FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
I 
162 
million boxes of fruit which really ought 
to be kept at home. Adding to this the 
one and one-third millions of the dump 
pile we have available for fruit product 
manufacture four and one-third million 
boxes, or 172,000 tons of fruit. 
The question naturally arises: To 
what extent is this available fruit being 
utilized for the manufacture of products? 
I have undertaken to collect data on this 
subject by sending out a questionnaire to 
all of those, who, so far as I knew, were 
supposed to be operating on a commercial 
scale. The information thus obtained was 
very fragmentary and unsatisfactory, but 
I will attempt to summarize it for you. 
Twenty questionnaires were sent out 
and only ten replies received. Of these 
ten, two reported that they were still in the 
experimental stage and not yet producing 
anything. 
One firm reports that it is finding a 
larger demand than it can supply for bot¬ 
tled orange juice, natural concentration. 
Two other concerns signify their intention 
of bottling orange juice in the near future. 
One company is producing concentrated 
orange, grapefruit and lime juices for the 
first time this season. They report a 
ready sale for their product and estimate 
that they will use about fifteen carloads 
of fruit this season. One other company 
is planning to produce concentrated juice. 
Grapefruit juice is being produced by 
two different concerns, using a total of 
about twenty carloads of fruit. Another 
company expects to enter this field. 
One company reports the manufacture 
this season of 10,000 cases of canned 
grapefruit, utilizing 20,000 field boxes, 
or about 70 carloads of fruit. At least 
one other company expects to begin can¬ 
ning next season. 
One firm reports a production of 30,- 
000 pounds of orange and grapefruit jam. 
Two companies report crystallized 
grapefruit peel produced to the amount of 
5,200 pounds. I am sure that there is a 
large amount of this commodity produced 
by various small scale workers, which is 
not covered by this report. 
Orange marmalade and grapefruit 
marmalade are manufactured by one fac¬ 
tory at the rate of one carload per week, 
requiring 150 boxes of fruit. One other 
correspondent reported production of 
marmalades but failed to state quantities. 
Doubtless there are others. 
One concern expects to manufacture 
orange oil and citric acid at some future 
date. 
As already stated, the above report is by 
no means complete since some of those 
known to be engaged in fruit product 
work failed to report, and doubtless some 
were overlooked in sending out the ques¬ 
tionnaire. However, it does show plainly 
that we have scarcely scratched the sur¬ 
face yet. We estimated that 172,000 tons 
of fruit were available this season for 
manufacture into products and our survey 
of the situation shows that considerably 
less than 2,000 tons are actually being 
used for this purpose. 
Of course we all understand the reasons 
for this situation—the difficulties both in 
manufacturing and marketing which are 
encountered by those who enter this field. 
I would not wish to give the impression 
that, because there are 172,000 tons avail- 
