FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. If 
tions, each person could be induced to eat one orange a 
week and not become surfeited, and that would take twenty 
million boxes. Can we bring about those conditions? 
MUST BE SOLD CHEAP. 
To popularize oranges and have every one eat them freely, 
they must be sold to the consumer at popular prices. At 
fancy prices like 40 cents, 60 cents, or $1.00 per dozen, only 
the few can use them freely, a good many moderately, but 
a great many more sparingly or not at all. If the money the 
consumer pays for iruit could be divided among the grower, 
carrier and seller in fair proportion to the service rendered, 
this could be done. The grower has spent money, time and 
care, and has originated the product, yet under the present 
system he is the last one paid. He sends out a lot of or¬ 
anges; the transportation compauy takes charge of them, and 
when they reach their destination, the freight must be paid 
in full, and the drayage must be paid in lull, and then the 
commission for selling must paid in full. If the fruit 
brings too little to meet these charges, the grower is called 
upon to make up the deficiences, and in any event he gets 
only the surplus after all other charges are paid. Whether 
the price of fruit is high or low, win ther die grower gets 
anything or not, the transportation is always high, and is al¬ 
ways the first bill to be paid. 
HIGH FREIGHT RATES. 
Now, my fellow fruit growers, it is time for us to have 
something to say about this thing. The present rate of 
freight and this year s price of fruit, mnans absolute ruin to 
our industry. Last week I paid $330 freight on a car load 
of oranges, and the same week a neighbor offered to sell me 
a five-acre orange grove seven years old, in good condition, 
for $300. That is a startling statement. 1 give the price of a 
five-acre orange grove and $30 t<> have one car load of oranges 
carried to market! 
Now we shoulo not go to the transportation companies as 
supplicants asking a favor, but we should go as masters of the 
situation and claim our rights. 
The average price the grower has paid for transporting 
this crop is not far from 65 cents per box. The average net 
amount recived by the grower will not exceed one-half or 
two-thirds of that sum. That is not right. It is not a fair 
divide. The business of a carrier is a legitimate and proper 
one, and entitled to fair compensation. So is the business of 
horticulture. There is no good reason why one should have 
all that is in it, and the other nothing. 
The common law recognizes the railroads as common car- 
