The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1889-01-23

themselves. They must determine to OF
fer for sale only thoroughly ripe fruit,
carefully gathered, scrupulously graded
in size and quality, and neatly packed in
suitable boxes, which shall be made OF
well seasoned wood, and SO branded that
the consignee and consumer can know
the history of the fruit they buy"
No truer words were ever printed than
the above quotation from q recent letter
Of Mr.. G. J. X. Jones in the AGRICULTURE
IsT; and until the orange growers of
Florida learn to heed the advice there
given, the papers will be filed with the
same old story, arrived in bad order"
And the same annual vail about low
prices will continue to beheard. 1t would
seem that anyone who had enterprise and
industry enough to bring a grove to
bearing condition would possess common
sense enough to learn in the meantime
how to handle and how to properly pack
his fruit But those who have a chance
to see the boxes as they pass through
any central point know that such is not
the case. box of oranges, when rightly
packed, will be full when it reaches it's des-
tination, however distant Yet there are
thousands of boxes pass through Jack
sonville every year having a space of an
inch or more between the fruit and the
top of the box. Such packages, however
fine their contents, will never bring ''top
quotations." Anyone of ordinary intel
ligence can learn in an hours time to
pack the eight standard sizes, and when
once learned he could not forget it if he
tried.
The vice of packing and sending out of
the State green fruit ought to be prohib-
tied by law and punished as crime. IF
those who engage in this disreputable
practice we're the only ones to suffer, the
evil might be endured, but it is these first
shipments of worthless stuff that break
ND the market, and those who follow with
choice ripe fruit at the proper seasonreap
the harvest of low prices thus produced.
Again, Mr.. Jones strikes the f'key note
Of success" when he says "My own be-
lief is that we ought, for ecOnOmy's sake
and as agood business move, to endeavor
to sell our fruit in the grove, or F. O. B.
for q special cash price" More than a
year ago, when the hOme-market question
was being discussed, in communication
to the Times-U Union made thesuggestion
that the orange growers pledge them
selves not to send a box of oranges out
Of the State until it was sold. The losses
many of them have since suffered and the
extremely low prices at which oranges
are now selling certainly ought to be
strong inducement to make such pledge.
Florida oranges have become SO well
known throughout the country that buy
ers will come here for them if they cannot
get them in any other way. But if these
BUYERS come to the groveand take all the
risks of transportation and sale, the
growers must expect the price paid for
them will be low Seventy-five cents, or
even one dollar, seems like a small sum
for a box of oranges: yet believe a ma
iority OF the producers would be willing
to take even the smaller sum rather than
take the risk and anxiety of shipping the
fruit themselves. When speak Of box
of oranges mean the fruit only, without
any expense for package or packing.
This matter of inducing buyers to come
to Florida for the oranges is one in which
the large growers can do themselves, their
brother orange growers and the State
very great service if they should see their
way clear to lead off in the undertaking.
They would help themselves by doing
away at once with all risk in marketing
their crop Their fruit is SO well known
in the market that former customers,
when assured that they could only obtain
it by buying, would make haste to secure
their supply at the grove 1t would be an
advantage to the smaller growers, be-
cause thousands would follow their lead,
who might otherwise hesitate, and would
at once make a sure success OF the under
talinSr III would be Of great service to