FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
53 
boxes from one end of the car to the 
other. The cost of the stripping 
never exceeds $1.25. To show you 
how well it holds, I had a car handled 
by the Atlantic Coast Line in its 
usual careful way. They were going 
about forty miles an hour when a 
wreck occurred. That car turned over 
on its side and rolled down a hill. How¬ 
ever, each layer of boxes settled down 
against the next one, and only about 
six boxes in the car were broken. 
I think Dr. Inman might be able to 
tell us a good deal along this line, if he 
will. 
Mr. Inman—Mr. President, Ladies 
and Gentlemen: Had I known that I 
would be called upon, I might have 
formulated some ideas which would be 
of interest to my fellow fruit growers. 
I am not a good talker, and if I had 
any ideas, I fear that I cannot present 
them in a very interesting way. But 
I can probably tell the story as it ap¬ 
pears to me. . 
First, let us cast about and take an 
inventory of what we are doing in the 
way of growing and harvesting citrus 
fruits in Florida. Are we producing 
as much or of as good quality of fruit 
as we should do? And after it is 
grown, are our methods of harvesting 
in keeping with the spirit and pro¬ 
gress of the times? I am free to say 
that we are growing but little over 
one-half of the fruit that the groves of 
the state are capable of producing un¬ 
der a more through system of care and 
cultivation. But, upon this subject I 
do not propose to dwell, as it, within 
itself, would require a volume. How¬ 
ever, I will say right here that I have 
visited a good part of the world where 
citrus fruits are grown, and have come 
to the conclusion that, so far as I have 
seen or acquired knowledge of, there 
is no country or region which affords 
the advantages for the growing of or¬ 
anges, tangerines and grapefruit that 
we possess right here in Florida; no 
place where fruit grows to such perfec¬ 
tion or the groves produce so abun¬ 
dantly, and no place where an enter¬ 
prising man can engage in the busi¬ 
ness with the same certainty of being 
well compensated for his labors. 
Harvesting.—This is one of the all- 
absorbing subjects of the day, and the 
one demanding the most thorough in¬ 
vestigation and thought, followed by 
energetic action upon the part of every 
one engaged in the fruit-growing in¬ 
dustry. Our careless and rough hand¬ 
ling is costing the state thousands, yes, 
hundreds of thousands, of dollars every 
year. I make the assertion that fully 
ninety per cent, of the Florida fruit 
which arrives in market in bad order 
is attributable to careless clipping and 
careless handling. All of us flatter 
ourselves that we are taking extra 
pains and doing better than our neigh¬ 
bors, and that if our fruit does not reach 
its destination sound, the fault lies with 
the transportation companies and not 
with us; when, if the truth were 
known, fully one-fourth of the oranges 
were either punctured by the clippers, 
scratched by the finger nails or bruised 
by dropping, jamming against the lad¬ 
ders, pouring into the field boxes, 
rought treatment by teamsters, empty¬ 
ing and piling up in the hoppers, or 
falling from the sizers into packing 
bins. All of these matters seem to be 
of small moment until they are care¬ 
fully looked into. When that is done, 
the result is simply astounding. We 
