton, one acre of 

 oranges would fill the same ; or twenty-five acres would load a 

 train of twentj'-five or thirty cars. 



Here allow me to make an extract from a paper read before this 

 meeting, on sweet oranges, by E. H. Hart of Federal Point, Fla. 



