FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
171 
from groves whose owners would almost 
be willing to swear, if we were to talk to 
them about buying their fruit, that 50 per 
cent or more of their fruit would grade 
fancy. Our records show that only 5.5 
per cent of this grapefruit packed out 
fancy; 23 per cent F. G. brights; 34 per 
cent goldens; 12 per cent russetts and 21 
per cent plains, and I mean by plains that 
the fruit was so poor and indifferent that 
we did not want to place our brand on 
this fruit at all. 
Now it is very easy to sell the fancy 
fruit, and I would be willing to pay a pre¬ 
mium of $1.00 a box for all fancy fruit 
that goes through my packing house, over 
any other price which I may pay for the 
general run of fruit. The result of our 
past experience with packing fruit is 
somewhat discouraging as far as buying 
is concerned, and I believe if the growers 
in our State, and particularly in our com¬ 
munity, do not use the very best method 
of spraying, the quality of our fruit will 
deteriorate to such an extent that it will 
be hard for them to market it at any 
price. A lot of this fruit does not run 
uniform and it looks to me like a hopeless 
proposition, to get a high grade of citrus 
fruit until some new groves are set, where 
men have taken some pains in selecting 
their bud wood with an idea of getting 
uniform color, size and quality. 
It reminds me of the man in Indiana, 
the state from which I came, who took 
his children to the country to visit one of 
his friends. Arriving there he found 
four big, husky boys, and remarked to 
the farmer, “I am wondering if you can 
tell me how I can care for my boys in 
such a way that they will grow up like 
your boys.” The farmer said, “I cannot 
help you out. If you want to grow boys 
like mine, you would have to begin with 
your grandfather.” I think that the 
growers of citrus fruit should have a 
standard of perfection in their minds and 
try to produce fruit as near this standard 
of perfection as possible. I have had 
some experience in improving corn and at 
one time was a corn judge in my state. 
You people here who are familiar with 
growing corn may know that Shelby 
county, Indiana, has for a number of 
years taken all the prizes at all the Na¬ 
tional Corn Shows; a great many of the 
State shows and some of the World 
Fairs. Growers there have a score card 
by which they judge corn, and all grow¬ 
ers of any importance keep these score 
cards before them in selecting their seed 
corn. They are always attempting to 
reach this standard of perfection which 
the score card represents and by doing 
this they have made wonderful progress 
in the development of corn in their com¬ 
munity. 
With this in mind we advertised and 
encouraged the growers in our commu¬ 
nity to submit samples at our County Fair 
so that they might have their fruit judged 
and get some idea of a perfect fruit. 
Several of the growers got together and 
adopted a score card for judging citrus 
fruit. We gave the qualities which we 
considered the most important, a certain 
number of points according to their im¬ 
portance in judging the fruit, and I will 
read this score card to you in order that 
you may know what we are doing. The 
