56 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
properly upon the market in good con¬ 
dition. I found this state of things at 
the St. Louis Exposition. There wasn’t 
a man in ten who had ever heard of 
grapefruit. I had some of the fruit with 
me. I induced a commission merchant to 
take a shipment of it, and exhibiting the 
fruit there,* I told the people where it 
could be procured. The consequence 
was, the merchant sold out his entire 
shipment in a few days. Mr. President, 
we have not overproduction of grape¬ 
fruit at all in my judgment. It is rather 
a lack of systematic marketing. I do not 
fear overproduction. I have always been 
able to dispose of my fruit on the trees 
in many instances at good prices, and 
I believe with proper systematic manage¬ 
ment, the same good results can be had 
now from the fruit of every grapefruit 
tree in the state. You can not get good 
prices for an inferior, green, immature, 
badly handled, packed or shipped fruit 
on a glutted market. The grapefruit in 
my judgment has as bright a future be¬ 
fore it as the orange. I therefore can 
not believe that there are any grounds 
of apprehension or fear of overproduc¬ 
tion of this delicious, comparatively new 
fruit, which as yet has barely been in¬ 
troduced to the markets of this coun¬ 
try. 
Mr. Boggs—I feel unwilling to leave 
the subject without another word or two. 
The comparison has been made here be¬ 
tween the grapefruit and the orange. 
There is no comparison, Mr. President, in 
my opinion, between the two fruits—at 
least so far as market results are con¬ 
cerned. In the first place, the grapefruit 
has to be eaten at the table after prepara¬ 
tion in the culinary deartment. It there¬ 
fore requires too much handling before it 
reaches the point of consumption. It 
is a large fruit and can not be handled 
in the same manner as the orange. There¬ 
fore, it will never have a very large sale, 
as a notable instance on trains, which 
alone is an important channel of consump¬ 
tion. It is well known, or if it is not it is 
time it was becoming known, that the 
average patron of the fruitstand, where 
the two fruits are displayed, the orange 
and the grapefruit, will buy ten oranges 
to one grapefruit. He' can eat the one 
on the spot, ^if he chooses ; the other 
he has to take home with him and 
have it prepared before he eats it. I 
want to say here and now, Mr. Presi¬ 
dent, that those of us, and I believe there 
are many, who indulge the delusion that 
the grapefruit is ever to rival the orange 
on the market, are doomed to disappoint¬ 
ment and despair. That can, in the very 
nature of the two fruits, never be. It is, 
in my opinion, the utmost folly to en¬ 
tertain such a thought. The gentleman 
from Miami, Mr. Blackman, is the only 
person that I have heard of who has this 
season received what he thought he 
ought to have gotten for his grapefruit. 
Let us, for a single moment, consider 
his conditions. The grove of which he 
speaks is within a short distance of the 
Royal Palm Hotel, and situated upon a 
favorite driveway for tourists. The owner 
sells entirely to this class of trade, and 
gets twice as much per box in his grove 
as the fruit could be bought for in New 
York City. How many of us have a 
grapefruit orchard in the shadow of a 
palatial winter resort hotel, where the fruit 
may be picked from the trees for the break¬ 
fast table? The gentleman is to be con¬ 
gratulated Upon his situation and upon the 
fancy prices he has obtained for his fruit, 
but that situation, Mr. President, is a very 
different one from the average grape- 
