52 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
can get good work done by a machine, 
where another can do a whole lot of in¬ 
jury. The same is true of clippers. One 
man can take a rather undesirable pair 
of clippers and bring in his fruit in good 
condition, while another man with a 
much better clipper brings in his fruit in 
poor shape. 
Mr. Porcher: I would like to ask the 
professor—and I do not intend to criti¬ 
cize his investigation—if it would not be 
possible to get descriptions in detail of 
the machines and the methods, that we 
may have instructions and advice that 
will be beneficial. I am quite positive 
that oranges can be washed with benefit 
to the fruit and the growers’ pocket, but 
I am also aware that unless the machine 
is properly handled, it will do great in¬ 
jury. 
Now, if we could have plain statements 
from someone who knows as to the best 
machines, whether sponges are used, 
what number of sponges, the flow of wa¬ 
ter passing through the cylinder, and 
such information as this, 1 am confident 
that it would be of interest and profit. 
We take it that the professor knows all 
about the proper machine for washing 
fruit; how it should be run and how it 
should be maintained. There are many 
machines that are perfect in their way; on 
the other hand, I have seen machines 
where there is a lack of sponges, where 
the lining has been ripped or torn and the 
fruit jammed under the lining, and the 
odor from one of these machines was dis¬ 
tinctly apparent. One of the best things 
we can have around the place, is a man 
with a good smeller. He can detect lots 
of things that way that might otherwise 
go unnoticed. 
Mr. Stubenrauch: You can get the in¬ 
formation you want from the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, or from some of the 
society members who are washing their 
fruit successfully. 
I agree with you as to the difference 
in washers. I, went into a number of 
packing houses in Florida last winter, 
and, as you say, there were some houses 
I didn’t want to go into without a hand¬ 
kerchief over my nose. Others were be¬ 
ing run on very satisfactory lines and 
were turning out fruit in fine condition. 
Mr. Porcher: I had a party of friends 
in the house and they wanted to see my 
machine in operation, so they went down 
to the washer just as they were dressed; 
they were in evening dress; my wife was 
one of them. They finally took charge 
of the washer; just pinned up their skirts 
so that they would not trip over them, 
and did all the work themselves, and I 
don’t think there was a spot or a stain 
on any of their dresses. 
Now, along the lines of injury'where 
water touches fruit. I took a box of 
fruit and dumped the contents carefully 
into a ditch. I wanted to try a little ex¬ 
periment to know just what damage it 
would do. The fruit remained there sev¬ 
eral days. I removed the fruit and found 
one orange pretty badly decayed, but that 
particular orange we had noticed before 
putting it into the water and had remark¬ 
ed at that time that there was a sign of 
blue mold on it. The fruit was washed 
off very carefully, and then we examined 
it and found it absolutely uninjured, and 
we packed it and marked it and shipped 
it, and it carried in good order. The 
point is that moisture does not injure 
