40 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
kets (45c a dozen) and the retail selling 
price of the same (50c a dozen), and this 
five cents under this scheme must take 
care of profit to the producer and a 
margin of profit for the jobber and re¬ 
tailer. The writer ventures the opinion 
that the Florida grapefruit growers have 
lost one million dollars in producing the 
crop that is not yet fully marketed; that 
is the results will be one million dollars 
less than it cost to produce the crop. 
Some of the difficult obstacles encoun¬ 
tered during the past season have been: 
First. The excessive crop of apples, 
grapes and other fruits. The crop of ap¬ 
ples is now said to have been seventy mil¬ 
lion (70,000,000) barrels, by far the 
largest on record and more than double 
that of the previous year. All fruits, and 
especially apples, have sold at exceedingly 
low prices throughout the season and have 
interfered greatly with the consumption 
of grapefruit. 
Second. Unusual depression, adverse 
industrial conditions and a very unusual 
percentage of unemployed. Employment 
gives ability to purchase, and in many 
factory and industrial centers dealers have 
refused to handle grapefruit and other 
luxuries. They had to carry their cus¬ 
tomers through the winter on credit and 
therefore kept their accounts down to a 
minimum by handling only the prime ne¬ 
cessities. 
Third. The European war greatly re¬ 
duced our Canadian trade and greatly 
reduced our southern trade from what it 
would have been had the South been able 
to sell cotton at the usual values and at the 
usual time. 
Fourth. When newspapers are con¬ 
stantly agitating the existence of poverty 
and exaggerating these conditions; every 
type of people, no matter what their cir¬ 
cumstances, become conservative and feel 
poor, and advertising in the usual manner 
does not influence them to buy luxuries. 
From the opening of the season people 
have felt that the future might bring 
poverty and have conserved their re¬ 
sources. 
The problem confronting the grapefruit 
growers is a difficult one to solve and can¬ 
not be settled in a satisfactory manner 
unless we are sure of the co-operation and 
assistance, along substantial lines, of the 
transportation companies. Grapefruit in 
rate making is entitled to be taken out of 
the citrus classification and given a clas¬ 
sification of its own. Florida oranges at 
certain seasons may decay more freely 
than California oranges, but Florida 
grapefruit is hardy, ships well and keeps 
well after it reaches destination. 
A retailer can purchase a box of Flo¬ 
rida grapefruit and be reasonably sure of 
making a profit on each -one. Florida 
growers realize the splendid keeping quali¬ 
ty of grapefruit, as we see in our groves 
under some of our trees grapefruit that 
dropped early in the season from lack of 
market, and is in just as good condition 
now as it was several months ago. We 
can afford to load more boxes of grape¬ 
fruit into a car than we can oranges, and 
feel that we are entitled to a freight 
charge that will enable us to reach the 
markets of the country and get in touch 
with the millions of people who have here¬ 
tofore been unable to buy grapefruit be¬ 
cause it was beyond the reach of their 
pocketbooks. 
