The Refrigeration of Citrus Fruits 
Paul Mandeville, Orlando 
Nothing is so dispiriting as to see a 
great opportunity passing unimproved. 
Never mind who said it, this is the dis¬ 
piriting part of the situation today. The 
greatest fortunes of the last generation 
were laid in the reconstruction period 
after the civil war. There, were in those 
days the hang-overs from the war days, 
the profiteers and the cunning men, Jim 
Fisk and Daniel Drew, but who hears of 
them today when the great fortunes are 
mentioned ? 
And what was the foundation of the 
great fortunes? First of all a basic field 
of work, essentials, steel, oil, food and 
I might add drink. The names of the 
men who made these fortunes are too fa¬ 
miliar to recount them. Their methods 
were, on the whole, commercially sound 
and honest. Above all, they had vision. 
Yet Carnegie said in the seventies that 
no man would ever make a large fortune 
in meat, and, behold, how soon was his 
vision out-run by the Armours, Swifts 
and the Morrises! And who can say that 
oranges and eggs are not the great oppor¬ 
tunities of today? 
I mention eggs because I want, with 
your permission, to digress briefly from 
the subject given me, to say that I have 
observed an opportunity for profit in 
your groves that is not generally taken 
advantage of in Florida. I speak with a 
broad and particular knowledge of both 
trade and farm conditions in the poultry 
industry when I say that there is not 
only a good profit in raising poultry and 
eggs for the Florida markets; but you 
have a wonderful natural range for poul¬ 
try in your groves, unexcelled anywhere 
for soil, shade and feed. And without 
my having much knowledge of the needs 
of your fruit trees I can see all about me 
the use of enormous quantities of fer¬ 
tilizers and enormous sums spent for 
spraying and fighting insects and I can 
tell you that poultry is an enemy to in¬ 
sects, feeding on them, and where poul¬ 
try ranges in sufficient numbers, the 
ground is constantly fertilized. 
I also see the splendid groves and 
splendid poultry where these industries 
have been combined in Florida. And I 
have a suggestion to make that I believe 
is worth thinking about. You men who 
are used to co-operation should get to¬ 
gether in groups according to the size of 
your groves and the. number of head of 
poultry which one man can care for, and 
you should get specialists to introduce 
poultry into your groves. Some of you 
are good poultry-men and might turn to 
this development with profit; and there 
are thousands of skilled poultry-men in 
the North who would seize the opportun¬ 
ity to come to Florida, did they know the 
164 
