140 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
uct? And, aside from the question of 
real merit, which is the more saleable 
product ? 
It seems to me that there can be no 
serious doubt as to the first question. 
Surely the ideal thing in all such work is 
to imitate Nature as closely as possible. 
Nature has made citrus fruit juices cloudy 
and of certain definite colors, and any 
product which does not conform to this 
description is not fresh, natural juice, 
whatever else it may be. But the trouble 
goes deeper than that. For, although 
it does seem that the colloidal material— 
the material which gives the juice its nat¬ 
ural cloudiness—has little to do with the 
flavor or food value, the darkening of 
color is nothing more, or less than a mild 
form of decay and is always accompanied 
by injury to the flavor. If you should 
cut a fresh grapefruit and then let it 
stand around until the outer surface dark¬ 
ened ever so little, you would immediate¬ 
ly pronounce it “spoiled” and consign 
it to the garbage can. Why then, should 
you use any lower standards for judging 
the bottled juice? 
Nevertheless, when it comes to a com¬ 
mercial proposition — particularly the 
soda fountain business—there is some¬ 
thing to be said in favor of a clear, dark 
juice. The argument is that the general 
public, not being acquainted with the ap¬ 
pearance of genuine fresh squeezed juice, 
will nine times out of ten choose a dark, 
clear liquid because of its resemblance 
to Coca-Cola and other popular drinks. 
There is no doubt much truth in this, at 
least so far as the first trial is concerned, 
but it seems probable that a customer who 
could be persuaded to sample both kinds 
of juice, would specify the natural col¬ 
ored and flavored product on his repeat 
orders. 
In fact, if a satisfactory product can be 
made to retain its natural color and cloud¬ 
iness indefinitely, it would seem to be 
merely a matter of judicious advertising 
to educate the public up to an apprecia¬ 
tion of its genuineness. It is a very sig¬ 
nificant thing that some of the largest 
advertisers of artificial and imitation cit¬ 
rus fruit drinks are laying great stress 
on the statement that their products are 
“cloudy like the natural fresh fruit juice.” 
Please note that this last paragraph 
contains a big “if”—“if a satisfactory 
product can be made to retain its natural 
color and cloudiness indefinitely.” That's 
where the rub comes. Some very credi¬ 
table products are already on the market 
and they are getting better with the added 
knowledge gained from each season’s ex¬ 
perience, but I do not believe that even 
the most sanguine enthusiast would 
claim that perfection has yet been 
reached. There is still room for improve¬ 
ment. The laboratory of the Exchange 
Supply Company is attacking this prob¬ 
lem with the purpose of finding out the 
effect of various factors and conditions 
on the behavior of the juice, so that even¬ 
tually we can tell just what combination 
of conditions is necessary to obtain a giv¬ 
en result. We have set for ourselves the 
ambitious goal of producing a perfect 
natural juice, “Sealdsweet” in the bot¬ 
tle just as Nature sealed it in the fruit. 
We are making no predictions of the out¬ 
come. Other, more able scientists have 
given it up and said “it can’t be done.” 
It is at best a long-time problem, since 
