82 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
crop in this State, worth some ten millions 
of dollars, that the profits to the ordinary 
shipper are comparatively small. I real¬ 
ize at the same time that doubtless most 
of the orange men here today are conduct¬ 
ing their business on a liberal margin of 
profit: at the same time you will admit 
that there are those in your immediate 
neighborhood who are not so fortunate. 
These conditions exist in a measure at 
least from the great losses there are in 
transit from decayed or wasty fruit. 
THE EXTENT OF THE LOSS FROM DECAY. 
It is difficult to estimate the extent of 
this loss, since no accurate and detailed 
inspection reports are made, but not one 
of you will deny that there are heavy loss¬ 
es. As we have come into closer touch 
with the shippers throughout the State, 
we continue to get more of the inside in¬ 
formation regarding this sort of loss. It 
is not uncommon to hear of cars arriving 
at destination Avith 20 or more per cent, 
decay; even in some exceptionally bad cas¬ 
es it runs as high as 50 per cent. From 
personal conversation Avith many of the 
large Florida commission men in New 
York City, a 15 per cent, loss seems a 
conservative estimate. One of the very 
large houses and one that favors Florida 
fruits, expresses their opinion as follows: 
“The past season has been an exception¬ 
ally good one, and 10 per cent. AA^ould 
cover the losses in most of the cars, but 
in former years a 20 per cent, or 25 per 
cent, decay was not uncommon. We 
should think that a 15 per cent, v/aste 
would be a fair average for several years.’’ 
But for our purpose let us be even more 
conservatiA^e in our estimate of the loss 
from decay in transit and place it at 10 
per cent., which means but 7 or 8 rotten 
oranges in eadh half bix of 150s. With 
this moderate loss, it means on a crop of 
three million and a half boxes, the loss of 
three hundred and fifty thousand boxes, 
or over one thousand cars of fruit. If the 
cost of picking, packing and shipping 
amounts to one dollar and a quarter a box, 
then you are paying out over $400,000 to 
harvest rotten oranges. If you are a ship¬ 
per and buy your fruit at a dollar a box, 
that means another loss of over $300,000, 
or to put the figures into one sum, you 
orange men of Florida are losing each 
year close to one million dollars from this 
one cause alone. The purpose of the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture in opening this 
line of experimental work is to determine 
whether this loss is a necessary one, and, 
if not, Avhat are the causes and how far 
are the present packing methods to blame 
for the present condition of affairs. The 
subject is one that cannot be covered in 
an investigation extending over one sea¬ 
son alone, nor over two, but it is one that 
must be followed for a series of years, or 
long enough to determine experimentally 
the effects of different methods of picking, 
hauling, packing and shipping, season af¬ 
ter season. So let me say now that any 
statements made today or any results 
given, are only preliminary and subject to 
change as the work develops. The work 
was begun this past season, and, at the 
best, only a preliminary survey could be 
made the first year. Had it not been that 
the results obtained sO' far Avere so uniform 
and so suggestive, we would not feel jus¬ 
tified in bringing before you even this pre¬ 
liminary report. I should like to say fur¬ 
ther that we are beginning this work with 
no set idea as to the influence of the pack¬ 
ing methods on this subject, and so have 
no pet theory to advance. The Avork will 
be Avholly experimental in nature, and our 
aim will be to devise methods of handling 
