FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
125 
Mr. Hume: Wasn’t it Mr. Proutv 
J 
who referred to the railroading? 
Mr. Prouty: I do not believe I ever 
used the word ‘‘railroading’’ in my life. 
Mr. Hume: Those in favor of the 
resolution, will please stand up. 
(Resolution adopted.) 
BRIEF OF WM. CHASE TEMPLE. 
Tampa, Fla. January ioth, 1913. 
To the Honorable Committee on Ways 
and Means, House of Representatives, 
United States of America } Washing¬ 
ton, D. C .: 
William Chase Temple, of Tampa, 
Florida, temporary address, New Wil¬ 
lard, Washington, D. C. } appears as the 
accredited representative of the Florida 
Citrus Exchange, a co-operative, non¬ 
profit association of Florida citrus grow¬ 
ers, organized under the laws of the 
State of Florida, and also as the accred¬ 
ited representative of the Board of Trade 
of Tampa, Florida^ with a prayer to the 
Committee on Ways and Means of the 
House of Representatives that the pres¬ 
ent tariff on citrus fruits be permitted to 
remain as it is and unchanged, alleging 
that while in five years from the present 
time a reduction of the citrus tariff 
might be possible, that at the present 
time any material reduction in said tar¬ 
iff would mean the destruction and aban¬ 
donment of the Florida citrus industry, 
which industry represents an investment 
of nearly one hundred million dollars, 
and an annual value of product of six¬ 
teen million dollars at the present time, 
with a sufficient 'citrus fruit producing 
capacity in acreage now planted to 
amount to fifty million dollars annually. 
The citrus industry of Florida, as a 
commercial enterprise^ dates back to the 
late seventies of the past century, the 
first semi-official statistics showing that 
Florida’s production of citrus fruit of 
which record was made was 1884-5, a t 
which time there were six hundred thous¬ 
and boxes produced. (See California 
State Board of Agriculture Report of 
1911.) This increased steadily to the 
season of 1893-4, when four and a quar¬ 
ter million boxes were shipped from the 
State of Florida. The crop of 1S94-5 
was variously estimated at from five to 
six million boxes, but practically the en¬ 
tire crop left on the trees the 28th day of 
December, 1894, was destroyed by freeze, 
and so many of the trees were destroyed 
that the crop the succeeding year, 1895- 
6, was only 147,000 boxes. This con¬ 
tinued to increase gradually up to the 
present time, and it is estimated that the 
crop 1912-13 will amount to eight mil¬ 
lion boxes of citrus fruits, having a value 
estimated at sixteen million dollars, f. 
o. b. cars packing houses, in Florida. 
No close estimate of the acreage plant¬ 
ed to citrus fruits in the State has ever 
been kept, but from the best sources of 
information available, it appears that in 
1908 there were at that time sixty thous¬ 
and acres of citrus trees growing in Flor- 
