The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-06-07
PACKING HOUSE
NECESSARY IN
ORDER TO ATTRACT
VEGETABLE BUYERS
Lakeland, Fla, June 6, 1915

In a recent editorial | notice you (
invite a discussion in regard to buy !
ers of Lakeland products.
Lakeland has large trucking |
acreage it is true, but the fact is the
farmers organizations here along
this line have been unsuccessful and
they are afraid to trust hardly any
one. This is no REFLECTION on anyone,
but is true fact.
The trucker in this section as a
rule will plant an acre in potatoes,
an acre in beans and about an acre
of each vegetable. Not having
carload they pick and pack them and
ship by express on consignment not
knowing market conditions as they
should, they often get returns "sold
| for charges"
Now you may take trip down the
East Coast of Florida and you will
find very nearly every grower has
his vegetables put up in a packing
house. Sometimes as many as one
hundred growers patronizing one
house There the buyers can in
few minutes time inspect the pack
and grade and know if he is willing
to put his money into car of fruit
or vegetables. He knows just what
he ia getting. On the other hand
should he buy the pack and grade
of each individual grower possibly
packed by inexperienced packers
and graded by inexperienced graders,
he cannot know that they are put up
right. for he cannot call in one day
or even two days on each individual
grower where there is packed maybe
fifteen crates here, fifty there, etc. J,
and inspect them. Where there is a
, packing house, buyers will come and
give from ten to fifty cents more a
, crate for vegetables under one grade
/, and pack them they will for the
pack of the individual grower. 1t
, appears to me that it is necessary
for the truckers of this section to
, come together and agree how many
, acres of each truck each one will
l plant and thereby plant enough each
r to load in car lots at central pack
: ing house packed and graded with
an experienced man in charge SO the
buyer will come to YOU and be glad
r and ready to buy your products
= There was planted in the vicinity o.
Lakeland this year hundred acres
g or more of tomatoes, and as yet no
f solid car has been shipped from
k here; everything goes by express
r. In Plant City there are five or si'
d packing houses and not one il
# Lakeland. Then we wonder VIII.
e buyers don't come to Lakeland.
= Now if the growers will get to
gether and each one agree to plan
five or ten acres-say of tomatoes
If fifty growers, five acres each, tW
! hundred and fifty to five hundre
At acres. That will average two car
or more a day for twenty or thirt
days-average season-all othe
truck in proportion and Lakelan
o. would have all the buyers they wi
Id want.
70 The average packing house cos
as including house, material and sellin
,e brokerage is forty to forty-fve cent
ID a crate. Now when you tell tn
no average trucker this he will thro'
v. ND his hands in horror and inforl
ye YOU that he can do it for thirt
MS cents. Well, if he does he consigr
ly it to some one he does not know an
of he may get something in return an
nd he may not. very often does not; D.
n sides he will pay the express con
nd pany on tomatoes to Boston ninet,
no one cents a crate. The freight
h. car lots is sixty-four cents-dife
Ike ence twenty-seven cents. TO Ne
s. York express Lightweight cent
cd freight fty-eieht-differenc thir
les cents. To Cincinnati, express ninet
OH three; freight forty -four-diheren
he forty-nine cents. To Philadelphl
,rs express seventy; freight ffty-slx-
~ difference fourteen cents. Total
nd press to all four points, $3.42, ave
ng age eighty-fve and half CEN
ne Freight, total to four points, S2.2
nd average So 1-2 cents; average d
d,s ference express and freight in fav
nd of freight in car lots thirty cnt
ess Packed by the grower it costs thir
cents. through the packing hou
forty-fve cents. The difference
. grower by having them packed
~ packing house and loaded in
BAL lots and sold here or even consien
e5 than being packed at field a
b5I shipped by express not sold but &C
AI signed is fifteen cents in favor
7ss' hacking in packing house and no
per cent commission to pay IL NJ
ies essary to consign even when load
in car lots can ship to yourself
diversion point where upon its
rival you having daily market qua
tions by wire can place in best mi
ket that day in six to twelve hou
which is impossible to do when sh
ming by express or less than car 10
think it would be good idea
the growers to get together and
an experienced man to run pack
house and sell their products