46 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
heavy duck apron at the ends, with one 
side nailed down. The box is placed on 
a shelf four inches lower than the table, 
and the grading boss gathers end of 
apron in each hand and holds tight over 
box of fruit while he upsets the box and 
then lifts box off. As the fruit spreads 
out, if it shows long stems, they are cut 
and word is sent to the grove to 
straighten up that picker. 
Have short side benches that hold boxes 
for two grades bright and one russets, 
and cull box under bench and try, and do 
not forget to use cull box. Trucks hold- 
twenty-eight boxes carry graded fruit to 
different piles to cure a couple of days. 
Sizer-hopper has shelf and apron. We 
use sizer made by Alfred Ayer, Ocala, 
that sizes, and is set so that in packing, 
each tier has to have pressure to get last 
row in, and so the box will stand tipping 
at quite an angle before the fruit would 
roll out. 
We use Warner wrapping machines that 
twist paper tight and get box packed tight 
all the way up, and so avoid so much 
pressure on top as box is nailed up. As 
boxes are nailed up they are stood on 
end, two high, and have trucks with n- 
inch axle and wheels inside, so the two 
boxes are put right in place in car without 
further handling. 
We hire by the day, for I fully believe 
that piece-work is responsible for very 
much of the decay; at any rate it is cer¬ 
tainly easier to get the extra care from 
a hand when you are paying him for the 
extra time that may be required; but 
really when once the habit is formed, it 
requires very little more time to handle 
right, but it is certainly a day's work to 
make our hands understand we will have 
careful handling. 
My paper is too long already, but I 
want to say that I think our marketing 
methods must be improved, or our in¬ 
creasing crops will bring us no profit. The 
buyer and packer who did not lose money 
the past season was exceptionally for¬ 
tunate, and, naturally, all will contract 
very carefully this fall. I believe we must 
have a central distributing headquarters 
at Jacksonville, so the crop can be handled 
so as not to have each packer competing 
for every sale in each and every market. 
To handle the present crop in sight, the 
packers ought to get together for thor¬ 
oughly systematic distribution. We ought 
to have very much lower freight rates to 
nearby states. We could then sell fruit 
very good to eat but not quite up to stan¬ 
dard—cheap, and still get more than with 
distant freightage and so relieve the large 
markets of so much off-grade fruit. It 
is the accumulation of off-grade fruit that 
breaks our markets. Our Southland is 
prospering and will take lots of our fruit 
if we could deliver at reasonable freight 
rates. Unless our shippers organize and 
use quite a little judgment, we are likely 
to see our markets go to smash in a hurry 
this fall. The early markets paid so much 
better than the later, the past season, that 
the last one of us will probably think it 
smart to work all night and Sunday, too, 
to swindle someone with our unripe fruit. 
I believe the situation a very serious 
one, needing the most intelligent handl¬ 
ing. If we continue our present policy 
of “each one for himself and the Devil 
take the hindmost,” my judgment goes on 
record right here, that he will get a good 
big bunch of us this fall. 
