90 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
with the producing of it, nothing to do 
with the management of the Associa¬ 
tions, but merely to look after the sale 
of their product, and with the machin¬ 
ery for doing it. That is all the Ex¬ 
change is, and that brings it right back 
to the grower. The grower IS the 
Association. It is hard for some of the 
people to understand that. It is the 
hardest matter in the world for them to 
understand that Mr. Temple and Mr. 
Burton are not the whole thing. They 
are two little cogs in the wheel, and if 
they were to snap off, they would be 
replaced tomorrow, and the machinery 
go forward just as smoothly. But, my 
friends, if the growers drop out, they 
are the wheels that make the machin¬ 
ery go, and if they drop out and are 
not replaced, the machinery stops right 
there. 
There has been a great deal said in 
the State about auction. In the last 
two years I have had a good deal to 
say about auction myself, and I will 
tell you why I have had it to say: Be¬ 
cause the natural way to sell fruit is at 
auction. Wherever there is a market 
large enough for an auction, there 
should be one—where a man who can 
buy five or ten or a hundred boxes of 
fruit can go and buy it at public sale. 
At an auction, where there are any- 
« 
where from two to ten times the num¬ 
ber of bidders that there are people in 
this room, some Italian, some Ger¬ 
mans, some French, Russian, and dif¬ 
ferent nationalities, there is bound to 
be spirited bidding, and there is where 
you get the best price for your fruit. 
These fruit dealers are quick to appre¬ 
ciate points of vantage to themselves, 
and prefer buying at auction because 
they see what is going on, and that each 
one has an equal show, provided the 
auction is an open one and on the 
square. There have been a few stock 
arguments used by the pot-hunters for 
years about auctions. One of the first 
that I ever heard is as fresh and active 
today as in days of yore, which is, that 
buyers get together in the auction 
room and combine to pay only a low 
price; when, as a matter of fact, there 
are gathered together in an auction 
room many buyers whose daily busi¬ 
ness it is to attend the auction and buy 
supplies for therselves, their employ¬ 
ers, or on brokerage for out-of-town 
dealers. The spirit of rivalry is keen; 
there is no time for combinations, nor 
is there any inclination. Each buyer is 
trying to buy what he wants and to 
prevent his competitor from buying 
cheaper than he. Many bloodless bat¬ 
tles are fought on the floor of the auc¬ 
tion room, when the competitors have 
forced each other to pay more than 
either expected to pay. It’s the spirit 
of rivalry. In every open auction room 
there are representatives from many 
nationalities, each feeling more or less 
hostile toward others—a motley crew. 
They are wholesalers, retailers, ped¬ 
dlers and brokers, each trying to earn 
his daily bread. They are bidding 
prices up all the time, while at private 
sale the tendency is downward. The 
buyer has the advantage at private 
sale. It is practically impossible to sell 
