FLORIDA >STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
49 
the saving in the fruit alone is taken into 
consideration, there is ample saving to 
pay for careful work. If we add to this 
the value of the reputation for soundness 
and holding quality on the market, -the 
extra cost will be returned many times 
over. In California frequently differ¬ 
ences of from 25 to 50 cents and even 
more per box above the ordinary market 
prices are given for brands which have a 
reputation for soundness. It is impos¬ 
sible to estimate the money value of a 
good reputation. 
In California it has required the reor¬ 
ganization of the business of handling the 
crop in order to insure careful handling. 
The insistence of quality of work instead 
of quantity has necessitated a close super¬ 
vision of the handling both in the groves 
and in the packing houses. More and 
more, associations are taking over the 
picking, putting in gangs working under 
efficient foremen. Some associations ac¬ 
complish good results by having a rigid 
system of inspection, insisting that the 
grower do careful work. 
With the number of new associations 
which are being organized in Florida, it 
will be possible to introduce better meth¬ 
ods. Good work must be made the basis 
of the business and it will be necessary 
for the association to exercise close su¬ 
pervision and possibly control of all op¬ 
erations of handling the fruit from the 
tree to market. 
WASHING EXPERIMENTS. 
These experiments were made in order 
to determine the amount of injury and 
decay resulting from washing. Wash¬ 
ing is necessary where the fruit has been 
blackened by smut following white fly 
scale. It seems to be a mistake to wash 
simply because it is supposed to improve 
the appearance of the fruit. In Califor¬ 
nia our investigations demonstrated that 
decay bore a direct relation to the amount 
and character of the handling to which 
the fruit was subjected. As a result, all 
unnecessary handling was eliminated. 
Many houses discontinued dry brushing 
when it was shown that brushing might 
be responsible for heavy decay. 
When the California work was begun, 
it was commonly supposed that fruit pro¬ 
duced near the coast was weaker and 
had poorer carrying quality than fruit 
produced inland away from coastal influ¬ 
ences. Unquestionably there was heavier 
decay in the coast fruit. It was found 
that this was not an inherent quality of 
the fruit itself. It was due to the extra 
handling necessary to put the coast fruit 
in condition for shipment. Washing was 
found to be largely responsible for the 
heavier decay in the coast fruit. Owing 
to scale, fully 90 per cent, of the coast 
fruit had to be washed, while little if any 
of the inland fruit required washing. By 
subjecting the inland fruit to the same 
conditions of washing it was shown that 
decay was nearly as heavy as in the coast 
fruit, and that if the coast fruit did not 
require washing it had practically as 
good holding quality as the inland fruit. 
The result also showed that in the op¬ 
eration of washing considerable improve¬ 
ment could be made. For example, much 
greater decay followed washing in dirty 
water than when clean water was used. 
