The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1909-06-04
UNFAIR RATES
ST|RGROWERS
Pineapple Industry Faces Ruin
Unless Matters are Improved
CUBAN PINES FAVORED
Il Costs but One Cent More to Ship Crate
of PineappIes from Havanato Cincinnati
than from Manufacturing Duty

The fact that Cuban growers of pine
apples can ship their pineapple to the
American market and get them there
two or three days earlier than the Flor
ida East Coast pineapple growers can
get their fruit to the same markets is
causing considerable apprehension now
on the part of the Florida growers,
says the Miami Metropolis.
The growers all along the Florida
East Coast are beginning to learn that
their fruit is thrown into the markets
after the Cuban supply has practically
fill, d the demands; by the time de-
mand is noted again another large con-
signment of Cuban fruit is on hand
1t is claimed by the Florida growers
that their fruit is better than the Gu
ban stock, and that their business is be-
ing ruined from the fact that the for
eign pineapples are thrown into the
market at the time when pineapples are
bringing a good price. Consequently
when the Florida fruit reaches these
markets there is little demand for it.
The growers are beginning to get to-
gether in the premises to endeavor to
induce railroads to give the American
shipper as good rate as is being given
the foreign shippers, and as good SER
vice. The Cuban pineapples are ship
ped from Havana on passenger train
schedules, while the Florida growers
cannot get their fruit to the markets IN
less than five, six and seven days, yet
the Cuban pineapples slip into Chicago
from Havana, over the same rails, in
seventy-fve hOurs-three days.
The question arises in the minds OF
the Florida growers: "Why should Gu
ba get her products into the markets
before we get our products there"
This question is answerable only by the
Florida East Coast railway, the Allan
tic Coast Line and the connecting lines
to the markets.
Pineapples are shipped from Knights
Key to Cincinnati for 81 cents per crate
by the Florida East Coast Railway, At
lantic Coast Line and the connecting
lines. The Florida shippers want just
as good rate. At present the grow
ers in and around Miami are paying 70
cents per crate for slower delivery OF
their fruits and shorter haul than the
Cuban pneapples.
True, the Cuban growers pay one cent
more to get their fruits to the markets.
They pay 80 cents freight and tariff to
Cincinnati and corresponding rate to
more distant points. The Florida rate
is one cent less, 70 cents. The lighter
age charge in Havana to transport the
Cuban pineapples to the steamer is 3
cents per crate. The steamer charges
from Havana to Knights Key are 2la
cents per crate; the duty is l3s cents
per crate and the freight from Knights
Key to Cincinnati, 80 cents, making a
total of 80 cents; and the shipments are
rushed through on fast passenger train
schedules.
In Cuba, labor is cheap, fertilizer is
not used and the cost of living is at the
minimum. This, the Florida grower
meets with high labor, much fertilizer
and anything but low cost of living.
What the East Coast growers are ask
ing themselves now, is: "How can we
compete with Cuban pineapple growers
under these circumstances OF high cost
of living, high freight rates, high fer
tiizer bills and high price of labor"
1t is estimated that the crop of Cuban
pineapples will be million and half
crates, and the railroads have cut the
rates in order to compete with the water
transportation companies to New Or
leans, Mobile and New York. They are
after their share of the Cuban ship
ments, and they are getting it.
The Florida crop of pineapples this
season is estimated between eight and
nine hundred thousand crates. There
are about s, 900 acres of pneapples bear
ing this season on the East Coast; z, 800
acres of which lie in st. Lucie county.
St. Lucie county growers declare they
will harvest and ship $50, 900 crates and
pineapple grower of Miami, who un-
doubtedly knows the situation as re-
CARDS the acreage in this county as well
as st. Lucie, having plantations in both
!, counties-states that Dade county's
crop will be nearly as large.
This being conservative estimate OF
the East Coast crop OF pineapples for
, 1909, over million crates will be hand
led by the Florida East Coast railway
and connecting lines from the Florida
East Coast, and the growers will pay 70
7 cents per crate if they ship the entire
: crop. There is no alternative for the
: Florida shipper. His fruit must go
e over the Florida East Coast railroad
and connecting lines.
a The growers intend when the shipping
e season is closed to take the matter OF
! rates on pineapples to the Florida East
Coast railway and endeavor to persuade
the officials to give the Florida growers
e as good a rate as the Cuban growers
t are getting, and as good service. Fail