FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
99 
sires to put in there at his own expense. 
If the shipper so desires he may connect 
the refrigerator car with his precooling 
establishment, and precool his fruits in 
the car. The rate for the use of such a 
car will be $7.50; the minimum load, 
however, for precooled fruit going under 
this rate will be 360 boxes. According 
to our present rule the shipper is not en¬ 
titled to put into the bunkers of the car 
additional ice after the car is delivered 
to the carrier. If additional ice is needed, 
and the railroad places such ice there, then 
the full icing charge must be paid by the 
shipper. This is a matter which no doubt 
will need further consideration on the 
part of the railroads and the league. I 
do not think there will be any doubt but 
that we can secure the co-operation of the 
California shippers in adjusting this 
matter. There are some other minor 
points which we will need to take up 
further with the railroads, but which I 
think can be adjusted satisfactorily. The 
fact remains that any shipper now of 
citrus fruits who wishes to build a pre¬ 
cooling establishment in connection with 
the packing house may do so with the ab¬ 
solute knowledge that he can ship his pre¬ 
cooled fruit without paying to the rail¬ 
roads the full icing charge. While the 
rule already made applies only to citrus 
fruits, I have the assurance from the rail¬ 
roads that the rate will be extended to in¬ 
clude vegetables just as soon as the mat¬ 
ter of increased minimums can be worked 
out. I feel safe in saying that any veg¬ 
etable shipper who desires to equip a pre¬ 
cooling plant for next season’s business 
can be reasonably sure of having the rate 
adjusted by that time. 
The importance of this matter can 
scarcely be determined this early, but 
without question the coming years will see 
a great development of this method of 
shipping perishable produce from Florida. 
The proposed rate on the whole is very 
satisfactory. It is the rate California has 
obtained only after a most difficult strug¬ 
gle, and while I think there are some 
things which will need changing, yet in 
the main, we can congratulate ourselves 
on obtaining this satisfactory adjustment, 
and especially so without having to go 
through the long process of an Interstate 
Commerce hearing. 
FREIGHT RATES TO NORTHWEST POINTS. 
Every shipper of Florida produce 
knows that the freight rates to northwest 
points are unreasonably high. Notwith¬ 
standing the fact that fruit jobbers in the 
cities of the northwest have to handle 
large quantities of Florida products they 
.have practically been prohibited from do¬ 
ing this because of the unjust rates. Ac¬ 
tion was finally brought by these fruit job¬ 
bers to secure an Interstate Commerce 
hearing on the unreasonableness of these 
rates, and the Interstate Commerce Com¬ 
mission granted such a hearing at Helena, 
Montana, on the 16th of this present 
month. The Florida Growers’ and Ship¬ 
pers’ League united with the large mar¬ 
keting associations in Florida to request 
the State Railway Commission to send a 
representative to this hearing, so that the 
Florida interests which were especially at 
stake might be properly represented. Hon. 
R. C. Dunn, one of our Railroad Com¬ 
mission, was delegated to attend the hear¬ 
ing, and to represent Florida interests. 
