STANDARDS OF MATURITY IN CITRUS FRUIT

Transcription

1 126 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY STANDARDS OF MATURITY IN CITRUS FRUIT Clinton Bolick, Ft. Myers The first static in the domestic circle was about fruit. Whether it was an apple, an orange or a grapefruit, or whether it was mature or imma ture, is a matter of conjecture. Certain it is that it resulted in fig leaves. This matter of standards of maturity in citrus fruits in Florida comes dan gerously near convincing us that, as some claim, Florida is Paradise, and if Adam does not reform and stop his meanness and quit passing the buck, we will soon be back in the fig leaf stage. That same habit of eating has come right down the human line to us. There is a larger range to sat isfy our appetites, and we choose those fruits that are most pleasing to our tastes. It would seem that the Standard of Maturity in citrus fruit must conform to the taste of the millions for whom they are grown to be eaten. There was a time when citrus fruits were not offered from Florida to the consumer until na ture indicated maturity by practically full color of the peel and the buyers came down to Florida to seek that kind of fruit to start the season right and kept Florida fruits moving steadily into con sumption. That is the rational test. Nature makes few mistakes, if any, but she does produce some monstrosities. One of these is the Adam that defies the laws of Nature to destroy the qual ity of Florida citrus fruit, by taking them from the tree and offering them to a willing consumer before they are fully matured. The consumption of Florida fruit seems unlim ited when they are fully ripe and the consumer is the real arbiter of the standard of maturity. From year to year we are confronted with the evil habit of sending immature fruit to market. This fruit gets into general distribution and shuts off the buyer who wants real Florida citrus fruit and the consumer and the buyer as well goes on a strike and neither buys nor eats more until he is given some good fruit. The past season we have given millions of boxes to those who have been disgusted with the immature fruit which has been foisted upon them as ripe fruit. To overcome this insane defiance of natural law, for twenty years Florida has been trying by leg islation to establish standards to permit only pal atable fruits going to the market, in order that Florida fruits may go into liberal consumption at the beginning of the season. But so long as men can violate the laws of Nature and the state for a profit to themselves, they seem to be able to find others who will supply them with fruits to de stroy the market to the undoing of the industry and they pass the buck to criminality. There is wide diversity of opinion in the matter of maturity of citrus fruit. There always will be. In establishing standards these have to be taken into account. This Society went on record favoring a restraining law in the moving of citrus fruits from the state that were not up to the given standards of maturity. There was a bitter fight before the legislature in 1911, the Florida Citrus Exchange on one side and the so-called independent shippers on the other. A very in adequate law was passed with eight to one for oranges and seven to one for grapefruit, and pro viding that if they showed two-thirds color on the trees, it indicated maturity, and they were to be exempt from the acid test. The color test nulli fied the law, and besides, with only four inspectors, politically appointed, the shipper became the only judge of what was to be shipped. From time to time new laws or ammendments to the other laws have been passed, and each year this same prob lem is with us. The standards that we have or are trying to get seems to be as near as can be had to proper maturity and one of the weak fea tures is the clause in the present law which pro vides the lack of enforcement Until 1929 there was no standard of maturity for tangerines. The present law passed by the legislature in 1929 fixed a standard of eight to one sugar to acid and all tangerines to be deemed mature after November 15th. The sixteenth of November found 500 cars or more ready to ride to market. This standard for tangerines was

2 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 127 deemed necessary to stop packers from cooking them in the coloring room before they were ma ture, destroying all value of the fruit and paralyz ing the market. Since I am discussing tangerines, I will take up the discussion of tangerines for the proposed new bill following up with oranges and grapefruit. The new standard as provided and recommended by the Florida Citrus Exchange Legislative Com mittee and the Composite Committee of the State of Florida which is composed of two members of the Florida Citrus Exchange, two members of the Florida Citrus Clearing House Association, two members of the Chamber of Commerce of Winter Haven, two members of the Fruitman's Club and two members of the Committee of Fifty, making a committee of ten. This committee is composed solely of growers of citrus fruits who have labored strenuously to try to work out a fair and equitable standard of maturity that will be fair to all citrus sections of Florida. This committee recommends a new standard on tanger ines of seven and one half to one, the season to close at midnight on November 30th. It is the opinion of members of the committee that the same conditions that prevail on November 16th last year will prevail on December 1st this year, providing this recommendation is passed. There are a number of larger tangerine growers in the state who believe the acid test in tangerines is not the right test; that tangerines should be picked for size and color, prohibiting the coloring artifi cially; that this will right the tangerine situation and I am informed that this recommendation is going to be submitted to the citrus committee of the Florida Legislature by some of the larger tan gerine growers. Before I discuss the standards of maturity of oranges, a factor to reckon with is the deadly ar senic spray and the applying of other forms of ar senic, which destroy the acid and likewise de stroy the value of the fruit. It is hoped that the arsenical law can be enforced and the users of arsenic spray be prosecuted and penalized, by not allowing this fruit to go to market. There has been considerable discussion relative to what is the proper standard of maturity on oranges. Many recommendations are, that a solid content be provided in the standards, some as high as nine point with a ratio of sugar to acid of nine to one. If such a law was passed it would pro hibit the moving of such oranges as the Parson Brown, Norris, and Hamlin, until after the ex piration of the green fruit law. The majority of the Florida Citrus Exchange Legislative Committee, which was approved by the Board of Directors of the Florida Citrus Ex change agreed that the present law with a ratio sugar to acid of eight to one was about as good as could be had until more complete data was gathered as to solids content of the juice as well as the juice content of oranges. It has been rec ommended to all associations in the Florida Cit rus Exchange, that they keep accurate tests on all oranges during the period of the green fruit law for the next two years, to ascertain what would be best standard of solids or juice contents to set up for oranges. In making surveys in the various territories, oranges grown on sour stock carry High solids, while those grown on lemon root do not carry as high solids, but are as good in eating quality, if not better than those on sour stock. Another matter before the committee was the question of keeping the illegitimate shipper, oper ator or packer from packing and branding seed ling oranges as Parson Brown. This practice has been going on for many years, due to the fact that the seedling oranges carry a fairly high ratio during the month of November in many sections of Florida, yet with high solid contents in the orange test, we will find many seedling sections that will not be able to move any seedlings until the law has been lifted. After considerable dis cussion, and study the Composite Committee adopted the following on oranges, that is, an or ange to be deemed mature for shipment must contain at least eight and one half per cent solids in the extracted juice and that the ratio should be eight to one which is the same as the old law with the exception that we are placing a minimum solids of eight and one half. After giving this considerable consideration the speaker is still of the opinion that we should have more data on the solid contents of juice than we have, in order to establish a minimum solid for oranges and therefore believe that the present law is about as good as we can get without causing any hard-

3 128 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ships or catastrophe to the orange industry dur ing the coming two years. Next, we take maturity on grapefruit. From our experience from the past two years we all realize that the grapefruit law must have some changes in order to provide a more satisfactory eating quality fruit. The past season has dem onstrated to me that a juice content requirement must be provided for grapefruit, yet I do not be lieve it is the time to eliminate the acid test. I come from a section that has always shipped grapefruit early. Before there was any green fruit law, I have shipped grapefruit fully colored before the first of September, and as stated prev iously in this paper color of the rind spells ma turity. Yet under the law that is on our statue books today, relative to grapefruit, there is plenty of grapefruit that is fully- colored that will not pass the required test and on the other hand there is plenty of fruit which is dark green in color and which takes from 72 to 90 hours in the col oring room, which will pass the test as provided in the law. Now do you believe that our present grapefruit law is adequate under these conditions? Yet in establishing a law that is favorable to all sections and that will improve the quality in ref erence to maturity of our grapefruit it has been a big problem for the various committees that I have been on to set up a standard that will meet the requirements and will give good eatable fruit to the consumer, and after all we must remem ber that the consumer is the judge of the ma turity of our fruit. Taking all facts and data that the Legislative Committee of the Florida Citrus Exchange could collect and had before them, certain standards were established by this committee. The juice content approved by this com mittee was that recommended by Commis sioner Mayo and his staff. Probably the juice content is low and could be increased twentyfive to thirty cubic centimeters to each size grapefruit, yet we find that this will elimi nate sections like the Homestead section, due to the Royal variety grapefruit which has always been shipped from this section early, and is a good eating fruit, but due to the thickness of its rind would not meet an increased juice requirement. On the other hand many other sections had thin rind, full of juice, carried full color but did not meet the required solid content which is pro vided in the present law or recommended by others; therefore it was the opinion of the com mittee that the minimum solids in grapefruit should be reduced to eight and that the ratio on fruit between eight and nine in minimum solids to be deemed mature must have a sugar to acid of not less than six and one half to one, provid ing that it carries a juice content proportionate to its size. The recommendations of this com mittee were passed on to the Composite Commit tee and were approved by them without any changes. It is my opinion that this is about as good a set up that we can work out harmoniously in consideration of all sections and should put a far better eating grapefruit to the consumer than we have been able to do in the past. I want to say further that Mr. Mayo and his staff have co-operated 100 per cent with the Committee in trying to work out a solution for the best interest of the industry, particularly the grower and the consumer, and as Mr. Mayo has expressed himself, the consumer must be satisfied before the grower can realize any profits on his investments. We all realize that the shippers are somewhat indifferent as their profits are always taken out before the grower gets his net returns. After reading the report made at the shippers' meeting recently, I was astounded at how little interest there was among them and how little the shippers knew about the green fruit situation as it is today; and the gist of that meeting was that it was more important to find out how early we could ship our fruit, than how we could ship good fruit early. Now on all the Committees with which I have had the pleasure of working, it was the object not to shorten the shipping sea son of our citrus fruit, but to try and establish the standards that would allow good eatable fruit to move when it was ready so that we could al ways have a satisfied consumer. I have heard it expressed a number of times that no complaint was made as to oranges, but I disagree on this, for I have seen oranges on the market that were so far from eatable that the retailer had to discard them and they were not processed oranges, either. In talking with tour ists this past winter as many complaints were

4 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 129 registered against immature oranges as there were against immature and ricy grapefruit. Yet I want to again repeat that more data must be obtained as to the question of maturity of or anges than we have at hand at the present time. I have spent the past two years in making tests, collecting tests, visiting packing houses early in the season before shipping early fruit, and I am convinced in my own mind that the recommen dation as approved by the Composite Committee on grapefruit, will improve the eating quality of our shipments ioo per cent. Motion made, seconded and unanimously car ried that this green fruit legislation matter be re ferred to the legislative committee of the Horti cultural Society for further consideration. J. C. Morton: I wish to call your attention to the fact that we, in the State of Florida, are not yet prepared with sufficient evidence and scien tific tests to go to the Legislature and know we are putting through a green fruit law that will be practical and serviceable to the industry of the State. I have served on most of those com mittees, and it has been alarming the amount of ignorance displayed, even by the Department of Agriculture, regarding maturity standards, and we are not yet in a position to present a bill that we know will fill the needs of the industry. I want to call your attention to the present bill recommended by this so-called Composite Com mittee. As Chairman of that committee I want to state that the action of the Committee of Fifty in withdrawing its members' approval on the standard on oranges of eight and one half solids would be evidence that would indicate that they thought there should be other ways than placing that standard of eight and one half solids on or anges. There is no solid test, the present law simply having the ratio eight to one. My greatest fear is of the new recommendations on grape fruit. This present season was the first season since we have had a maturity standard in which the question of juice in grapefruit came up. That may not appear before us again for several years, but if it does, under the present law, as stated by States Attorney Davis, and others, Commis sioner Mayo has the power under the law to prescribe and instruct or demand such juice stand ards as he may declare necessary. There is no necessity for this going to the Legislature for a change in juice standard, which we may not need for several years, and which, if we do need it, is in the power of Commissioner Mayo to change. Then the new recommended bill states the solids shall be eight and the ratio of solids between eight and nine shall be six and one half and one. The present grapefruit solid demands eight and one half and the ratio between eight and nine of seven to one. I wonder if any grower present feels the industry will be benefited by lowering the standard of grapefruit. An investigation made by me and other mem bers of the Committee of Fifty seems to indicate that under this new law the movement of grape fruit from the State of Florida during the in spection period may increase from twenty-five to fifty per cent, and if any one of you think that's a safe thing I am a little doubtful personally, and I really think that as an industry we should at present continue with the law we have. Commissioner Mayo this year has a surplus of $24,000 left over from the season's operations. I don't know what that $24,000 cost the State of Florida this year, but it's there, and I think we should demand that the Commissioner of Agri culture take this $24,000 and establish a real scien tific laboratory that shall operate during the next two years, and give us sufficient data on which to go before the Legislature two years from now and demand a law that will be practical, service able and permanent. I believe the best thing for the industry of the State of Florida at present is to demand strict enforcement of the present law. It has done very well, and then demand that there shall be sufficient scientific investigation so that two years from now we may have a real law. Clinton Bolick: I agree with Mr. Morton on the oranges, but there has been enough data com piled on grapefruit over 1200 tests. We have classified it. There is the sour orange stock. Here is grapefruit that run in solids up around The solution ran forty-seven, on acid 180, ratio six to one. The local requirements to pass that are five, five, five, one. The fruit was dark green in color, and the juice content very low. Is our law adequate to take care of a condition like 9 Horti

5 130 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY that? I wish I had the record of how many hours that fruit had to stay in the coloring room to get colored so it could go out. Now on the lemon root fruit, the solids were 8.30; solution 31; acid 119; and the ratio was seven to one, with high juice content and high colored rind, and only a solid of I tell you the color on your rind spells maturity, and you can't fix a law that will touch that issue. This Composite Committee, as well as the Legislative Committee of the Florida Citrus Exchange have taken this into consideration. We have worked for days. I am surprised at Mr. Morton. Every person knows that law isn't right. It can't be. There was plenty of fruit that went out in houses where they cut twenty-three grapefruit to get enough juice to fill the little phial they made their test in, under the present law. There is yet plenty of fruit in the State, in Polk County and other places, on the trees, that should have gone out, and couldn't go because it couldn't meet the re quirements of solids of eight and one half, show ing two-thirds and one-half color, yet we were hauling in dark green fruit, because it had ten, eleven and up as high as twelve of solids. You say the law is right? It isn't right. It isn't go ing to be right until we get a test that is some where near where the rind is showing maturity. I was up to the Legislature two years ago when Howey tried to put in a juice content in grape fruit. I have spent the last two years in collecting data to try to go before the Florida Legislature with a program I felt was right on grapefruit. You say why grapefruit and not oranges and tan gerines. I am not an orange and tangerine grower; ninety per cent of my crop is grapefruit. I come from the early grapefruit section. The first car I shipped was the thousand twenty-first, yet plenty of grapefruit went although it wasn't fit to eat, because it carried high solid content, little juice, and was cooked to death in the color ing room; yet full colored fruit, hanging on the trees couldn't go because of the law. I am a grower of both types, sour and lemon root. For that reason, we are trying to get the eatable fruit to the consumer, and keep back the fruit that isn't eatable. Mr. Waldron: You said you shipped the thousand twenty-first car. At that time Commis sioner Mayo had established the juice content. You are proposing only raising it eighteen per cent; you are still too low on your juice. Every body knows grapefruit was very dry this past year. I made tests the first of September in the ridge section, Polk County, in which the fruit failed to pass the present law. I had much more juice than required. You have lowered your ratio. You will have to do something to get edi ble fruit. Mr. Bolick: You say green fruit. I say eat able fruit. Mr. Waldron: If you haven't the juice, it isn't eatable. If it is only eighteen per cent higher than last year, it is not enough. Mr. Bolick: As I said in my paper, we don't want to bar certain varieties that have always been shipped as early fruit. I don't think this law is perfect, but under the conditions that we have to labor, with the various soil conditions and root stock conditions and different localities, and our other conditions in which this fruit is grown, we haye tried to set up the best we could set up without crippling any particular section. If you increase the juice content, your Homestead section will not be able to move until after the law is lifted. Mr. Waldron: In order to protect growers of Royal grapefruit, is it all right to send thousands of cars of immature fruit from other sections? Isn't this law demoralized by people looking for their own interests rather than the interests of the State? I heard one man say he had heard no complaint about green oranges in Florida, yet the State was flooded with complaints. Mr. Bolick: I think I covered that in my pa per. There were some men on that committee who weren't harmonious with the present setup on oranges, and one man wanted seven and one half without any solids. He says "We will work out most anything you want on grapefruit," be cause he knew I was interested in grapefruit. We want good, eatable grapefruit, and I am con vinced you have a good eatable grapefruit under that law, and because you have the juice content in there that will give the fruit a juicy flavor.

6 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 131 I was talking with th manager of Childs' Res taurant. He bought five carloads of grapefruit in one shipment He had to go and buy a carload of canned juice to put over that grapefruit so people would eat it. We just want to get good eatable fruit to the consumer. You didn't hear a lot of complaint after Commissioner Mayo put the juice content requirement in there. Mr. Hyde: I want to ask Mr. Bolick one ques tion. I have talked with quite a number of pack ing house operators on this subject, and I have asked the packing house operator, under the pres ent proposed law, how much fruit will be shipped in comparison to this past year, and in every in stance they have said about twice. Under the proposed law, next year during the shipping sea son there will be twice as much fruit leaving the State as during the past year. Whether its green or ripe or edible is a question, but if that much goes out during that same period, I think our markets will be pretty well flooded. Mr. Bolick: I think that the fruit that is eat able will move out, and the fruit that isn't, is go ing to stay in Florida under this present setup. It may increase or decrease. I will venture to say there are very few packing house managers in the State of Florida that have given any con sideration to this green fruit law, or any fruit law. If it didn't pass, they told the grower it didn't pass, and told him to bring in another sample. That's about the status of the packing house managers in Florida today. It has dug down into the pockets of the growers until they are beginning to think about it today, and as I have stated before, I have spent two years study ing this thing. L. B. Skinner: We want to extend our markets if we can safely do it. If we can ship grapefruit with enough juice in it in September, ship it. We are confronted with a condition here that we have a thirty million crop, about half of which is grapefruit, and that is going to increase every year, and 200 cars floods the market. If we can get off part of this before, I believe the recommendation of this committee will give us plenty of juice, and if we can get that off, we are that much better off. We certainly can't market twelve or twenty million boxes in a short time. You have got to have plenty of time to do it. ENFORCEMENT OF THE PLANT QUARANTINE ACT By Lee A. Strong, Chief, Plant Quarantine and Control Administration, U. S. D. A., Washington, D. C. The Plant Quarantine Act which became effec tive 'August 20, 1912, was the culmination of sev eral years of effort to have some type of legisla tion passed by Congress that would serve to pro tect the agriculture and horticulture of the United States from plant pests from foreign countries. In submitting a report on this bill on May 6, 1912, the House Committee on Agriculture in the Sixty-second Congress outlined as conditions which called for this legislation the following: "The United States is the only great power without protection from the importation of in sect-infested or diseased plant stock. Referring only to European powers, Austria Hungary, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and Tur key prohibit absolutely the entry from the United States of all nursery stock, and admit fruit only after a most rigid examination shows freedom from infestation, and most of the others have very strict quarantine and inspection laws and the same is true of the important British and other colon ial possessions. "The United States thus becomes a sort of dumping ground for refuse stock. Diseased live stock may be and are excluded by law but diseased and insect-infested plants have no bar against in troduction. More than half of the important in sect pests of fruits and farm crops are of for eign origin and these now occasion a tax of nearly half a billion dollars annually. A properly en forced quarantine" and inspection law in the past would have excluded many if not most of these insect enemies and also many plant diseases." The Committee further said: "While as just Indicated most of the important seriously injurious insects and plant diseases