FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
57 
A very small proportion of the Cali¬ 
fornia fruit is re-shipped from point to 
point, as the Florida fruit is. The Cali¬ 
fornia rates are all made to Denver, 
Colorado, and beyond. It costs no 
more for them to place a car in Boston 
than in Denver, freight the same to 
all points east of that city. 
Shall I tell you how the labor is 
done by the Californians ? This might 
be of interest and may be a help to 
you in getting down to a proper way 
of doing the work, with the object in 
view of correcting the present errors 
and abuses. 
To begin with, all labor is employed 
by the day, except the wrapping of 
the fruit. This work is nearly all done 
by women, and the price per box is 
two and one-half (2J4) to three cents. 
In all packing houses which I visited 
they were paying two and one-half 
cents per box. The picking is done 
by man, not expert pickers such as we 
employ, but Mexicans, Chinese, Japs, 
Indians or white men, under the eyes 
of a Superintendent, whom they must 
obey to the letter and in the proper 
spirit. This field superintendent is sup¬ 
plied by the association for which the 
work is being done, and all gathering 
must be done under the supervision 
of their officers, and not according to 
the taste or ways of the growers, for 
here is the beginning of the careful 
work, and of very vital importance, 
for an error here is past remedying. 
We cannot patch up a damaged or¬ 
ange. 
Hauling.—This is all done upon 
spring wagons, and the field boxes are 
carefully set upon the wagon and when 
taken off are carefully set down, not 
shoved or thrown. They never use a 
field box larger than a common orange 
box, and they fill these boxes about 
two-thirds full and carry about sev¬ 
enty-five to ninety boxes upon each 
wagon. 
I am asked how it would be possible 
for us to form such an organization 
in Florida, where our matters are in 
such a state of confusion. You say 
that it would not be possible to get a 
sufficient number of growers to unite 
to control a majority of the fruit; too 
many firms and individuals with pri¬ 
vate interests would oppose and work 
against us. Yes, they would do their 
best; but we would not need any cer¬ 
tain percentage of the fruit. The prin¬ 
cipal object should be to do the work 
in such a manner and at such a saving, 
and show such results, that the ques¬ 
tion would be not as to who wished 
to join the associations, but as to who 
the associations would take in; for all 
who become members of the Exchange 
have to submit to the positive rules 
of the same. Remember, and do not 
confound the terms Exchange with 
that of associations. The latter is 
made up of an association of neigh¬ 
bors for the better gathering and 
packing of their crops. The Exchange 
is composed of representatives, one 
from each Association. Every grower 
is in reality a member of the Ex¬ 
change. How could we proceed to or¬ 
ganize an Exchange? What steps 
should we take? To this I will say 
that nearly all present are orange 
growers, and among us we have a 
large number of enterprising, loyal 
men who could be appointed by this 
Society for the purpose of forming an 
organization. They would proceed as 
follows: Say three be chosen to go 
