Is Decay of Oranges in Transit Necessary? 
* 
By Lloyd S. Tenny, 
(Pomologist, U. S Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.) 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
The ultimate end of commercial fruit 
growing is to make money. With a very 
limited supply and a large demand for 
any particular fruit, no difficulty is found 
in realizing this end. This has been true 
in the citrus industry. But with the 
growth of refrigeration and the extension 
of the railroads, production has increased, 
and the tendency is for profits to dimin¬ 
ish. There comes a time finally when 
the minutest details must be looked after 
in order that the profits may be large 
enough to keep the industry alive. 
In 1894 when Florida reached high 
water mark in citrus production, South¬ 
ern California was shipping annually less 
than two million boxes of oranges and 
lemons. The Tulare district in Cali¬ 
fornia was then unplanted. Shipments 
from Cuba and Porto Rico were so few 
as to influence but little the market con¬ 
ditions. Then came the freeze and Flor¬ 
ida was practically eliminated for the 
time being as a large producing state. 
Fourteen years have passed and once 
again Florida looks forward to a rec¬ 
ord-breaking crop. During these years, 
however, great changes have been made 
in the orange producing sections. South¬ 
ern California is, this year, shipping 
nearly or quite 30 thousand cars or over 
11 million boxes of oranges and lemons. 
Tulare county has now an annual pro¬ 
duction of about two thousand cars; new 
plantings have been made which, under 
favorable condition, may increase the 
production in that section to 10 thousand 
cars, or about four million boxes. Cuba 
has been pushing forward in its planting, 
and while no reliable information is at 
hand, doubtless between 8 and 10 thou¬ 
sand acres have been planted. Porto 
Rico, also, has extensive plantings that 
run up into the thousands of acres. I do 
not wish to discourage you orange grow¬ 
ers, or to make you think there will be 
no market for your fruit. With the in¬ 
crease of production, there has come a 
large increase of demand. Hundreds of 
small towns over the country that now 
have oranges in their stores throughout 
the season scarcely saw a box of the fruit 
in 1894. The quantity eaten in. the large 
cities has also been very largely increased 
during these years. It is safe to say 
that with a proper distribution of the 
fruit, fair profits might be made by all 
growers, provided only the fruit could he 
placed on the market in a sound condi¬ 
tion, and with a feeling in the minds of 
the buyers that they could hold the fruit 
ten days or two weeks with only a rea¬ 
sonable amount of decay. 
This leads us to ask the question, “Is 
it necessary to have decay of oranges in 
transit ?” or “What is the length of time 
that oranges should be expected to keep 
after being packed ?” 
Two years ago the Department of Ag- 
