18 BULLETIN 63, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
packing house that makes up careful handling, and both grower and packer are con- 
cerned in knowing how they are caused and how they may be eliminated. 
At the time the department investigations were started the methods of handling 
Florida citrus fruits for shipment were extremely crude. Growers did their own 
picking, there was no uniformity of system, and the work was performed only indif- 
ferently well . These statements are not meant to reflect in any way upon the standing 
of the industry or to criticize the individuals who were concerned with the preparation 
of the fruit for market. Practically all of the imperfections were due to a lack of 
knowledge on the part of the growers and shippers and not to their desire to slight any 
of the important work. No one realized the effects of injury to the fruit, and few, 
if any, believed that injury was being inflicted. Growers and packers frequently 
greeted the department workers with the statement that practically no injury was 
being done to their fruit, whereas later examination often showed 15 or 20 per cent of 
their oranges to be injured in some way. The scattered nature of the industry was 
largely responsible for the crudeness with which the work was carried on. The old 
neighborhood competition in the production of high-grade, attractive fruit disap- 
peared after the freeze, when the plantings were distributed so widely over central 
and southern Florida. Groves were more or less isolated, and a grower was frequently 
wholly ignorant of the type of work being done by other producers of citrus fruits. 
TVhen the department investigations were begun it seemed almost hopeless to expect 
that the results of the work could be made effective. The importance of getting in 
touch with every grower and shipper was realized from the start, yet without some 
central organization through which these individuals could be reached it seemed 
impossible to expect that improvements in the methods of handling could be 
inaugurated. 
The changes which have taken place in Florida during the past five years are truly 
remarkable. The old type of packing house has almost entirely disappeared (PI. X, 
figs. 1 and 2) . Modern houses, equipped with the newest machinery for handling fruit 
properly, have been constructed in practically every citrus district in the State (Pis. 
XI and XII), so that at the present time the industry is particularly well provided with 
the mechanical appliances for doing good work. Plate XIV shows two views of clean, 
well-lighted, modern packing-house interiors as contrasted with the dark and crowded 
rooms of the old houses (PI. XIII). The attitude of the growers and packers has 
changed more slowly, however. The department has conducted a large number of 
field demonstrations in order to educate pickers to the necessity of careful work, and 
although much has been accomplished in this line, as is shown by the tabulated 
figures given later on, much still remains to be done. The introduction of better hand- 
ling methods is largely a business problem. It has to do with the reorganization of the 
forces of workmen and with the method of paying them rather than with the discovery 
of the cause of a particular form of decay. 
In California the occurrence of injury in preparing the fruit for shipment was asso- 
ciated with the way in which the work was done. The pickers were paid by the box, 
and naturally each man was ambitious to pick as many boxes as possible during the 
day, irrespective of the character of his work. A premium was thus placed on rough 
handling. Several large companies, employing hundreds of men, demonstrated that 
by changing from the box-payment to the day-payment plan and by insisting upon 
careful work they could practically eliminate all picking injuries. A change in the 
plan of payment is not, in itself, sufficient to bring about better work, however; the 
workmen must be properly organized and supervised, and each individual picker must 
be held responsible for the character of his work. In California a change from the 
individual grower doing his own picking to the plan of association picking crews 
resulted in very great improvement in the character of the work. The same plan has 
more recently been carried out in Florida with very beneficial results. 
