44 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
individually we will have twice the crop 
we had last year, and I think it is due 
entirely to our irrigation. Our irrigation 
plant has more than paid for itself this 
year. 
Mr.Wakelin (Lake county)—Down in 
Lake county the trees bloomed in the reg¬ 
ular time. They continue blooming un¬ 
til about now. The younger trees bloom¬ 
ed at the regular time, and they have done 
pretty well. There was about two-thirds 
of a bloom until the latter end of March. 
Mr.-(Orange county) —>S o m e 
trees bloomed pretty well early in the 
season, but most of it fell. After the 
rains, many bloomed again, and now a 
part of the trees are white with bloom. 
I think in our neighborhood the orange 
crop will not be more than a third of a 
crop. 
Mr.-^(M a r i o n county)—Not 
over one-fourth of a crop, or less. 
Mr. Hart (Volusia county)—I will 
say that on the east coast where protected 
there is a reasonably good crop, and more 
have protected their groves this winter 
than ever before; but I think that on the 
west side of Volusia county in groves not 
protected, there is a short crop. 
Mr. Kerr (Volusia county)—In the 
northern part of Volusia county the 
groves are showing up well, the treees 
are looking fine, and we will probably 
have half a crop. I attribute this greatly 
to the excellent location of the county, etc. 
Mr.-(Lee county)—I do not 
think there will be more than half a crop. 
Prof. Rolfs (Dade county)—I know 
it is shy in Dade. 
Member—How much was the entire 
crop in the state last year ? 
Mr. Skinner—It was somewhere 
around 4,000,000. 
Mr. Tilton—How do you regard the 
June bloom fruit? • We have a little of 
it in our grove. 
Mr. Hubbard—^The scattering June 
bloom is usually thick skinned and dry 
and pulpy and of poor shipping quality. 
Mr. Hart—If you have nothing else 
on the tree it is pretty fair. If mixed up 
with the regular season fruit, it is poor. 
It is always thicker skinned. I had much 
rather it would stay off than come on, 
although when there is no other fruit 
on the tree it does very well. 
Dr. Phillips—^I want to bring up the' 
question again of getting up reliable esti¬ 
mates. I have heard various estimates 
gotten out by parties in the month of 
May, and perhaps they will get out an¬ 
other the next month that is entirely dif¬ 
ferent, and when the crop is gathered, it 
is entirely different from either estimate. 
I think this society should adopt a method 
to get the correct statistics, say, in the 
month of July, when experienced orange 
men can estimate a crop with a degree 
of accuracy. Then, I think, each county 
should be represented, this society ap¬ 
pointing a person or persons to go out 
and send in an estimate to headquarters. 
Then let the society force the railroad 
companies to prepare to handle the crop 
which we will give them. If we have a big 
crop, the transportation should be prepar¬ 
ed beforehand to take care of it. Suppose 
it is necessary to pay a man for his ser¬ 
vices ; it will be worth much more to the 
orange grower to have information he can 
rely upon. If it is rumored that we have 
a larger crop than we really have, it has 
a depressing influence upon the price and 
we lose a great deal more money than 
these statistics will cost us. 
Mr. Hart—^I would say that this could 
