FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
55 
ways I have arrived at these positive 
conclusions, and how I am able to talk 
as though these were established facts. 
To answer and prove that I am not 
dreaming or theorizing, I will tell the 
whole story as I know it. 
I have been in Florida twenty-two 
years, and during all of that time have 
been engaged in the growing of fruit, 
and that, too, with very good success 
and results, which I do not complain 
of. But, for the past two or three sea¬ 
sons, I have been convinced that our 
methods were not the best, and that 
the orange growers of California were 
outdoing us, both as to harvesting and 
marketing of their crops. 
On April fourth I decided to go to 
the Pacific coast and investigate, not 
alone for myself, but with the hope of 
benefiting my neighbors as well. By 
appointment with Prof. Tenny, a gov¬ 
ernment employe, I was met at River¬ 
side by Professor Powell, who has 
been engaged, through the Horticul¬ 
tural Department at Washington, for 
the past five years in making a thor¬ 
ough study of conditions existing 
there, and teaching, by a vast number 
of experiments, the growers how to 
correct the evils and errors, which he 
discovered existing there, which were 
many, yes, even more and worse than 
are besetting us at the present time. 
The growing and marketing of their 
oranges was affording almost no profit 
and, in many cases, an actual loss 
to the producer. Their methods of 
harvesting were very crude, and when 
it came to selling their fruit and get¬ 
ting it to market, the results were such 
that a great many of the orange groves 
were abandoned, or cut down and the 
land planted to other crops. It seemed 
impossible for them to get their or¬ 
anges to the Eastern markets without 
their arriving rotten. How to remedy 
matters was the task undertaken by 
Professor Powell, and that, too, almost 
single-handed, for he was supported 
with an appropriation of only $3,500 
annually, out of which he had to meet 
all of his personal expenses, as well as 
to pay his assistants (when he had 
any). This season the appropriation 
is $6,700.00 and he has seven men to 
aid him. It seemed a Herculean task, 
and one almost without hope. But, 
what has been the result, what has this 
one man achieved? How plainly has 
he demonstrated that men, not money, 
are the powers which are moving the 
world at the present time. 
In the first place, he demonstrated 
that the harvesters, and not the trans¬ 
portation companies, were at faidt for 
the rotting of the fruit. Pie showed 
the growers, by actual experiments, 
that in some cases over fifty per cent, 
of their fruit was hopelessly damaged 
before it was delivered to the railroad 
company. This was his first key to% 
the solution of the problem, and. with 
all of his experiments before the grow¬ 
ers, the remedies were easily found, 
and all enterprising growers set about 
jointly to correct and remedy every 
bad feature in the harvesting, until to¬ 
day oranges in California are handled 
with the same care as eggs. And 
claims upon the transportation have 
been reduced about seventy-five per 
cent. 
Next, as to the methods of market¬ 
ing, and the organization known as the 
California Fruit Exchange, which is 
today, I believe, the most thorough 
business organization in the United 
