FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
114 
keeper, both as to season, that is time of 
shipping, and as to its ability tO' hold up 
en route. And as to keeping qualities the 
fruit en route, that remark opens up to me 
the one question that occupies my thinker 
these days to the exclusion of any other. 
How shall we make our fruit keep and 
cari*v better? What is the reason of the 
•/ 
epidemics of rot such as attacked us at 
times the last two years ? If I knew, and 
could answer these questions aright, you 
would have a paper worth your listening 
to. I would like to ask your agricultural 
chemists what effect nitrate of potash 
would have on the stability of fruit? I 
think from a test made for two years that 
it is decidedly favorable to the keeping 
quality. I would like to ask some of the 
professors whether paraffine would tend 
to keep the fruit from rotting. 
I would like to ask whether, in the 
opinion of growers, late cultivation tends 
to make fruit rot in transit? 
The markets are all practically done 
with Florida citrus fruits, and yet we 
could just as well grow enough Tardiffs 
to keep them supplied for six weeks yet. 
Suppose there is some waste, what of it,* 
we can stand it. And grapefruit—I ate 
grapefruit in July last year from off the 
tree that was the finest thing I ever ate on 
a hot day in my life. I expect to eat it 
again this year, and if we can get a grape¬ 
fruit in April, May and June, I am willing 
to risk its selling at a paying price. 
I believe the variety to be a distinct va¬ 
riety, but will know better when it is test¬ 
ed longer. We ought to ship citrus fruits 
from October to June continuously, and 
when we do, the fruit industry need fear 
no competition. 
James Russell Lowell has an eleventh 
Beautitude “Blessed is he that has noth¬ 
ing to say and cannot be persuaded to 
say it.’’ I am reminded that I would 
rather work at growing oranges than 
talk about it. I grow a considerable quan¬ 
tity of fruit, and some of it is the best 
I ever saw and some of it is the worst, I 
am sorry to say. I know a very little, I 
am hoping to learn a great deal more, and 
again I want to express my regret at not 
being able to be with you. I wish you a 
vei*y interesting and profitable meeting. 
I know that vour officers have been untir- 
ing in their efforts at the proper prepara¬ 
tions for such a meeting. 
