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FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
88 
man used to take up about two hours 
of Mr. Temple’s time every day talking 
about his troubles. Finally we told 
him we would take him under a special 
contract. He got up a car of oranges 
and grapefruit and we sold it at $2.75 
for the grapefruit and $2.00 f. o. b. for 
the oranges, and he kicked because he 
thought he ought to have $3.00 and 
$2.25. Then the green fruit got on the 
market, and we could see the market 
sliding down the toboggan. He was in 
a terrible stew. He said he had to get 
his fruit off. We suggested his holding 
it. He was afraid of a freeze, and 
thought he had rather take the chances 
on the market than on a freeze. He 
moved three cars and he got, I think, 
30c on the tree for it. He never came 
back to see us. He was independent. 
He signed a new contract with an inde¬ 
pendent . . We are going to bring suit 
against him for violation of his con¬ 
tract, and we will see how independent 
he is. His car of grapefruit shipped by 
the independent froze at Pueblo. Then 
he comes in again and says: “Here is 
an account sale, a car of oranges 
shipped such and such date; $315.00, 
less ioc a box brokerage; that is all 
there is on it. Now, I don’t know 
whether that fellow (the other inde¬ 
pendent) is stealing my money or not. 
All I know is just what he says on that 
paper. When the Exchange sold my 
fruit I did know where it was sold and 
what it was sold for.” 
The funny part of it is, the man says 
the fruit belongs to his wife. If we 
sue him for violation of contract, we 
will get him, and if he brings out that 
the fruit belongs to his wife, he will be 
sued for disposing of something that 
did not belong to him. I feel sorry for 
that “independent.” 
Another man, right by the side of 
him—his neighbor—came into my of¬ 
fice, and said: “So-and-so signed with 
So-and-so, and violated his contract, 
and the president of the Association 
owns the packing house, and he has 
made a contract to put up that fruit, 
and if we want to get our fruit off, we 
can’t. I told them I was going to 
kick.” He went on to say: “I am a 
loyal Exchange man. I know if the 
Exchange does not succeed, that my 
twenty years of hard work is lost; but I 
must get a dollar a box on the tree for 
my fruit.” I told him we could not 
promise that, but would promise the 
market. This man came in about a 
month later, and stuck his head in the 
door. He said: “I got a dollar on the 
tree and $300.00 over.” There wasn’t 
a man in the Association who did not 
double the independent’s price on the 
tree. 
I don’t know what the independent 
is going to do; he is an awfully inde¬ 
pendent fellow. 
The keynote of this whole proposi¬ 
tion is proper grading, packing and 
handling, so far as the Florida end of 
it is concerned. Dr. Inman used to 
say we are all in the kindergarten. As 
I stated at Gainesville, I think the great 
majority of us have not got in the kin¬ 
dergarten yet. When we see the door^ 
