158 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
in the local associations. It will require 
several seasons for the growers to learn 
the details of the management of their 
own affairs and learn that it is their bus¬ 
iness and that they must pay close atten¬ 
tion to details in preparing their fruit for 
market, which is done through the asso¬ 
ciation packing houses. 
Florida has been increasing her output 
from year to year. Beginning with less 
than a quarter of a million boxes of citrus 
fruits in 1895 with a market for several 
times this quantity, there was no difficulty 
in disposing of the output at home at sat¬ 
isfactory prices to dealers who came here 
for them. While that was in process, 
California was increasing her output and 
systematically exploiting every market 
that could be reached with her fruit. She 
did not wait for the dealers to go into 
her packing houses for her fruit, but took 
it to the side tracks and made it to their 
interest to handle California oranges to 
the exclusion of all others. By this 
means, California was successful in so 
distributing her crop as to give her grow¬ 
ers satisfactory prices, with increasing 
crops. Florida, on the other hand, con¬ 
tented herself with depending upon deal¬ 
ers who would come here to buy the 
fruit, or speculators on the ground who 
would buy and sell to other dealers. Of 
the latter, there were various characters. 
As a general proposition, the home specu¬ 
lator began shipping oranges early, before 
they were ready for market; in many in¬ 
stances assuring the dealers to whom they 
were selling that the fruit was mature and 
ready for market. This method of han¬ 
dling the business had the effect of re¬ 
stricting the consumption of Florida or¬ 
anges, as one purchase was sufficient to 
satisfy consumers that Florida oranges 
were not palatable. They merely served 
to fill in the time between the last ship¬ 
ment of California Valencia lates and the 
early shipment of California navels, and 
as soon as they could get the latter, they 
had no further use for Floridas. This 
has gradually driven the Florida oranges 
to a few large centers, chiefly along the 
Atlantic Seaboard. 
The effort of the exchange .has been 
to discourage the shipment of immature 
oranges and grapefruit in order that con¬ 
sumers may be brought to appreciate the 
superior quality and flavor of mature 
Florida oranges, which will insure largely 
increased consumption, without which the 
growing of this luscious fruit in Florida 
will surely be disastrous to those produc¬ 
ing it. In order to attain this end, the 
growers themselves must be brought to 
realize the actual conditions as they ex¬ 
ist. This can never be accomplished ex¬ 
cept through concerted action on their 
part, as exemplified by the workings of 
the Florida Citrus Exchange. 
Discussion after Mr. Burton’s paper: 
Mr. Hart: The interest of the men 
outside of the exchange should be men¬ 
tioned tonight‘in connection with the ex¬ 
change. I often wonder what the condi¬ 
tions would have been if it had not been 
for the exchange this year. We hear of 
the high prices outside of the exchange 
and the low prices gotten by the exchange. 
It seems to me that if we had not had 
the exchange the conditions would have 
been very different. The difference in the 
commission men alone has paid for the 
exchange several times. The way they 
