144 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
nus of a long drought shows a moisture 
content in cultivated soil equal to 
inches of rainfall, or 175 tons of water 
per acre. More than that found in the 
soil not cultivated during the same pe¬ 
riod in a depth of soil through which 
the roots feed and secure their water 
supply. Continuous surface cultivation 
is important while the plant is grow¬ 
ing, otherwise a tremendous waste of 
water or moisture will occur at the ex¬ 
pense of the crop. 
OUR WASTED PRODUCTS. 
It is hardly necessary to call atten¬ 
tion to the enormous waste sustained 
each year by truckers and fruit grow¬ 
ers from our lack of canneries, to use 
up surplus production. Take the trou¬ 
ble, if you will, to examine the pack¬ 
ages that reach us through our grocery 
stores put up by New York and other 
Northern canneries, and often filled 
with our own products. After these 
second-grade products reach these 
Northern markets a greater profit is 
realized by putting them up in quart 
cans and then distributing it through¬ 
out the United States and even into 
European countries. 
There is not a trucking or fruit¬ 
growing section of Florida but that 
wastes tons of valuable products that 
would reach the high-class markets if 
they were put into air-tight cans in the 
proper condition, properly labeled and 
distributed. 
We have expensive packing citrus 
houses conducted on a larger scale and 
could not get along without them. Per¬ 
haps we are contented with our present 
profits, but we are not seizing our pos¬ 
sibilities so long as we permit the thou¬ 
sands of tons of vegetables to go to 
waste as we do at present and for want 
of canneries in these sections. 
I cannot better illustrate this tre¬ 
mendous waste than refer to a corre¬ 
sponding waste once permitted in our 
meat packing industries, and which 
now, under more economical manage¬ 
ment, make up the bulk of profits in 
the business. 
We are just dawning the horizon of 
our possibilities for vegetable growing 
in Florida. As Florida fills with peo¬ 
ple and all her land cultivated, the de¬ 
mand for all her products will increase, 
but with more and stronger competi¬ 
tion we cannot continue to make the 
business profitable unless most eco¬ 
nomical methods replace our present 
wasteful ones. 
