50 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
By W. E. Bryan. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
Starting at the beginning of the sea¬ 
son the first problem is the packing of 
fruit that is not thoroughly mature; this 
fruit requires to be kept in the packing¬ 
house several days until the water in the 
rind has sweated out. If this is not done 
before the fruit is packed it will sweat 
in the box and undoubtedly cause decay, 
which will not develop until after it has 
left the packing house, and the grower 
will often be astounded when he gets a 
letter from his commission merchant in¬ 
forming him 'that his fruit, 'which he 
knows left his packing-house in good or¬ 
der and condition, has arrived in bad or¬ 
der, and has had to be sold at a sacrifice. 
The grower often thinks the commis¬ 
sion merchant is deceiving him and try¬ 
ing to cheat him when the true reason 
is found in the fact that the fruit having 
sweated in the box, has caused the wrap¬ 
ping paper to become thoroughly wet and 
the whole contents of the box are in a 
very moist state, which is a condition 
highly conducive to very rapid decay. 
Let us beware, then, of shipping or¬ 
anges with moisture in the rind. 
SIZING AND GRADING ORANGES. 
When packing fruit it is well to re¬ 
member that most of our fruit is packed 
to be sold to some stranger, who in turn 
will probably sell to somebody else; there¬ 
fore it is necessary that he should have 
some idea of how many oranges he is 
getting in each box and of what quality 
they are. The number and grade, then, 
should be put on each box plainly and 
the contents should be strictly accord¬ 
ing to stenciling both in number and in 
grade. Any irregularity in this respect 
will make the buyer suspicious of the 
fruit not being equal to the markings 
and in future buying lie will feel unwill¬ 
ing to pay full market prices, and hold a 
general distrust of orange packers. It 
is necessary, if each person concerned in 
marketing oranges is to' get their full 
quota of profit, that each and every one 
does his share of the work and that all 
should be in sympathy. When all can 
be trusted there is an economy in the 
marketing that should be an extra profit 
to all concerned. I have known of well- 
known brands of fruit fetching higher 
prices because it was known to be exactly 
as represented by the markings on the 
box. Such fruit often passes through the 
hands of the middlemen without the de¬ 
lay and cost of inspection. 
Let us, then, be careful to mark and 
grade our fruit correctly. 
PROPER PACKING. 
One of the worst features of poor or¬ 
ange packing is the putting of too much 
fruit in the box; in some instances so 
much is put in as to cause the top and 
sides to bulge out. This is done to such 
an extent that the top of the box cannot 
be nailed in the middle; the fruit in such 
a packed box is nearly sure to be very 
much bruised by pressure from other 
packages in transit and from handling. 
If dealers find much damaged fruit 
in their purchases, they have to sell the 
good fruit at .very advanced prices to 
make their purchase profitable, and thus 
materially restrict the consumption of or¬ 
anges, which restriction results in glut¬ 
ted markets and poor returns to the 
grower, whilst the consumer is complain¬ 
ing of the high price of retail oranges. 
