FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
85 
is a shell hammock grove, and they have 
been conceded to bear early fruit. Early 
in October the fruit colors up so that you 
can see the ripe oranges on the trees half 
a mile off. I went down there in Octo¬ 
ber and November a dozen times and 
took samples for Mr. Chase to have an¬ 
alyzed, and begged him to ship it. He 
said, “I can get a good price for it, but 
I can’t ship it for you. It has a good 
taste, but I am not going to violate the 
law.” I took tourists down there, and 
they said they had never eaten better 
fruit; it had a fine color, but it was not 
anywhere near the test. 
So I was left holding the bag, and it 
was not shipped until the latter part of 
December. 
I am going to have a good crop this 
year, and I believe it will be palatable 
and luscious and pleasant to eat, but I 
do not believe it is going to come up to 
any acid test. I believe that, as in Cali¬ 
fornia, the color test should go. 
I don’t believe, either, that 1 am the 
only mercenary person in the hall. 
Mr. Thompson: Mr. Chairman, you 
have let them break the rule you made. 
We have had four to one here lately. 
Now, I want to say one or two words 
myself. 
We are not legislating only for this 
one year. Mr. Chase has brought forth 
the argument that we have a bare mar¬ 
ket this fall. We are legislating for the 
future. Perhaps another year the condi¬ 
tions will be different. It has also been 
said by the gentleman who just had the 
floor, that he could get money for his or¬ 
anges in October, but he does it, perhaps, 
at the expense of the man who tried to 
ship when his fruit was ripe in Decem¬ 
ber. 
What is the use of establishing a law 
and putting it on our statute books, with¬ 
out a standard to guide us? We have 
to have some standard, or else the law 
is a nullity. We have already voted 
unanimously that we want a law to pro¬ 
hibit the shipment of green fruit. I think 
anybody would be ashamed to vote 
against such a law being enacted. The 
law will be an absolute nullity unless we 
establish a standard. Therefore, this 
body should put itself on record as estab¬ 
lishing a citrus test of 1.30 for oranges 
and 1.75 for grapefruit. 
Mr. Mote: I have been in Florida thir¬ 
ty-two years, and had to do with oranges 
the past twenty-five. It seems to me we 
should go on shipping the fruit as soon 
as we possibly can, within reason. If 
you hold your fruit until late, around 
Christmas and after, you cannot find 
enough cars to take them or enough mar¬ 
kets to take them,. We don’t want to 
have the same trouble we did last year 
about cars, every year. 
There was a-man once who was very 
sick. His physicians and friends kept 
asking what they could do for him, and 
trying to fix things up for him, and final¬ 
ly he said, “There is nothing you can do 
except to let me alone.” Now, let us 
alone and let us have the law we have on 
the books. * < 
Mr. Scott: Fruit from our section an¬ 
alyzed on October 24, 1.34 per cent. 
These oranges were shipped by the firm 
along with some Early Sweets which 
passed considerably within the test. The 
Pineapples were 1.30. The oranges on 
