54 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
large quantity of roots as a comparative¬ 
ly few seem tO' suffice for its needs, while 
in the sandy lands of Florida the young 
plant must hustle for food as soon as the 
seed sprouts, and this continual hustling 
gloves our trees the magnificent root 
system for which they are so justly not¬ 
ed. In planting our trees if proper care 
is taken by the nurserymen in digging 
and by the planters when setting there 
should not be a loss of one per cent, and 
I have known several instances where 
several thousands of trees were planted 
without the loss of a single one. On 
the other hand with the Cuban grown 
tree, if the same precautions are used 
as in the other case there is often a loss 
of from twenty-five tO' fifty per cent, ow¬ 
ing undfoubtedly to the lack of roots on 
the tree grown in the rich soil. I have 
seen nursery stock grown in California, 
Jamaica and Cuba, but have never seen 
anything that could “hold a candle” to 
the tree grown in the sandy soil of Flor¬ 
ida. A great many of my friends have 
talked with me on this subject of orange 
growing in Cuba, and seem to fear that 
Cuba would soon put Florida out of 
business. I do not think we need to have 
any fears on this score, as there will be 
but little competition. I have always 
advocated the planting of late varieties 
in Cuba, claiming that we should take 
advantageof the climatic conditions there 
and grow something that could not be 
grown in Florida. About 90 per cent of 
the orange trees I have sold in Cuba are 
of the late varieties, and will not get into 
the market until after the first of Feb¬ 
ruary, at which time practically every¬ 
thing has left Florida. I have advised 
against planting the early varieties for 
the reason that we can not get them in¬ 
to' the market any earlier than can be 
done from Florida, and as oiir growers 
have a bad habit of rushing their fruit 
into the market regardless of the fact 
that it is green and unfit for use, and 
without any reference tO' the demands of 
the market, I thought it would be bad 
policy to get our fruit in at the same 
time, as we would all go down together. 
There will of course be some fruit ship^ 
ped during December and January, but 
I do not think these shipments will have 
much effect on the market, as the bulk 
of the fruit will come later. 
There is much more that might be 
said, but I have already made this letter 
much longer than I intended. 
Trusting that it may be of some inter- 
est to your hearers, I remain. 
Yours very truly. 
Ml. E. Gillett. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. Boggs—Mr. President, there is es¬ 
pecially one important point in my judg¬ 
ment contained in the committee report 
that should be fully discussed by the so¬ 
ciety. That point is the question rof 
overproduction of grapefruit. There has 
been a great deal of complaint this sea¬ 
son of the prevailing low price of grape¬ 
fruit and it behooves us to inquire into 
the cause. While I must admit that I 
have myself seen but a small portion of 
the state and am not entirely familiar 
with the acreage or output of grapefruit, 
I have gained the impression from the 
press throughout the state that it is now 
large and still growing ; in fact, it seems, 
that everybody is planting grapefruit. 
Mr. President, this is a very important 
subject to this society and to the citrus 
fruit industry of this state. The market 
conditions on this crop are decidedly bad. 
There seems to be no let up in the plant¬ 
ing of grapefruit trees and there seems to 
