24 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



UTILIZATION OF WASTE IN 

 CITRUS FRUITS 



In every field crate of oranges there is 

 an average for the season <>f six ounces of 

 crude oil of orange, derived from the 

 rinds, worth $1.50 ;ui ounce — in October 

 and November eight ounces, in February, 

 March and April lour ounces — also five 

 gallons of juice worth .$1.50 a gallon. The 

 refined, or "terpenless" oil is worth $110 

 a pound. Citric acid crystals, obtained 

 from the juice, are quoted at $1.75 a 

 pound. 



Every season about Hi per cent, of the 

 crop goes to waste in the "drops" and 

 another -~> per cent, in the discards, or 

 "culls." In a crop of 12,<J0(J,U<J0 boxes, for 

 instance, about 4,000,000 boxes are un- 

 marketable, except that the best of the 

 culls are sold as "seconds." 



Every drop and cull, overripe or blem- 

 ished orange, is as capable of producing 

 the oil and the juice referred to as the 

 best fruit. The fruit that has been and 

 still is, to a great extent, merely wasted 

 is, in other words, worth about $16.50 a 

 box. 



The Florida Times-Union . has been 

 remonstrating against such waste for 

 years. The answer to such protests has 

 been : "How can we save the unmarket- 

 able stuff?'' A way has been opened 

 through the inventive genius of Dr. Joseph 

 T. Moncrief, Ph.C, to accomplish this 

 importanl saving. A plant lias been 

 opened in Jacksonville, Fla., to utilize 

 the inventions, machinery and methods, 

 perfected by Dr. Moncrief. It has branches 

 at several points in the citrus belt where 

 the crude by-products can be expressed 

 by these machines and methods and sent 

 to Jacksonville to be refined. The home 

 plant is also fully provided with machin- 

 ery to manufacture the same by-products 

 in great quantities daily from the fresh 

 fruit, and there is storage room for sev- 

 eral carloads of boxes at one time. After 

 a preliminary run of some weeks at the 

 end of the season just closing- this plant 

 is ready to begin work under full head 

 with the opening of the next season. 



It is estimated that in 1913 there were 

 about 20,000 acres under citrus cultiva- 

 tion in Cuba and the Isle of Pines, about 



1 LO00 acres being in grape fruit, 5,000 

 in oranges, and SCO acres in lemons. The 

 citrus chiefly exported from Cuba is grape 

 fruit. Oranges are grown chiefly for local 

 consumption and little attention is now 

 paid to lemons. The lemon orchards are 

 now being budded over to oilier citrus 

 varieties. The Cubans themselves eat 

 very little grape fruit, but are very fond 

 of vvhal may be termed oversweet, insipid 

 oranges. It has been estimated that the 

 City of Havana alone consumes an aver- 

 age of 100,000 such oranges daily the year 

 round. The citrus growers of Cuba have 

 one great advantage over most of the 

 citrus regions of Florida and California, 

 namely, the total freedom from loss owing 

 to frost. 



Florida is already moving to utilize 

 her waste citrus fruit for by-products. 

 Cuba can now do the same. One can 

 bardly exaggerate the importance to Cuba 

 of her citrus crops when every yellow 

 globe that matures has been made to yield 

 up its quota of profit. 



MATANZAS WATER SUPPLY 



Dr. Jose M. Cardenas, Director of the 

 Engineering Department of Sanitation, 

 has made an extensive examination of 

 the Matanzas water supply. 



He found these waters were contami- 

 nated or poisoned by the filtering into the 

 source springs supplying the water to the 

 Matanzas aqueduct of fetid molasses mat- 

 ter and acid wash waters from a sugar 

 central, situated some eleven kilometers 

 away. 



SPORTS AT ORIENTAL PARK 



The Governor of Havana has endorsed 

 the resolutions of the Marianao Ayuntami- 

 ento relative to granting a concession for 

 a sports park where all sorts of games 

 may lake place, with the exception of the 

 Spanish game known as Jai Alai. This 

 park will be at Oriental Park and the con- 

 cessionary is Zorilla, Jr. The concession 

 will allow a continuance of horse racing, 

 which concession had lapsed this year. 



