FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
51 
that very question this year. In fact, 
the new movement there claims a large 
percentage of the fruit, and while the old 
Association is going on with its busi¬ 
ness there has been quite a little com¬ 
ment by the press on this subject. In 
our plan of marketing the design was 
simply to have an agent at the most ef¬ 
fective point for receiving and forwarding 
the shipments to the proper markets, 
with a system of local agents in the mar¬ 
kers we would need who would be our 
agents. That is to say, that they should 
handle no other pineapples during our 
season. On those lines we appointed 
agents in sixty-one markets which have 
been reduced to thirty-nine. Starting in 
with the crop of 1896, we have gradually 
increased the net result, until last season, 
with 132,000 crates of pineapples in the 
territory in which we operate, we mar¬ 
keted 51,248 crates, and our net result, 
including culls, ripes, etc., was $1.73 a 
crate. We have stated in print that we 
are proud of that net result; that it is the 
highest that has been made. In addi¬ 
tion to that, there were f.o.b. sales of 
about 35,000 crates; the prices ranged 
for a few as low as $1.50, for most of 
them $1.75, and as high as $2.25. Now, 
when you consider that the Red Span¬ 
ish pine yielded as high as 600 crates to 
the acre, with that net result, it is one 
that is worthy of the attention of anyone, 
and in fact our growers to-day are as¬ 
sured that despite the conditions against 
them, we have made conditions that in¬ 
sure a good net result for good Red 
Spanish pines. 
The conditions have been such from 
our section that this season a large part 
of the fruit will be sold, and with the two 
organizations working, there is practi¬ 
cally no fruit that will not go through an 
organization. The new party has so far 
endorsed our plan, with the exception 
that they contemplate selling more fruit 
on orders. 
I would state that when we iirst took 
hold of this system we used the large 
barrel crate. We now use the standard 
crate. With that crate we can wiap and 
pack the Red Spanish pines and we can 
have those pines transported to the most 
distant markets, with practicaly none of 
the fruit spoiled. In addition to that, we 
organized a close intercourse with the 
markets and with the transportation 
men. We watched those cars in Jack¬ 
sonville on the transit. We could send 
a car to Cincinnati and have fruit cut out 
and sent on to Columbus and delivered, 
and we even put fruit in less than carload 
lots through on car-lot time. The West 
was always opened to us for car-lot ship¬ 
ments, and we were in position to make 
those lots. With a simple system of 
marketing any of the products that go 
out of this State, be they what they may, 
with a local agent and a system of agents 
appointed and understood to be solely 
representing that Association, success 
can be assured in any direction, whether 
it be pineapples or oranges. Any other 
system will certainly meet with failure. 
Where auction is the system, there is 
bound to be loss betwen the buyer and 
the man who grows the fruit, whereas we 
have withdrawn from markets where our 
fruit would be lowered through competi¬ 
tion against itself. Under our condi¬ 
tions and with this watchfulness, the 
proper markets can be found, all fruit 
can be used, and those who had never 
heard of pines on the plant rushed in to 
see fruit on plants we exhibited until the 
policemen had to separate the crowd. 
This was in Cleveland, Ohio. In Buf- 
