The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1906-11-23
IHfP|NEAPPLE
GROWERS MEET
,.,oortaot Conference on the
'''' expectation of Fruit
uRINGRAtiAM PRESENT
a, If Past Season Proves That
w." ,hs English Market is Profitable
TO, Earl, Shipments.

most important meeting was heI'
:. Fart Pierce Tuesday, when tl'
.nusrs of pincapples who had trit,
!, markets of England during the pas
..,son met in conference in the I'm
.mvsment club hail, to discuss the re
rlts Of the seasons experience and la.
vhns for next year
When the meeting was called to order
r,mss F. Andrews, of Fort Pierce, wa,
elected to preside, and w. K. Moses
4 West Palm Beach, was selected as
secretary.
IE Ingrahan, Of st. Augustine
third vice.president of the Florida East
Cast railroad, who might be called the
Godfather of the pineapple export
hsiness was called upon to address
the meeting Mr. lngraham gave a
most thoroughly interesting account OF
the three months he spent on the British
lies during the summer of 1908, in
which he Investigated the possibilities
d introducing the East Coast pineapple $
into the English markets, and of the
Arrangements he then made with the
biz English fruit concern to handle the
Shipments for the Florida growers.
While in Europe Mr.. lngraham made a
thorough study of the fruit markets,
not only in the British isles, but in
France and Germany as well, and en-
tHtsined the assembled growers for an
hour with a most interesting and in
'tuctive talk, covering all points of in
lsrest, such as the sources of fruits,
kinds, methods and manner of packing
and transportation, the prices obtained,
the most satisfactory sizes. times Of
Shipments and the native fruits that
come in competition, In fact, there
vas no point that he did not cover to
The satisfaction of the growers present.
After Mr.. lngraham's return from
hgand he called together some of the
anger pineapple growers at a meeting
sldl Miami in the early part of this
year, and pledges We're secured for the
iAlpment of 5000 crates to England as
10 Gperient. A. a result 1929 crates
we're shipped and Melted the growers
~ average of 81 - a crate. The aver
we would have been more than 81. so
yer crate had not a misunderstanding
scufred as to the date of final ship
aents' The English distributing agents
'aNsed that no shipment be made later
wan June 20 intending that they
mould not reach London after that
AVE. while our growers continued to
'alp from here until that date, and the
'u' came into competition with the
.'l strawberry crop of England,
'" !he result that our growers Melted
~ 'nan vi on some few shipments. All
ap"ents leaving Florida before the
'" Jay OF June netted the growers
''u' ~ a crate after that date the
l''xet fell. and the bottom was
'""eu by July LIST. Mr.. Ingraham
saed $a.OS per crate on his first ship
, VI SO3 crates; Mr.. Matthams, of
'ss Palm Beach, Melted $4.2S rer
'''e on his first shipment of AZ crates,
%S'0 per crate on 629 crates ship
y vat different times during the sea-
%.others did nearly as well.
Alter dinner the meeting was called
.0'der at 2 o'clock, and Walter Haw-
w. general manager of the Consoli-
,~S Fruit Co., addressed the meeting.
J. ., consolidated Fruit Co., had charge
!, "e forwarding of all the export
!. ana Mr.. Hawkins described in
.Au 'ne methods used in handling and
!. the fruit, and exhibited the
. .s"ests' cablegrams, freight bills,
W. sales, ETC., of each shipment,
-. convinced the growers that their
Az" mad been we'll looked after
's' the address of Mr.. Hawkins
@eetlng was informal and almost
,, ~ .ne growers present took part in
~. ssss'ng the subject of future ship
y and methods to avoid the mis-
y. VI the past seasons.
!. lngraham read reports from the
!. ssents at London and Liverpool,
~ IN account of the handling of