FLORIDA ,STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
9i 
a car of fruit in any of the large cities 
for as much at private sale as it will 
bring at auction. For this reason, prac¬ 
tically all California fruits are sold at 
auction, where there is an auction. We 
have the spectacle in Florida of oper¬ 
ators inveighing against auction and 
holding the Exchange up to execration, 
because it has the honesty to use auc¬ 
tion in auction points, while these oper¬ 
ators use the same auctions persist¬ 
ently, but under cover, having their 
wares sold by commission concerns, or 
brokers, at auction. I know of in¬ 
stances where this has been done, 
where the auction charges were de¬ 
ducted from the gross sales, the seller 
receiving ioc per box for his services, 
and the net returns sent to the Florida 
agency who sold it under contract for 
the grower for ioc per box brokerage 
which it takes out; the grower having 
the understanding that ioc per box 
covered all charges which he was ex¬ 
pected to pay, and so far as he knew, 
was all that he did pay. But he was 
an “independent.” How glorious that 
word sounds! and yet, only he who is 
in the Exchange is independent. There 
is the joke; the outsider has been made 
to think that flying around loose like a 
piece of chaff, disconnected, tossed by 
the winds of adversity, he is independ¬ 
ent. So he is, poor devil, just as inde¬ 
pendent as that chaff; just as valuable 
to himself and his neighbors. He has 
not yet learned that independent effort 
on his part is to succeed only in co¬ 
operation with his fellow growers in 
systematizing the production, prepara¬ 
tion, and marketing of his crops. 
I want to hear less rot in future 
about this auction proposition. Do you 
suppose that a man is coming down 
here and look your fruit over and give 
you as much as you could get if you 
had a selling power behind you? Do 
you suppose any concern in the mar¬ 
kets can send a man here and pay his 
expenses and take all the chances of a 
fluctuating market unless he gets a 
substantial margin of profit? He can’t 
do it. He is making a good profit that 
should be yours. 
Now, about the tree sale. Sales on 
the trees are made to speculators, and 
must be at less than prevailing prices 
at time of sale. It is these sales that 
force prices down in the markets. 
They are usually made to local brokers 
whose continuance depends upon the 
cheapness with which they can supply 
the dealer who would otherwise buy 
from the Exchange. Now, that is the 
thing that tears your market all to 
pieces. The tree sale is one of the 
most disastrous things in Flordia. 
Someone said to me last night that 
they had never known as many oranges 
to be shipped as late in the season. Do 
you know who has suggested this to 
the growers in this State, and who have 
held their fruit for the market? The 
Florida Citrus Exchange and its mem¬ 
bers, and no other. When the Florida 
Citrus Exchange advised holding the 
fruit, there was a good deal of dissatis¬ 
faction with some growers. Everyone 
else in the Stae was rushing their fruit 
out. What was the condition in Phil¬ 
adelphia? On a recent visit Mr. 
Skelly said the market was more than 
