THIKTY-FOL'RTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CON\^NTION. 



69 



xsould. and the market seems to have appreciated the care. I think 

 the packing house equipment has been a small factor only. It is care, 

 not equipment, that has done most to lessen decay. No equipment will 

 take the place of anxious, systematic care from the tree to the car. 

 I am forced to this conclusion by finding- houses which have a less 

 careful Equipment than ours, but whose field care and hauling is of 

 The best. I would rather take any packing house and pick, haul, and 

 pack for it with care, than take the costliest equipment designed for 

 careful handling and rush fruit through it so care could not be 

 given. 



It was a mystery to me how -Mr. Chapman could sell oranges for such 

 high prices. Then it became a mystery how the National Orange 

 Company could get such figures. Then L. V. W. Brown put me in a 

 brown study. I began to remember that ]\Ir. Powell had said nearly 

 four years ago that Mr. Chapman was the most careful packer in Cali- 

 fornia. As I knew the National Orange Company and Mr. Brown 

 were following Mr. Powell's suggestion, the proof seemed positive 

 that there was something in it. 



Later, I knew of a packer saying, "Mr. Powell is a humbug." I 

 looked in the market report and saAv this packer's fruit sold at $2.40 

 for extra fancy, when three orchard runs sold for over $3..00. That 

 proved it negatively, and I built a house with an oak shield on the 

 corner, on which in gold letters is inscribed: 



"In gratitude to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry, G. Harold Powell and his Staff, this building is 

 dedicated to the careful handling of Citrus Fruit." 



It is not dedicated to "Equipment." 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY. I owe this audience no apology for 

 having forced ]Mr. Rumsey to read this paper. I now have pleasure 

 in introducing Mr. P. J. Dreher, manager of the San Antonio Fruit 

 Exchange, who will discuss this matter for ten minutes. If you have 

 any questions, write them out and hand them in, and they will be 

 considered. 



:\IR. DREHER. This is rather unexpected that I should speak 

 before you on this subject of packing house equipment, because I am 

 not a packing house man. When I was asked to allow my name to go 

 on this programme, I wrote Mr. Isaac that I didn't think that I was 

 the party, and begged to be excused. Mr. Isaac said, since I had not 

 positively declined to serve, that he would put my name on, and I 

 suppose I might consider myself pressed into the service, and will 

 make my remarks brief. 



The best equipment for a packing house is a good, level-headed, 

 sensible foreman. When you have that, the other is all easy. The less 

 machinery that you put into a packing house, the better equipment 

 you will have. It has certainly been demonstrated by the results of 

 Mr. Powell's investigations, that the more you handle fruit the more 

 you are likely to injure it. and the less ^^ou handle it the better will 

 be the results. 



I think that some of the troubles which have probably been the 

 greatest in the packing house have been machiner;^ that was put in 



