36 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
ing careful study, and it is only the high 
prices since the freeze that caused them 
to ship largely. Most fruit that has 
been properly handled has shipped well 
this year. My fruit has shipped well, 
and there has been no complaint what¬ 
ever, and much of it was wet when I 
picked it. Many do not dare to pick 
fruit when wet, so they have their pick¬ 
ers wait until it has dried on the trees. 
The way I handle my fruit I can put it 
in my packing-house and get it dried off 
in one-quarter of the time that it would 
take if left on the trees. It goes into 
large trays with slatted bottoms and 
hung in the middle, so as to tip one way, 
then the other (illustrating); then open 
the windows and doors and in a very few 
minutes the oranges are dry on one side, 
then tip the trays the other way and the 
oranges roll over and dry the other side. 
The grading takes me about three days 
and in that time they cure thoroughly. 
I can take an orange, run a knife blade 
around it so as to cut through the outer 
cuticle, leaving it in these trays, and in 
three days it is ready to pack, an air¬ 
tight coating having formed over the 
cut that heals the wound and puts the 
orange in perfect shape to ship. If this 
was done and the orange was packed at 
once for shipment, it would decay and 
spoil others around it. If there is any 
orange so badly injured that it cannot 
be repaired by a free circulation of air, 
decay proceeds, and the injury is discov¬ 
ered before packing, as it has time to get 
so bad that I cannot miss it. Therefore 
only sound fruit goes into the box. 
Here I show you one of my oranges 
somewhat dried up and yet round until 
now I think there is a soft place on one 
side that shows it will soon decay. 
(Hands it up.) That orange was picked 
in December, nearly or quite five months 
ago. Here are others not dried at all 
and as fresh, firm and plump as if just 
picked from the tree. This fruit was also 
picked in December. I had intended to 
lay aside a lot of them, but owing to my 
friends’ appreciation of their fine quali¬ 
ties I failed to do so. These here shown 
are culls left over from last year’s pick¬ 
ing. 
Oranges will keep if you fertilize them 
right and handle them right, if you don’t 
give them too much organic matter to 
supply their nitrogen. I have not had 
any preparation put on these or anything 
of that kind, but here is a point, those 
have been wet nearly all the time with 
pure water. They were probably wet 
when they were picked, and they have 
been ever since. Oranges kept a long 
time lose their brilliancy of flavor, so that 
you could not keep them five months 
and still have a first-class marketable 
fruit, although they are fine in appear¬ 
ance. You can keep them perhaps a 
month or six weeks, possibly longer, and 
still have fine marketable fruit. (Orange 
is cut and found to be full and heavy.) 
Question—How did you keep it wet? 
Mr. Hart—I have received letters 
from parties in Florida saying, “If you 
will agree to pay me $25 or $100, as the 
case may be, I will give you a recipe by 
which you can keep fruit in fine market¬ 
able shape for months.” But I have 
never given them the $25 or the $100. I 
am not going to try that on you with 
my process. I will give it to you free 
next year because I am interested in the 
prosperity of this Society and its mem¬ 
bers, but I wish to experiment more on 
it. It is so simple and inexpensive that, 
should I give it to you now, you would 
not appreciate its real value. I am not 
