CHAPTER XXI. 



Our Markets, Present and Prospective Over- 

 production Considered. 



Markets for our orange products lie at the very foundation of 

 the business, and are the desideratum of the future. Without 

 an encouraging promise of demand the stimulus to production 

 will practically cease. 



Little needs to be said of our orange trade in the past ; the 

 demand has been in excess of the supply, as will hereafter be 

 shown, at very remunerative prices. Our markets were, at the 

 same time, confined to the Pacific States. These markets have 

 been ample; even now our surplus does not fully supply the 

 markets so easily reached. The time is fast approaching, how- 

 ever, and is almost at hand, when a wide range of distribution 

 will have to be sought. Hundreds of thousands of trees are 

 already set, and in a few years their product will amount to 

 millions of boxes of fruit, requiring whole trains of cars or fleets 

 of vessels to transport them. 



Our past experience -in orange culture has been extremely 

 gratifying; our present is no less encouraging, and our future 

 prospects are rich in tangible promises of bountiful reward. 



OVERPRODUCTION CONSIDERED. 



There are several items that enter largely, as controlling 

 factors, into the probable continuous demand for our orange 

 products at remunerative figures. 



I hold that orange culture will never be overdone in this 

 country ; that all our superior oranges will be taken as fast as 

 produced, without any material reduction in prices. It is neces- 

 sary to consider, in this connection, the area adapted to sue- 



