The Influence of Packing Methods on the Carrying 
Qualities of Citrus Fruits* 
By Lloyd S* Tcnny* 
(Assistant Pomologist.) 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
The agricultural interests of the world 
have made immense progress in recent 
years, especially true is this in this coun¬ 
try. In a single generation there have been 
developed our modern system of State 
Experimental Stations and the National 
Department of Agriculture. It was only 
recently that the primary object of these 
institutions and frequently the only real 
one, was the studying of plant diseases. 
This in turn gradually led into’ the work 
of plant breeding in all its phases, the 
securing of varieties resistant to certain 
diseases, those especially adapted to one 
soil or one climatic condition, and thus 
the work has broadened, not only along 
this line but along every line, until now we 
find the Department of Agriculture and 
many of the State stations undertaking 
a careful scientific research along a mul¬ 
titude of lines connected with the farming 
interests. No phase of the subject is 
considered too small or too unimportant 
tO' be left out. 
One of the subjects into which this 
situdy has led us at the Department of 
Agriculture is the transportation side of 
fruit handling. The wonderful extension 
of our railroads and the great headway 
that has been made in the methods of 
transporting perishable produce, has made 
it possible for every section of the country 
to produce those fruits and vegetables best 
6 
suited to its soil and other conditions. 
And so the vineyards and orchards of 
California, the gardens of Texas, and the 
semi-tropic fruits and vegetables of Flori¬ 
da have come to be well known things 
over vthe country. But the one thing 
which has made all this practicable and 
has enabled the man of New York or 
Denver to have Florida fruits upon his 
table is the development of the transpor¬ 
tation side of agriculture. The study of 
these transportation subjects and the 
methods of harvesting and packing fruits 
intended for distant markets is a study 
-worthy of real investigation. What com^ 
mercial advantage would it be to Floricla 
to produce a delicious orange if you grow¬ 
ers and shippers were unable to put this on 
the market at a profit. 
Uniformly almost during recent years 
has good fruit demanded excellent prices. 
Methods of orchard management have 
been improved, so that the yield is nearly 
certain and the quality of the fruit high, 
the various fungous and insect diseases 
are watched and methods of preventing 
their spread sought, and so along every 
line we find the conditions such as tO' jus¬ 
tify us in expecting an industry at a very 
high point of development, and such do 
we find to a great measure. The fact re¬ 
mains, nevertheless, that while we are pro¬ 
ducing something like a 4,000,000 box 
