FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
135 
HIGH-GRADE VEGETABLE RAISING IN FLORIDA 
L. LaTrobe Bateman 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
When a man finds he has a certain mo¬ 
nopoly in some trade, it is certainly good 
business to expand that trade to the ut¬ 
most extent. Not only should he use 
every endeavor to extend it but he should 
also, so long as he holds the monopoly, 
expand every branch directly pertinent 
to it. 
Yet, what do we generally find? A 
monopoly becomes a hobby, and the hob¬ 
by is ridden to death. As a rule there is 
no further expansion. The mind runs on 
the one thing and soon gets into a rut. It 
is good enough that the monopoly exists. 
What need therefore for extension or 
expansion or further development. How 
great the tendency and the temptation to 
“let well-enough alone.” 
Florida possesses a monopoly, and one 
that will serve for all time to bring her 
wealth. This is the monopoly of the 
trucking industry during the winter 
months and the ease and certainty with 
which she is able to supply the demand of 
the northern and eastern markets for 
fresh vegetables during a time of year 
when it is impossible to either grow or 
obtain them from elsewhere in the Union. 
Fortunately up to now Florida has not 
gotten herself into the rut I suggested 
as so often the outcome of a monopoly, 
though there are sections within her boun¬ 
daries where exist signs of a slight ten¬ 
dency towards that evil. Sections where 
lettuce, celery and tomatoes succeed each- 
other every year with a regularity on a 
par to clock work, and with little or no. 
modification or change in the varieties 
grown of each. 
Now it must be remembered that in 
shipping vegetables, especially salads, 
during the winter months the trucker is 
catering to a very high class trade. It 
is not so very long ago that such a thing 
as a perfectly crisp fresh lettuce, in New 
York as an example, in the month of De¬ 
cember or January was a pure luxury and 
could only be found on the rich man’s 
table, certainly not in the general market. 
Thanks in a measure to Florida and 
her climate, lettuce and celery can now 
be found in the markets during the win¬ 
ter months, but still it is high-class trade. 
High prices are maintained for this “out 
of season stuff,” and the principal con¬ 
sumers are the extra well-to-do and the 
first class hotels and restaurants. If this 
were not so the humble grower in Florida 
would not get the prices he does for his 
products. 
But are we catering to this trade as 
we should, or are we feeling so secure in 
our monopoly that we are contented to 
leave “well enough alone?” I sincerely 
trust not. 
As an example of what the require¬ 
ments of a first class hotel or restaurant 
are now during the winter months I will 
cite those of the Waldorf-Astoria in New 
York. It is typical of the rest. They 
are the results of special studies I made 
