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TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS* CONVENTION. 



My information is that first-class fruit always retails at about the 

 same price, regardless of the auction and wholesale prices. I would 

 recommend that the grower do a little investigating on his own account. 

 Write to some of your Eastern friends, and ask them what they are 

 paying for good oranges. 



Frequently you are shown telegrams from many markets stating, 

 "Good oranges are selling at $2.75 to $3.25 per box. Can handle several 

 cars." Auction sales quote the same figures. At these prices the grower 

 should receive at least $1.50 per box. Do you get it? For an answer I 

 refer you to your own account sales. 



A market journal states: "At the time the new marketing agency 

 was formed, there were two thousand five hundred tramp cars of oranges 

 in transit East, one firm alone having one hundred and nineteen cars 

 rolling." These were being offered for diversion. If this state of affairs 

 would not "hoodoo" any market, I do not know what would. I do 

 not wish any better evidence of the disaster of this kind of business 

 than the fact that, just as soon as the new "marketing agency" was 

 formed, and steps taken to remedy this business, the market improved 

 and assumed a healthy condition. 



I never could see any merit in the "sell delivered" method. When- 

 ever the grower loses all control of the fruit, it is up to the buyer to say 

 what he will allow you for the fruit. You may take what he offers, or 

 divert it to some other market and sell it as rejected fruit, which is 

 always classed as second-rate stuff. 



When the far away East has the fruit and the money, with the grow- 

 er's guarantee for the freight and other expenses, "Where are we at?" 



Considering the tariff we have to pay, the railroad service should be 

 very much better. The time made by the " Fruit Express " between Los 

 Angeles and the East will not average more than eight miles an hour, 

 and frequently will not exceed five miles an hour. This is much slower 

 service than we had seven or eight years ago. We should have an aver- 

 age of at least fifteen miles an hour. With greater speed there will be no 

 shortage of cars, as the railroads have plenty of refrigerator cars if they run 

 them at a reasonable speed, instead of using them for cold-storage ware- 

 houses. And further, we should have a flat rate of $1 per hundred 

 pounds — a flat rate that would include England, for with a quicker serv- 

 ice we could use the English market to advantage. Also, we should 

 not be required to put the same amount of fruit in cars of different 

 sizes. Three hundred and sixty-two boxes should be the maximum for 

 long cars, and scale down in proportion to the length of the car, as it 

 certainly is detrimental to stack fruit in cars without sufficient ventila- 

 tion. At the present time we are required to put the same number of 

 boxes in a car 34 feet long as in cars of 40 feet length. 



And again, growers are entitled to fair treatment by the "press." We 



