FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
29 
water must work off above the clay, and if it cannot get off 
soon enough the ground becomes so saturated with water that 
the grapes drop from the stem and those that remain are not 
of good quality. Grapes should be planted on high soil. On 
my place I have found no foundation except sand. Our ex¬ 
press rates are probably not so exhorbitant as in South Flor¬ 
ida. They are high enough, but our returns bring us a profit, 
as much, perhaps, as is derived from any line of fruit grow¬ 
ing, all hough grape growing requires more attention than 
peach growing in our vicinity. I have always had an idea 
tint the trouble in Sou h Florida was that the grapes were 
planted in ground not well enough drained. 
Mr. W. A. Cooper —I would like to ask Mr. Wright to ex¬ 
plain about the earload of grapes he went to Chicago will from 
Orlando, and ab ut the condition the grapes were in that 
came from St. Augustine at about the same time. I read in a 
paper published at Avon Park about the grapes raised round 
St. Augustine and Moultrie, and how very profitable they are. 
I would like to have Mr. Wright say in what condition he 
found them. 
Mr. Wright— I do not like the idea of criticising the bus¬ 
iness methods of any one, especially of those in a business 
that is parallel with my own ; yet, in answering the gentle¬ 
man’s question I will be obliged to do it. 
These glowing statements are not confined to the paper 
to which Captain Cooper refers. Only last week one of our 
evening papers criticised the knowledge of the growers of 
Orange county and spoke very highly of the experience of 
those in St. Johns county. (Mr. Wright is from Orange 
county.) 
I think it was on the 29th of last June I left Orlando with 
a car load of grapes for Chicago. The car was iced the day 
we loaded in Orlando and went out the same night. At Bald¬ 
win it laid over twelve hours and was five days on the road. 
One of the ventilators of the car was open. On the morning 
of the 5th of July I opened the car and put the grapes on the 
market, and fixed the price at which they should be sold. I 
sold about 100 crates that day at at an average of $2.50 to 
$5 per crate of 24 and 40 pounds. That night a car load came 
in lrom Moultrie by express, containing between 100 and 
200 crates. These were put up at auction and sold at an 
average of $1.20 to $1.40 a crate. 
They were not as fine grapes as ours. There were no covers 
on the baskets below the top tier, and the baskets were not 
quite full. Of course this cut prices, but only a little. The 
next evening there was another car load and the following 
evening another. The prices of those grapes run down to 40 
