70 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
I must admit that at first I did not like 
it, but the more I know of it, the more I 
am impressed with its value. 
Another thing I must mention, is that 
we do not grade our fruit enough. We 
make two grades, and it would often be 
worth a great deal more to us to make 
three grades. 
Out in California, they grade their 
fruit away up high. All their fruit isn't 
that way, by any means; only a small per¬ 
centage of it. Their fancy brands sell 
high and the other grades try to climb up 
to it. A comparatively small percentage 
of their fruit grades up high and we hear 
a great deal about it and we judge that 
the greater part of their crop is classed 
under this grade. The commoner brands 
are put on the market, and we don’t hear 
very much about them; they don’t make 
much noise about their “camel” brands. 
Mr. Temple, on the contrary, puts his 
fruit out as just exactly what it is, and 
is not ashamed of any of it. It is just 
like having three houses to sell; one is a 
fine house for $10,000, the next is a 
smaller house for $5,000, and the third 
a cottage for $2,000. The owner is not 
at all ashamed of his cottage because his 
big, fine house sells for $10,000; it is 
just as much a part of his business to< sell 
the small house for what it is worth as 
it is to sell the big one. 
I think the brand ought to indicate the 
grade; it ought to be stamped upon the 
box; it ought to be stamped on every 
wrapper that goes on the fruit clear 
through the box to the bottom. 
SHIPPING. 
Now, about packing the fruit in the 
cars. The boxes should be stacked up in 
the California way. It is unnecessary to 
describe this here, as it has been taken 
up in several different meetings before. 
Packing the fruit in this way, there is 
complete ventilation through the whole 
car. There is a complete circulation of 
air through the car, and no matter how 
much the car is jolted about, the boxes 
remain stationary. I had a car of grape- 
fruit packed this way, once, that was in 
a wreck. It was a pretty bad wreck; I 
think the train must have been going 
about forty miles an hour for the track 
was torn up for three hundred feet, but 
the fruit in the car was practically unin¬ 
jured. 
Prof. Hume: Mr. Skinner has brought 
out a great many good points, but I be¬ 
lieve he knows something else that we 
haven’t got from his yet. I think a few 
questions would bring it out. 
A Member: I understand Mr. Skin¬ 
ner has a washing machine for oranges. 
I would like to have a description of it. 
Mr. Skinner: I devoted a good deal 
of time on my trip to California to look¬ 
ing up washers. The California people 
were very much afraid to tell us that they 
needed washers. They didn’t take us to 
the place where they did the washing. We 
went ourselves, however, and saw them 
doing it. At another place I saw' a very 
good washing machine. They have there 
very black, muddy fruit. The fruit from 
that neighborhood was shipped a great 
many years with the understanding that 
it would always have 15 per cent to 18 
per cent, decay. They changed their 
