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so apt to jar and rub the fruit as rail. When the producer knows a 

 responsible merchant who will buy his fruit and sell it by retail, it is 

 better for him to make the arrangement with him to furnish him 

 oranges at a stipulated price for each brand throughout the season. It 

 will lessen the expense of a commission to a third party ; besides com- 

 mission merchants as a class have not dealt fairly with the Florida 

 fruit and vegetable grower. Bad packing, poor transportation and 

 dishonest commission merchants have done more to keep back the 

 progress of Florida and discourage fruit and vegetable growing than 

 any other three causes combined. And of the three the dishonest 

 commission merchant has made himself the largest but the lowest of 

 these evils. There are some honorable exceptions, and such should be 

 liberally patronized. But it is a vocation offering such opportunities 

 for rascality and such bribes for dishonesty, it would be well for the 

 producer to be cautious as to whom he makes consignments. 



It is very much to be regretted that our mill men have been so 

 slow to furnish suitable material for orange boxes. A great neglect at 

 this point has caused some of our largest and wisest shippers to buy 

 the material for their boxes in Maine and ship it to Florida; one party 

 ordering a schooner cargo at one time. There is no necessity for this 

 if the mill men will do a duty even to themselves. We have in the 

 State an abundance of timber of the very best for such pusposes. 

 Cypress for ' heads, and gum, or still better, magnolia for sides would 

 make a light, durable and elegant box. Here we have abundance of 

 this kind of material, indeed thousands of sticks of the two latter are 

 annually burned to get them out of the way of the planter; and yet we 

 have to send more than a thousand miles for planking to make a box 

 for oranges.* 



Transportation from Florida to the North and North-West is yet 

 inadequate and the lines already in existence are badly managed; 

 many of the officers on these lines have not done their duties to their 

 employers and they have done much to discourage fruit and vege- 

 table growing in Florida. This grave charge can be proven by a 

 multitude of facts. A few should be mentioned to show something of 



*Since writing the above Penniman & Co., of Jacksonville, have put up the machinery 

 necessary for making suitable boxing. 



