48 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ange may injure several others in the 
course of handling and packing. 
Is it possible to handle oranges care¬ 
fully enough on a commercial scale to 
eliminate injury? I find that there was 
considerable discussion on this point aft¬ 
er the reading of Mr. Tenny’s first pa¬ 
per before this society. Many of the 
growers seemed to doubt that it would 
be practicable under Florida conditions 
to handle without injury. The best an¬ 
swer to the question is the fact that it is 
being done, not only in California, but 
in Florida also. 
The accompanying table shows the rec¬ 
ords obtained last season in different 
packing houses. 
Table IT. Percentages of Clipper Cut Oranges and 
Cong Stems in Different Packing Houses, 1909-10. 
Clipper Other Long 
Cuts Injuries Stems 
Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. 
General average. 3.25 9.9 7.3 
Houses separately 1.1.1 ... 1.0 
2 . 2.7 6.6 2.7 
3 .4.2 1.1 3.5 
4 .4.5 ... 4.2 
5 . 5.0 7.4 3.6 
6 .5.0 ... 4.3 
7 . 4.8 2.0 7.4 
8 .1.3 ... 8.7 
9 .3.9 ... 2.0 
10.4.0 ... 19.2 
The figures show a very wide range. 
Some are very low and below the aver¬ 
age. The range is from i per cent, clip¬ 
per cuts to 5 per cent. The range of long 
stem percentages is still greater running 
from i per cent to 19 per cent. In two 
instances both the clipper cut and long 
stem percentages are very low, showing 
very good work being done. In a num¬ 
ber of cases, however, the reduction of 
clipper cutting seems to have been ob¬ 
tained at the expense of making long 
stems. This must be avoided. In Cal¬ 
ifornia the rule of making two cuts to 
every orange not in plain sight has been 
adopted. This results both in the reduc¬ 
tion of long stems and clipper cuts and 
also does away with the picker dropping 
the fruit directly from the tree into the 
bag or basket. 
The following table shows the records 
of a picking gang at the beginning of 
the season and later after the inspections 
and instruction of the government work¬ 
ers had their effect. The table also 
shows the results obtained in the same 
district by a grower who insisted on do¬ 
ing his own picking and another record 
of fruit picked by a gang working under 
the box-payment plan. 
Table III. OraDge Picking in One Locality in Flor¬ 
ida, 1909-10. 
Clipper cuts. Long stems. 
Per cent. Per cent. 
Commercial picking, before instruc¬ 
tion, careless.5.5 4.0 
Same gang as above, after instruc¬ 
tion, careful .1.3 1.0 
Picked by owner . 7.0 20.0 
Picking by the box . 9.8 23.7 
The figures hardly require explanation. 
They show that it is possible to get good 
work done. Everything depends on the 
foreman. The plan of inspecting each 
picker’s work during the day’s run is the 
one adopted to hold injuries and long 
stems in check. In this way the pickers 
who are doing rough and careless 
work are discovered and can be repri¬ 
manded or eliminated. The man who 
habitually handles roughly and cannot or 
will not be careful must be discharged. 
He is an expensive workman at any 
price. 
Naturally, it will cost more to handle 
in this way. But there are ample exam¬ 
ples to show that it pays well to do this. 
I am more familiar with conditions in 
California, but I dare say there are exam¬ 
ples in Florida sufficient to prove this. If 
