FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
7i 
etc., would amount to 15 y 2 cents per box 
to put up a grade and pack that has dem¬ 
onstrated by the markets of this year will 
sell for 40 to 50 cents a box above the 
market for similar fruit, at all times. 
Now, the supreme test of any propo¬ 
sition like this is, does it pay? The 
markets carry their own answer to this 
question. When the Winter Park Asso¬ 
ciation began shipping its fruit in Dec¬ 
ember, 1909, under its standard Associ¬ 
ation brands of “Angel,” “Bull-Dog” and 
“Camel,” it received no preference in 
price. By the middle of January these 
three brands were leading the markets by 
from 40 to 60 cents a box, for fruit of 
their class. 
I am pleased to state that the result of 
the operation of this “Model” packing 
house during the season of 1909-10, dem¬ 
onstrated to a sufficient number of the 
progressive growers in the State of Flor¬ 
ida that the only way to prepare citrus 
fruits for market was the Right Way, 
and to-day the nine associations compris¬ 
ing the Orange County Citrus Exchange 
have, with only one exception, remodeled 
their packing houses, have put in wash¬ 
ing machines, drying machinery, grading 
belts, and have gone so far towards per¬ 
fecting their handling of the fruit that 
the Orange County packs will average at 
least 50 per cent better than the preced¬ 
ing season. 
The Tampa Citrus Growers’ Associa¬ 
tion have also built a model packing 
house, with a capacity of four cars of 
fruit a day, that is designed and operated 
in a way to produce the equal in every 
respect of the Winter Park pack; and the 
house is in charge of Mr. Bert Morrill, 
who is the manager of the Tampa Asso¬ 
ciation, and was, previous to his coming 
here, superintendent of the famous “Ele¬ 
phant” house in California, with whose 
product you are probably all familiar, as 
they were the first people to ever put the 
little sticker, with the picture of an ele¬ 
phant on every orange they packed in 
their house. 
In addition to these examples, there are 
between forty and fifty other packing 
houses in the State that have added im¬ 
proved machinery ^ following as closely in 
the steps of the Winter Park practice as 
their available means will allow, and we 
are pleased to note the dawning of a 
brighter and better day for the prepara¬ 
tion of the entire Florida citrus crop for 
the market; and when the time comes that 
our entire crop is as well handled as the 
California crops have been, the trade at 
large will be surprised to learn that the 
Florida orange, notwithstanding its thin, 
fine-grained skin and very high percent¬ 
age of juice, will carry as well and as far 
as, and keep better than any orange rais¬ 
ed in the world. 
Moreover, a series of experiments 
made in more than sixty different cities 
in the United States this present season, 
in comparing the juice contents of the 
Florida orange with the California navel 
—the experiment consisting of taking a 
California naval, of the 150 size, and the 
ordinary Florida orange of the 150 size, 
carefully squeezing and straining the 
juice from each into glasses of similar 
size and shape—have demonstrated that 
the average juice contents of the Florida 
orange this year (with probably the poor¬ 
est Florida oranges, and certainly the 
best California oranges, that have been 
shipped in many years) is 42 per cent in 
