132 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
are groves in this state that I would not 
hesitate for loan purposes to value at 
$1,000 per acre, and loan $500 per acre 
thereon. There are other groves in this 
state for which I would not read the loan 
application, and those two properties may 
be identically the same in soil, in char¬ 
acter and only divided by a fence. 
Florida has every kind and description 
of soil, from the sands of the sea to the 
richest muck in the world. Our soil is 
not uniform; there is no graduation. A 
fence will often divide good from worth¬ 
less land. 
Therefore, it seems to me no set rule 
can be established for the intelligent val¬ 
uation of any citrus property, and that 
there must be an individual inspection, 
taking into consideration the physical con¬ 
dition of the property and other con¬ 
ditions surrounding it. 
If I were asked to value a citrus prop¬ 
erty, there are three things I would con¬ 
sider : 
First, the location of the property with 
respect to elevation and immunity from 
cold. 
Second, the adaptivity of the soil to 
profitably produce citrus fruits. 
Third, the varieties planted in that 
grove, and whether profitable or not. 
Any banking loan on farming property, 
whether it be corn or wheat or cotton or 
citrus, has an element of risk which must 
be considered, just as the risk is carried 
in any other loan. If you loan on a cotton 
field for thirty-six years, the local board 
approving or recommending that loan 
must have confidence in the borrower to 
the extent that he will not lose heart; that 
he will keep on planting crops continu¬ 
ously for thirty-six operations in order 
that the security of what you loan may be 
conserved. 
In a citrus grove in a high state of pro¬ 
duction, that risk is to a certain extent 
eliminated, for our trees will stand much 
abuse, and if it were seen that the owner 
of that grove was not keeping it up in the 
very best manner, the local board could 
go in and rehabiliate that property and 
keep in up to a high state of production 
without any impairment of the security 
of the loan. 
In a cotton or a corn field, it is true, if 
you have a crop failure or invasion of 
boll weevil, you can recover in one year. 
Now, granted that the worst should come 
to a citrus investment and it should be 
frozen to the ground. The owner of that 
grove, under favorable or even normal 
circumstances, would be back in profitable 
operation of his grove in from three to 
five years and, therefore, I say that the 
length of time the loan can run, thirty-six 
years, is a very strong point in favor of 
the citrus grower. 
Take a given acreage of cotton, or 
corn, or wheat, with the normal draw¬ 
backs that come to them, and carry them 
along for a period of thirty-six years, and 
then consider a similar acreage of citrus, 
which may be frozen twice in thirty-six 
years (which is above the average); the 
citrus grove at the end of that time will 
be worth ten times the value from a pro¬ 
ductive standpoint as all of the other lands 
combined, because, as years go on, our 
values are increasing. From the stand¬ 
point of profit, if we did not have this one 
great drawback to the industry, the pos¬ 
sibility of a freeze, I am firm in my be- 
