FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
105 
is a wonderful thing to sit in their office 
out in Los Angeles and see how they 
know the exact condition of every mar¬ 
ket, how they can put their finger on ev¬ 
ery car that is between California and the 
Atlantic Ocean, guage almost to a car¬ 
load what this market will take withouv 
the price being lowered, and taking away 
a little here where there is too much, to 
hurry it across several states perhaps, 
where there is not cpiite enough. 
The Board of Directors are representa¬ 
tive business men from every orange 
growing section in California. 
Now, those people out there know that 
the quantity of oranges going into the 
markets is getting to be enormous. They 
know that in the next six or seven years 
the present output will be greatly increas¬ 
ed'; therefore their far-sightedness is such 
that they are already beginning to> work 
on the consumer. They have commenced 
newspaper and magazine advertising that 
will bring the matter right before plain 
John Smith and his wife, so that it will 
create a desire in them to have oranges 
on their tables. They took the State of 
Iowa and put aside $—*-for ad¬ 
vertising. They don’t work on the job¬ 
bing trade nor on the retailer. They went 
right to work on the consumer, and are 
making him desire it, and they have in¬ 
creased the consumption in the State of 
Iowa about 50 per cent, the first year. 
They have appropriated money out of the 
common fund to increase the consumption 
in that way. These people are right up- 
to-date—in this instance you might say 
they are ahead of time, and they know 
what judicious advertising does. 
It is going to take lots of time and 
long-continued efforts to bring order out 
of the chaos into which the Florida or¬ 
ange growers have fallen; perhaps it is 
not so much chaotic as lethargic. We have 
needed an awakening for some time; last 
winter’s prices showed how much. It is 
going to mean spending money; it is go¬ 
ing to mean co-operation, but for every 
cent that is spent I believe you will get 
a dollar in return. Above all things it 
means co-operation, one and all. 
Out theie they do business by encour- 
aging the small buyer just as much as anv 
other; they give him just as good price’s 
on a one-car lot as on several; they give 
him just as much advantage of market 
conditions and just as good grades and 
brands for the money as they give the 
twenty or fifty car man, because the 
small buyer is always ready to do busi¬ 
ness for a little less than the big one. 
Now about selling direct to the consumer, 
I have heard Mr. Chase talk about this.' 
1 think there is but one way to do this, 
and that is to go into the store business in 
every city. That would mean a good deal, 
and I don’t think we are prepared to' fol¬ 
low. The thing is to try to introduce the 
genei al use of the fruit into the small 
communities. Because a small dealer is 
poor is no reason why we should try to 
keep him poor. 
The independents use the auction to 
some extent. This is the final court of 
reckoning for all the California product. 
They may have peddled it across the 
country and finally wound up there. They 
never sell privately in any market, that 
is, the Exchange does not where there 
is an auction. In those markets where 
there is a fruit auction they do not sell 
outside. 
