The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1912-03-15

liees opened at about the same 4
] hey did the preceding year and hay
advanced steadily from the openinp
the season up until Christmas wbic
l. was a thing that was new in the hi
tory OF the Florida citrus industr,
ABOUT the middle of December ce
tam weather conditions set in i
FLORIDA that were unprecedented i
their length and severity ther
was succession of nearly thre
weeks OF very hot, murky. moist day
When fruit decayed on the trees an,
IN transit, no matter how much car
was exercised in its handline an.
shipping, This was severe handi
cap on fair test of conditions.
In addition to this, from PRACTICAL,
christmas until nearly the first q
FEBRUARY, the entire North was SVEN.
by series OF billiards, one after the
other, that in their frequency and in
tenslty have never been equaUed
Lake Superior for the first time in
the memory of the white man was
frozen clear across its entire expanse
from shore to shore.
FROM seventy to eighty per cent of
all the citrus fruits that are sold in
the great cities. are sold either from
Irult stands or by peddlers. Weather
conditions such as those that prevail
ed made it impossible for either the
fruitstands or the peddlers to do
business. Oranges would freeze in
transit from warehouses to the stores.
and 1t was an impossibility to cart
them, unlocked, in peddlers' wagons
or oner them for sale on peddlers'
stands. This was another very seri-
Gus and unexpected handicap for com.
paratlve results. But in spite of all
that the sales of Florida oranges in
the month of January this year net
ted the growers at least three times
as much money per box on the trees
as they did in January of the preced-
ing year.
The citrus crop of Florida will
average higher price to the growers
this year than it has in any one of
the last ten years. Grapefruit opened
at $3.50, +. o. b. cars, and it has
steadily increased to where sales
have been made in February in car
load lots at 5000 box, f. O. b. cars
packing house.
Some timid, shortsighted growers
sold their oranges last summer and |
early fall at from 20 to so cents a box
on the trees, and thought they were
doing a good thing. Their neighbors.
VINO were, and remained, outside the
Exchange, have sold their oranges
since that time, by following the
advice of the Exchange, at from s1.25
to S1.4O a box on the trees: while the
members of the Exchange who were
enough to have their fruit
put up in modern houses, under mod
ern methods, have netted as high as
two dollars box on the trees-and
higher in many instances-so that
there is no question but that the
average price Received, f. O. b. pack
ing house, Florida, for the entire
citrus fruit crop this year has been
not less than so cents a box higher
han was received the preceding year,
n spite of the dire prediction of the
Green Fruiters." ,,
The foregoing being the case. we
presume that the Exchange and its :
will be perfectly willing :
o take on themselves the onus of ,
hat portion of the Pink Sheets" =
statement which reads: Their only :
olace will be: The Exchange did :,
>"
This brings us to another point. s
)ur county has certain candidates for h
ne state Legislature and the State IL
enate, who are asking for your suf- e.
rage to place them in those bodies as A
our representatives. Have not the CT
whence and results of the present q
trus season justified you in demand q
lg of these would-be legislators W
leir pledge to support the Anti D,
reen Fruit BILL and is it not a fair g,
lestion to ask them to pledge them al
lives publicly before the primaries
I'd before their election that they are ia
ling to stand fiat for the enforce. or
ent, not only of the present social or
Green Fruit Law" but for an in
nendment to it, if necessary. that he
II put sharper teeth" in that law nv
an it now has? ia
Under the Green Fruit Law" as it
W stands, its enforcement practi- ex
lily lies in the hands of the Depart sw
mt of Agriculture, and the Commits. wi
'ner of Agriculture can make or IN an
Ike the effectiveness of this law. tir
e late Commissioner of Agriculture. il
fine man as he was, was either AM
sled or erred in his judgment very
lily as to the importance of the en-
of this law, and could not
induced to have his inspectors A
Ike an earnest effort to assist the coll
al authorities in checking the Wa
king and shipping from this state ,
green oranges.
he only set of laws on the statute ~, IN
ks in Florida that enable any Of IHI
Il, or set of officials, to seize by ~
suspected samples of food pro- 49,
is that are being handled in viola ,,[,
of the law are the pure food laws ,o w.
the inspectors under - !,
control of the Commissioner of ,ino
iculture ,lLe
here will have to be a new Com ..os
sioner of Agriculture elected at -
comming election, and it would r .ll.9
n wise for the citrus growers of II,
state to demand-of each candidate 'em;
presents himself for the position sligt
tate Commissioner of Agriculture acre
ublicIV Dledee bin,eoIs =. - =. | y,orc