FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
115 
plant heavily and entirely of one thing. 
In case of misfortune, the entire profit 
for a year is lost, and possibly it puts you 
so badly in debt that the next year’s 
profits are gone, too. By a diversified 
planting, you keep a balance, and the suc¬ 
cess with one will counteract your loss 
with another, if you have a loss. We 
have oranges around where I live, too, 
and if our oranges do not pay, we make 
something out of our vegetable crop. We 
follow the diversified plan. We grow 
lots of watermelons, and similar crops, 
and we have made money; good money, 
and done well. 
Vegetable growing should be carried 
on in Florida more like the business of 
Denmark, intensively. 
All land in Florida is not suitable for 
vegetables; all land is not suitable for 
fruit growing. 
I do not think I can say anything fur¬ 
ther that will interest you. 
I will end as I begun, and say that 
the average man shoud have a garden in 
which he grows plenty of vegetables to 
eat and plenty of vegetables in the gar¬ 
den to keep peace and happiness in the 
home. 
VEGETABLE MARKETING. 
C. K. McQuarrie. 
Florida has the unique distinction of 
being for the four or five winter months 
of the year the vegetable garden of the 
Northern States. The industry of vege¬ 
table growing is third in importance, ac¬ 
cording to the list of values of agricultu¬ 
ral products. The latest available source 
along this line of information is the Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture’s report of 1911- 
12. That report gives the vegetable crop 
a value of eight and a quarter million dol¬ 
lars; the citrus crop is valued at over 
eight millions, and the general farm, crops 
at sixteen millions. But, if we add to the 
vegetable crop the enormous amount that 
is lost every year through faulty meth¬ 
ods of marketing, these figures could be 
largely increased. The real question be¬ 
fore the vegetable grower and trucker 
today is not how to grow the crops, 
but how to market them to the 
best advantage when they are ready to 
move. The question of packages, honesty 
in packing, transportation, and marketing 
in such a way as not to overcrowd any 
particular market, are dominant questions 
which are often overlooked. Methods of 
production are really secondary to meth¬ 
ods of marketing, and yet most of our 
vegetable growers lay the strongest stress 
on how to produce the crop. The pro¬ 
duction is really the simplest part. 
The demand by the ultimate consumer 
is large and increasing right along, but 
the lack of proper distribution of their 
products is an evil constantly affecting 
all our vegetable growers. Owing to 
poor distribution and other causes, we are 
