FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
97 
Sanford to assist them in connection with 
matters of rates and service, on a small 
branch of the Coast Line. This branch 
had been built several years previously 
by interests in and around Sanford, and 
had been controlled by these local inter¬ 
ests until last fall when the road was pur¬ 
chased by the Coast Line. Under private 
ownership a local freight charge was 
made for hauling produce along the line 
into Sanford, where the delivery was 
made to the Coast Line road. Under the 
old management there had been two plac- 
ings of the cars each day, and the loaded 
cars were likewise pulled out twice a day. 
With the change of ownership, and with 
the branch road coming under the switch¬ 
ing district of Sanford, the road was not 
entitled to these local charges into San¬ 
ford inasmuch as the billing of the cars 
was made from Sanford, notwithstanding 
these facts the additional charges had 
been continued, and in addition the rail¬ 
road was giving but a single service each 
day. This made it necessary for practi¬ 
cally the entire output to be held over un¬ 
til the second day, and cars of celery, 
which were loaded by three o’clock, had 
to remain on the siding until half past 
two the following afternoon. Local peo¬ 
ple had taken the matter up with the rail¬ 
roads, and without doubt would have se¬ 
cured the adjustments to which they were 
entitled. The manager of the league, 
however, had an opportunity of looking 
the conditions over, and of going in per¬ 
son with local representatives, to the rail¬ 
road authorities. The result of our con¬ 
ference was that on the day following 
our visit, the service on the branch was 
doubled. In a very short time thereafter 
an adjustment was made whereby the 
local rates into Sanford were cancelled. 
These more favorable rates, and the bet¬ 
ter service were not accomplished pri¬ 
marily through the efforts of the league, 
and we would not lay claim to accom¬ 
plishing these results. The kind of help 
the league gave, however, represents the 
kind of assistance I hope we can give in 
many instances. We want each commun¬ 
ity and each individual to handle their 
own problems just as far as possible, but 
the league stands ready to add its influ¬ 
ence at the time and place when a little 
additional influence is needed to accom 
plish the ends sought after. These re¬ 
duced rates and better service on the S. 
& E, branch have meant the saving of sev¬ 
eral thousand dollars in freight charges 
alone, besides an additional indefinite sum 
from the better service given the grow¬ 
ers. 
PRECOOLING RATES. 
Considerable attention has been given 
to the question of the possibility of pre¬ 
cooling fruits and vegetables in Florida. 
For several years California has been us¬ 
ing this method of preparing its ship¬ 
ments to insure the arrival of the pro¬ 
ducts upon the market in a sound condi¬ 
tion. The system of cooling fruits before 
shipping has been so carefully worked 
out by our competitors in California that 
precooling is accepted there as the one 
method which will insure the arrival of 
sound fruit upon the market during per¬ 
iods of great heat or high humidity at 
the time of harvesting. We would not 
minimize the importance of careful hand- 
