68 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
through a commission man, who is 
going to get a profit from both sides? 
Down where I am, there used to be 
a large number of alligators. All we 
knew how to do with the alligator 
skins was to buy them and ship them 
to commission men. Of course, freight 
would be so much, commission so 
much, available portions of the skin so 
much, and we never could tell just 
what we were going to get for them. 
Now we don't have to do this. I 
have here a letter from a certain firm 
who are getting alligator skins direct 
from the merchants. They guarantee 
us a certain price for a given length 
of skins. 
I think that nine-tenths of the fruit 
and vegetable growers patronize the 
commission business; perhaps even a 
larger percentage. The Bible says, 
“Lead us not into temptation.” This 
commission business will lead us to do 
wrong, and it certainly leads the com¬ 
mission man into temptation. I have 
known many a commission man who 
had enough consignments in one sea¬ 
son to set him up in business. And, 
as I have said all along, though the 
time may have been when the com¬ 
mission man was necessary, that time 
is past, and it is up to us to discover 
some way that we can get along with¬ 
out dealing with him. 
One man sent well-gotten-up letters 
and quotations to all the growers in 
South Florida and offered the ship¬ 
ping agent at Sarasota a large per¬ 
centage of his commission to solicit 
consignments for him. A lot of our 
most intelligent shippers sent oranges 
to him. He sent quick returns and 
large checks, which caused us to think 
that he was all right and we shipped 
him more oranges, but his checks 
proved to be of no value. Mr. Mont¬ 
gomery, of Palmetto, Fla., let one of 
his checks go to protest and employed 
a lawyer in the city where the com¬ 
mission man was located to try to col- 
lect something, but he failed. Then 
I reported him to the Post Office De¬ 
partment for using the mails for 
fraudulent purposes. His case was 
presented to the United States Court 
at Macon, Ga., but they neglected to 
subpoena the witnesses to go before 
the grand jury until the statute of 
limitation was nearly out and then 
they did not give us time enough. I 
was the only witness that got there 
in time and they said that one witness 
was not enough and that the time was 
too near out for them to subpoena us 
again on that complaint, but that he 
had been reported later by a man near 
Jacksonville, iwhjich wtould gave us an¬ 
other chance. The next time, my sub¬ 
poena got to my postoffice the day that 
I was to be in Macon. I sent them a 
telegram at once that I would be there 
and took the first train, but when I 
got there the grand jury had ad¬ 
journed, so the whole thing was lost 
and nothing accomplished. 
