58 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
to California and fully familiarize 
themselves with the workings of their 
Exchanges and Associations. The 
Californians send you through me an 
invitation to come there, and they will 
warmly welcome and aid you. Get a 
copy of their Articles of Incorporation. 
The California Fruit Exchange is an 
open book, and they are with us and 
are very anxious that we organize, 
which would mean much to them, and 
do away with our glutting and ruin¬ 
ing every market within our reach. 
You never hear of a glut of California 
oranges. They were willing to give 
me a copy of their Articles of Incor¬ 
poration, which I have, also by-laws 
governing several of their associations. 
This Committee would return and re¬ 
port to their fellow members. The 
next step would be to secure a lec¬ 
turer and organizer—a teacher; the 
same one who did the work (or nearly 
all of it) for the Californians. (I was 
told by their President he thought he 
could be had.) Set him at work and 
as soon as half a dozen neighborhood 
organizations were effected, proceed 
to incorporate the Florida Fruit Ex¬ 
change. And, by the way, we have 
now in this state quite a number of 
these local organizations, which are 
ready and waiting to organize an Ex¬ 
change. This work would go on very 
rapidly and with a positiveness of suc¬ 
cess, as we would have all of the ex¬ 
perience of our California neighbors, 
the full benefits of their system, from 
beginning to end, which has cost them 
thousands of dollars and five years of 
hard work. 
After a great deal of study, I am 
in favor of an organization in Florida, 
with the California organization as 
our pattern. We must do this if we 
wish to remain in the fruit-growing 
business for profit; if we wish to avoid 
the greater calamity which confronts 
us. Conditions are becoming worse 
every season, and the coming season 
will experience worse gluts and rot- 
outs in the markets than ever before. 
Not that there is too much fruit; no. 
We cannot grow too much fruit. That 
is not the trouble, and is not a fault 
to be remedied. The faults are these: 
Too great an expense is allowed to ac¬ 
cumulate upon our fruit between the 
tree and the consumer. This is an 
old song, but we are going to remedy 
it. I speak again with positiveness, 
for where our pocketbooks are 
touched, the same thrust pierces our 
hearts also. 
We are going to organize and that, 
too, soon. The time is at hand, and 
within five years seventy-five per cent, 
of our crop will be handled in a busi¬ 
ness way, and the same per cent, of 
our expenses will be cut off. 
It may seem like a big undertaking 
to get us in line, but it would not 
be. But it must be done by men with 
an honest and pure motive, with no 
graft to be anticipated, for none can 
exist. If I were a young and strong 
man, I would be only too glad to do 
this work for the good of our state, 
and could do it with but very little 
money to start with. 
Dr. Richardson—I have been very 
much interested in these papers and 
the discussions. While they have all 
been instructive and beneficial, it does 
not seem to me that any suggestion 
has reached the bottom of the situa¬ 
tion. What the Harts and Sampsons 
and Inmans and the rest of the men 
