The Florida agriculturist., 1907-11-27
Marketing Florida Products.
CONTINUED from page one.)

carelessness in packing and market
ing their crop as more or less OF a
perishable nature and requires careful
and expert handling, packing and
speedy transportation to more or less
distant market. And for such, these
remarks are more especially intended.
What is worth doing is worth doing
we'll, especially as financial results are
looked for.
They 'know how in California
Has the reader ever observed the ap-
pearance of the boxes of cherries,
plums, apricots, peaches, etc., that
reach the markets Of the cities and
larger towns? Uniformity of size,
brightness of surface, closeness Of
pack, yet no crowding; all these are
at once evident to the eye of the OBJ
server; the dealer offers them to his
customers with certainty Of salts
faction; the purchaser finds the con-
tents of the box on the bottom equal
to that of the top, and he feels that he
is getting his moneys worth.
Can this be said of the seller OF
Florida small fruits-mostly strawber-
ries-or the buyer of them, either in
our home stores or in the North?
Was it the fault of the picker who
handled the tender berry roughly?
Was it in the variety that perhaps was
of a soft, mushy nature, and, though
superlative in quality as home berry,
valueless as to good shipping qualities?
Did every berry have its protector
the hull-on it, showing that it was
stem nipped and not pulled or wrench
ed from the vine? Were they left for
the sun to shine on them in the field
till a sufficient number of boxes were
gathered, without a leaf or two to
shade the surface from the warmth OF
the sun?
But why continue queries like these?
Only let the berry grower remember
this bit of advice: Strawberries carry
best when picked before they attain
their full red color;'' but this does not
mean that they are to be picked green.
This applies as we'll to pineapples;
these should be picked for very dis
tant markets as soon as they begin to
show "color;" but never when wholly
green, as they are sometimes seen on
the fruit stands. Bananas can stand
this way Of marketing, but pineapples
cannot. If picked at the proper time,
carefully packed and shipped for quick
transportation, Florida could enter the
markets Of California in competition
with Hawaii growers as we'll as es-
tablishing profitable competition with
foreign markets, in spite of the West
Indian trade; for the unquestioned sup
eriority Of our pineapples, grown in
the dry, sandy soil, both as to flavor
and juiciness, would enable them to
command higher price abroad, just
as they do in our seacoast cities over
the Cuban and Jamaica pines.
Here are two paragraphs anent
picking and marketing citrus fruits,
taken from an article in the Rural
Californian, of Los Angeles, which is
peculiarly appropriate at this time,
while the harvesting is going on. This
is one of them:
TOO much caution cannot be OBJ
served in handling citrus fruits, from
the moment it is clipped from the tree
until sealed up in the car, only to be
again handled at point Of destination
Treat each individual specimen as
though it were an egg, and your pro-
ducts will not only stand up under the
wear and tear of handling and trans
porting, but will invariably bring you
a better price and enlarge your repu-
tatlon as a grower of fancy fruit"
And this is the other: ct has been
said that the apparel oft proclaims the
man, and it is also true that the pack
age often sells the goods. Be sure
your pack is uniform and trre to