114 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
treatment to control this pest. As a mat¬ 
ter of fact I am only able to figure up 
about 5 per cent and the other 5 per cent 
is added in order to make allowances 
for omissions. Since it has been known 
for 30 years how to control the rust mite 
and there still remains 90 per cent un¬ 
treated, there must necessarily be a very 
great difference of opinion in regard as 
to whether or not this pest is of sufficient 
importance to demand remedial measures. 
In the first place one should consider 
the prices which russet oranges bring com¬ 
pared with those which are brought by 
the bright. There i"s practically no differ¬ 
ence of opinion regarding this matter if 
the oranges are placed on the market be¬ 
fore the holidays. Every packer or orange 
dealer to whom I have ever written or 
with whom I have talked admits that 
bright oranges not only brought more 
money before the holidays but were in 
much greater demand than russet fruit. 
The .reason for this demand for bright 
oranges in preference to russet oranges 
before the holidays could be ascribed to 
the fact that bright oranges color up ear¬ 
lier in the season and perhaps are there¬ 
fore more marketable and also- to the fact 
that a bright orange appeals to a person’s 
sense of the beautiful. The consumer 
wants his fruit to appear in the best pos¬ 
sible manner. Holiday attire might ex¬ 
press it. 
In regard to the prices which these 
two classes of fruit bring after the holi¬ 
days there seems to- be a very great dif¬ 
ference of opinion. There seems to be a 
general impression that other things be¬ 
ing equal the two classes of oranges bring 
about the same price. There are, how¬ 
ever, many well known orange men who 
claim that the bright oranges bring more 
than russet oranges throughout the year. 
I have examined the returns of many cars 
of fruit, and always found a difference of 
from 10 to 70 cents a box between rus¬ 
sets and brights. I am inclined to believe 
that if the question of the market price 
of russet and bright oranges was taken 
up in an exhaustive manner for the entire 
State the same differences would be found 
during the spring as during the fall. 
There is also a general impression over 
the State among packers that the russet 
orange has much better shipping quali¬ 
ties than bright fruit. If this is the case, 
it is possible that the supposedly superior 
shipping qualities of the russet orange 
might outweigh any advantages which 
bright fruit might possess. Several prom¬ 
inent shippers, however, have stated that 
they have never been able to detect any 
difference in the carrying qualities of 
these two classes of fruits. This question 
was taken up with Mr. H. J. Ramsey, 
who has charge of the transportation of 
fruit investigation. Owing to the short¬ 
ness of time available before this meeting, 
he was unable to go over the results of 
his shipping experiments to determine this 
particular point. He was under the im¬ 
pression, however, that no difference ex¬ 
isted. I have also heard one packing 
house manager who was very emphatic 
in his statement that russet fruit did not 
carry as well as bright. In order to throw 
some light on this matter several small 
experiments or tests were made this spring 
with both grapefruit and oranges. It is 
not considered that these tests are final 
but they -certainly .are worthy of consid- 
