| Show UNCLE SAM FEEDS C ON GRAPEFRUIT Product Despised Fifteen Years Ago Becomes Daily 1 Necessity If IS NEW SOURCE OF WEALTH 31 Pomeo Growing its Has Proved Imn Im Tm r n ensely Profitable to Florida I 4 Fruit Grows In Clusters Special Correspondence Chicago Dec Dee 5 It awful the f way Uncle Undo Sam has lias acquired the Uie grapefruit grape grapefruit fruit appetite In to the tho last few years cars This winters supply either cither arrived or teaming steaming northward by boat and speed speeding sp d dInS tag InS west by rail for his breakfast ta taMe table tali li Me ble spread from ocean to ocean will willex exceed ex ed boxes which means approximately a half hair billion pamela the grapefruits other othel name pamela or worse yet shaddock dock or ort But If Ir you jou ask the fruit t vender on the corner for lor a II pamela he will merely merel give cIvo you ou a stare They are arc grapefruit to him those big pale yellow globules that have hao become the tho breakfast c of or Undo Uncle Sams prospering millions In such astonish astonishing astonishIng ing ins quantity Grapefruit because they tho grow In clusters of a Il dozen or 01 so BO BOlike like enormous yellow grapes Tho The United States department of agriculture agriculture ture has despaired of or making nuking the name stick The name shaddock Is commercially to a It different fruit than the pamela the fruit that ro re resembles It except for foi a n neck and for size for the shaddock of et commerce weighs IB 16 pounds or so The Dutch arc responsible for tho the name having corrupted until It Was lo and nod finally cIa Not many man years yearb ago the tho grapefruit was a thing despised gastronomically but look at It now Een en In i an MI authority on oranges orange and their citrus cousins wrote When hen allowed grow growing growing row rowIn ing In space they the continue to load them themselves themselves selves down with fruit as largo larGa as footballs matters of wonder and anil that thatIs Is all Quite a contrast to the Unit UnU United United ed ell states department of or agricultures recent lecent bulletins on the tho Undo Sam disdains tho the common name There will always he be a good de do demand damand domand mand for a fruit well col colored colored colored ored well fed ted carefully selected well packed and placed upon tho tha market In inviting shape This Is the official verdict of the tho Florida experiment sta station station tion Uon fifteen years practically have hae wit witnessed witnessed witnessed this invasion of grapefruit Into the of Uncle Sam with the demand Increasing from a few meager thousands to the boxes of 1909 enough to make malta a gorgeous necklace that would encircle the tho earth at least one ona time This is III the official state statement statement statement ment It Is only within the last Jast 15 years or so that the pamela has been bean regarded as a commercial fruit GRAPEFRUIT DISCOVERED i Since the grapefruit was wag discovered commercially largely through tho the de do department of agriculture Its cultivation cultivation cultivation I tion has grown crown In Florida Jamaica and the Isle of at Pines to an enormous source of wealth and has been taken up In California I w with Ith t sumo some e success I C Florida Ida IJ i I I i I produces about boxes of the tho total and has l become the grapefruit garden of or tho the world Taking the tho experience of or the tho pamela growers on the famous Pinellas penin peninsula peninsula sula near Tampa on the west coast whore where conditions have been found es especially especially favorable because there arc are areno no frost trost visitations in that locked situation the record shows returns re 10 returns turns of ot some ame per acre nere The Tho trees are planted 70 to the tho acre with a 3 mini minimum minimum minimum mum overage o yield of seven boxes to tho the tree tre As A n a rule the fruit Is sold on this the tree treo it at t an nn average Brice of or Jl liO 1570 50 a Il abor IlI box bor leaving expense of or boxing pick pickIng picking I Ing Inh and other Incidental 1 bugaboos of or orthe the fruit grower rower to the tho buyer bujer Accord Accor According Ins Ino to official figures this means per pel acre Raw land at 25 per acre 30 50 5 1 for Hearing clearing fencing and plowing 25 5 i for foi 70 trees at 35 cents cent apiece and 3 36 for foi labor laboi 11 bOl and fertilizer m makes makeR iKes the tho initial expense total per acre ocie It Jl takes four years yearn to bring a I grape or orchard orchard orchard chard Into and three years of care and fertilizer succeeding tho the first plant come to or a n total cost per pei aero acre of before the grape grapefruit grapefruit fruit returns arrive to the grower Tho The fifth firth year the crop teaches leaches more than limn ItO boxes amounting to in the gross or net Following that ac no according cording cardinI to experience of or growers near Largo on the peninsula the Increase will run Sixth year yem no boxes gross COO 00 net neL Seventh year jar oar boxes gross net Eighth year boxes bote gross CoO net At tho end of tho eighth year ear cur tho the total value of tho acre acie grove grovo amounts to Tho The net Income during that time will have amounted to 1300 showing profit with approximately approximately 00 per year net laconic income ac no according cording to the experiment station es 19 estimate though some growers assert that 2500 2 an acre Is no unusual net annual profit CROP WORTH MILLIONS This commercial side of or grapefruit which puts them In the class has Ims developed since northern visitors to Florida acquired the tho taste which has now spread so contagiously through the tho states Some of or them learned to know and like the tho and a certain demand was created b by their desire for the fruit upon their re return return return turn Somewhere about 1880 or 01 1885 the tho first were shipped from tram the tho state stale sold sod In New York and Philadel Philadelphia Philadelphia Philadelphia phia and netted the shippers about 50 60 cents per barrel This was the begin beginning beginning ning and better prices were soon Roan real realized realIzed realized Tate freeze of greatly re reduced reduced reduced the crop and the small amount of ot fruit sold that year par brought an enormous price In some scone cases as much at 15 Iii or 20 JO per box bux The freeze was the Incident that made the famous for tor there the crop was untouched bj by b frost and the tho grow growers growers ers ene reaped the greatest harvest ot of practical monopoly that year jear The Tho climate was worth millions to the peo people people pie the maximum temperature record during the tho past 19 years being 96 do 10 grees grecs nu as against In Chicago In do Fresno lOG In Lincoln Omaha Omahu Helena and Topeka In Yuma In St StLouis StLouis StLouis Louis and Los Angeles in Phoenix In Walla alia Valla In Now New Or Orleans Orleans Orleans leans and tho the mean average tempera temperature temperature temperature ture 50 degrees for January Growing the grapefruit Is lat lai dangling In great bunches of or pale yellow globes on a tree that attains attain a n height of or 30 feet teet The fruit no longer despised ships well and Its pungent flavor has made a appeal to the Jaded stomachs of or an overworked nation That It Is such an exclusive product of or pomo has heightened the Interest In Its production and amI Its marketing and has made mode It ono one ot the conspicuously unique products of the new century DROUGHT BROUGHT BY SPANIARDS SPA The Tho was brought to Florida together with other members of the genus Senus Citrus by the Spaniards who under the leadership of Ponce do de Leon first J t landed upon the east enat coast ol ot of Florida In tho the year ear 1513 From Frain that time until 1821 1621 they the disputed possession ol or of this state with their enemies in the old w world orld and the tho aborigines of the tho coun country country try tr excepting during a period of at 20 during which time Great Britain controlled the tho territory During the tho Spanish regime different citrus fruits were wele Introduced and cultivated cul cultivated cultivated In Florida These through the agency of oC the tho Indians were carried Into nil parts of or the state To this day the common lime generally known as ns the Florida lime limo the rough lemon and the sour orange are ta be found In southern Florida growing luxuriantly under such conditions as would lead one Ignorant of their origin and native home to be lieve them Indigenous to tho soil soli on which they stand |
