52 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
possible for a long stem to get by my 
men as far as the washer. 
Mr. Skinner—I have heard it said 
that Mr. Sampson puts up the best 
pack in the state, not excepting any. 
I think it will do us a great deal of 
good to listen to these men and learn 
what they have learned by experience. 
The great trouble with me is labor. 
We have to import from ioo to 200 
hands every year and we have to get 
green hands and when you have to deal 
with these fellows and get them to pare 
their finger nails, etc., we are up 
against it. I have one thing in my 
packing house that is of great help to 
me, and that is truck boards. When 
the boxes are nailed up they are set 
on this truck board and we have a 
special truck that is slipped under it, 
and the boxes are moved right into the 
car and are not touched at all. The 
truck board protects the fruit entirely. 
I was struck by a little article I saw 
in the paper not long ago. The writer 
said he set his fruit over some steam 
pipes so that it could not get cold and 
attract outside moisture. He also said 
he washed his fruit with a little sali¬ 
cylic acid, and he said the wounds that 
it had received dried over. I have been 
thinking of that. I use a washer with 
a great deal of satisfaction except 
when the burlap breaks loose, then I 
have a good deal of trouble in getting 
it fixed. I think my washer is the best 
washer there is, but it is necessary to 
have good burlap. 
Mr. Hart—I would like to ask Mr. 
Skinner what becomes of the boards 
he speaks of? 
Mr. Skinner—The fellows that are 
trucking run the truck to the end of 
the car where the man is loading*, and 
he lifts the boxes off and sets them in 
place. The truck boards are thrown 
to the side of the car and a man sets 
his truck under them when a pile ac¬ 
cumulates and carries them back into 
the packing house. 
Mr. Hart—I saw them in California 
used for plums and I thought they 
would be fine for oranges. The point 
I mean to bring out is that you would 
have to handle your oranges once more 
than you would without them. 
Mr. Skinner—We use them when 
the fruit is brought into the packing 
house, in fact, we use them every¬ 
where. You see, our station and pack¬ 
ing house are together. 
Mr. Hart—Most of the trucks that 
are used are so made that the arms are 
so high that it comes right in the mid¬ 
dle of the section where it can do the 
most harm. I think them very bad, 
indeed, to handle fruit. I once put an 
iron bar across them to prevent that, 
but if these boards can be used, I think 
it wise to do so. Do you use one board 
to three boxes? 
Mr. Skinner—Yes. You see, you 
have to have two cleats underneath 
the boards. These cleats fit right over 
the prongs on the truck, and you can 
lift them up and carry them without 
the least difficulty or danger. 
I might speak of another thing. 
Perhaps you are familiar with the Cali¬ 
fornia load. In refrigerator cars espe¬ 
cially it is a fine thing. You put six 
boxes across the car, standing them up 
on end, and there is a space of about 
four inches between each box in an 
ordinary car and six inches in a vent. 
Then two strips are nailed across, 
leaving a vent clear through, each box 
by itself. There is a straight line of 
