The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1909-08-27
ENTHUSIASTIC
MEETING HELD
State Organizer J. A. Reid Visited
Fort Pierce tuesday Afternoon
FIVE HUNDRED PRESENT
Producers of Pineappies and Oranges Ia.
terested in California Methods of CO.
Operating and Marketing Fruit.

The most largely attended and en-.
thuslastic meeting of pineapple, orange
and vegetable growers ever held in
Fort Pierce was assembled in the I'm.
provement Club hall Tuesday afternoon
to listen to the address of State Organ.
lzer j.. A.. Reid, who, though he had
completed his two months engagement
with the Florida Citrus Exchange, and
was scheduled to start on his return to
California after his meeting at Titus
vile, last Monday, was induced to ap-
pear before st. Luce county audience,
and give them the benefits of a thorough
understanding of the co operative ex-
change system of marketing their
fruits, through the active efforts of r.
l.. Goodwin and others.
That the opportunity of hearing Mr..
Reid was thoroughly appreciated by
our growers was fully demonstrated by
the audience of more than five hundred
who packed the Improvement Club hall
and listened with intense interest to
his address which lasted for more than
three hours. Everyone present was
allowed to present any question that
arose. to their mind, and ready reply
came from Mr.. Reid for every ques-
ton asked which manifested his
thorough knowledge of the subject of
marketing fruit.
Mr.. Reid explained in detail how the
local associations were organized and
charter secured from the State, and
the duties of the officers of the local
associations, who are not salaried men.
He explained the next step the sub-ex-
change, which is combination of
local associations of each county, or of
contiguous territory, each local being
represented in the sub-exchange by
one, two or three representatives; and
how businessis conducted by the sub
exchange with the State exchange-all
the way, being entirely in the hands Of
the grower, and his will carried out in
every respect.
The subject of distribution and mar
keting of the fruit was gone into in de-
tail, Mr.. Reid prefacing his remarks on
this subject with the statement that in
Mr.. r. =. Burton, Florida has secured
the most able sales manager in the
world, man with whom he has been
closely identified and associated Cor the
past nine years, and man who is rec
ognlzed by the buyers of fruits as an
able, resourceful, fair and square man;
one with whom they delight to do bus
mess, because, while he is protecting
the producer he is also protecting the
purchaser by his thorough system of
distribution which prevents a glut in
markets.
MIR. Burton is now in the northern
markets perfecting arrangements for
not only the orange crop
but the East Coast pineapple crop. He
is engaging sales agents of the ex-
change, whose duty it will be to inspect
the fruit on its arrival in the different
markets and the same, the price
being arranged by the grower, gov.
erned by market condltions-the actual
sale of the fruit taking place while it
is enroute, and the car or cars being
diverted to equally distribute the fruit
TO prevent glut or famine. These
agents are men who have established
for successful statesmen;
thew are heavily bonded in bonding
companies to secure their faithful at
tention to duty. When sale is made
the check in payment is drawn in favor
If the Florida Fruit Exchange record
is sent to the head office and the check
sent TO the ub.eXchange or local as
sociation from which the fruit has been
sent, and from there to the grower
the whole transaction taking less than
a week. =,
MIR. Reid strongly urged the forma-
ton of union packing houses the fruit
from each local association being sent
out under the name of the association.
One of the great advantages of this
method is in loading solid cars OF one
i've and pack. He called attention to
the fact that some markets demanded
larger sized fruit, while others would
nav higher price for smaller fruit,
continued on page 81