Utilization of Citrus Culls and Other Products 
by the Florida Home 
Prof. Agnes 
Mr. Hume; It has always been a 
source of wonderment to me that so many 
of our citrus products in this state have 
gone to waste. There is a side of our 
Florida horticulture that for years has 
been very much neglected. This phase 
of the question was not borne in on me 
until I went to Spain some years ago. In 
going through the citrus districts, I was 
struck by two things; first, that sour 
oranges, the common sour orange as we 
know them, were grown in large numbers 
in orchards, receiving the same care as 
was given to the orchard of sweet 
oranges, and for no other reason than 
to ship the fruit to England and Scotland 
and then we import the manufactured pro¬ 
duct in the shape of orange marmalade 
to the extent of many hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of dollars annually. 
The other thing that struck me was 
that in a Spanish orchard, absolutely 
nothing went to waste. I went through 
districts and saw the flowers after they 
were dried and was told that at the bloom¬ 
ing time they spread sheets under the 
trees and then as the petals dropped on 
these sheets they were gathered up, dried, 
and sent to the perfume manufacturies. 
I saw tons of the small dropped oranges 
the size of peas or half an inch in cliame- 
Ellen Harris 
ter. I was told they were dried and used 
in the manufacture of scents and per¬ 
fumes and distilling the oil. 
I saw tons of orange peels of various 
kinds that were stripped off the culls and 
dried. It seems to me that there was not 
a single thing produced in an orange 
grove that was not utilized; not a thing 
was wasted. 
But in Florida, we have been wasting 
these things by tons and tons and thou- 
sonds and thousands of dollars. 
I hope the time is here, or that we will 
shortly reach it when these things that 
are in demand in our country can be sup¬ 
plied from our own groves throughout 
this state. There is no reason why orange 
marmalade cannot be manufactured to the 
extent of filling the wants and needs of 
the American market. 
I am very glad to know there is a gen¬ 
eral drift in that direction. The manu¬ 
facturing of grapefruit juice from fruit 
that would otherwise be useless, is being 
undertaken. 
I hope that so long as this Society ex¬ 
ists, it will lend its every effort in fur¬ 
thering this work, because it means more 
from our groves, more to us individually, 
and more for the State. 
I am very happy at this time we have 
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