The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1910-03-04
IS
CONSUMPTION
Increasing Demand for Grape
fruit in the United States
-FOUR MILLION BOXES
Comparatively New Table DeIicacy Now
Known H. NumberIess Homes and
Has Become Necessity

"Isn't it awful the way Uncle Sam
has acquired the grapefruit appetite in
TIE last few years?" exclaims the
New York Herald. 9Th s winters
supply, either arrived or steaming
northward by boat and speeding west
BY rail for his breakfast table, spread
from ocean to ocean, will exceed four
million bOxes-which means approx
mately half billion pomelOs.
"That's the grapefruit's other name
-pomelo-or, worse yet, shaddOck or
chadec. But if you ask the fruit VEN
der on the corner for pOmelO he will
merely give you stare. They are
grapefruit to him, those big, pale vel
low globues that have become the
breakfast ye.opener of Uncle Sans
prosperous millions in such astonishing
quantity, Grapefruit because they
grow IN clusters of dozen or so, like
enormous yelly grapes. The United
States Department of Agriculture has
despred of making the name pOmelO
stick. The name shaddOck is applied
commercially to different fruit from
the pomelo, the fruit that resemble it
except for neck and for size, for the
shaddock of commerce weighs fifteen
pounds or so. The Dutch are respon-
sble for the name pomelo, having
corrupted 'pOmpelnOes' until it was
pommelO and finally pomelO.
mot many years ago the grapefruit
was thing despised, gastrOnOmically
but look at it now Even in 1885 an
authority on oranges and their citrus
cousins wrote: When allowed growing
space they continue to load themselves
down with fruit as large as footballs
matters of wonder and that is all.
Quite contrast to the United States
Department of Agriculture's recent
bulletin of the pomelo Uncle Sam dis
dams the common name.
"'There will always be good de-
mand for first class fruit, well colOred
we'll fed, carefully selected, well pack
ed and placed upon the market in Invit-
ing shape. This is the official verdict
of the Florida experiment station.
Fifteen years practically have wit
messed this invasion of grapefruit into
the bill of fare of Uncle Sam, with the
demand increasing from few meagre
thousands to four million boxes in 1909,
enough to make gorgeous necklace
that would encircle the earth at least
once. This is the official statement:
1t is only within the last fifteen years
or 80 that the pomelO has been regard
ed as a commercial fruit.
"Since the grapefruit was discover
ed commercially largely through the
Department of Agriculture, its cultlva-
ton has grown in Florida, Jamaica and
the Isle of Pines to an enormous source
of wealth and has been taken up in
California with some success. Florida
produces about 200, 600 boxes of the
total 4,0OO0OO and has become the
grapefruit garden Of che world.
"As rule the fruit is sold on the
tree at an average price of 81 30 box
leaving expense Of picking. boxing and
other incidental bugaboos of the fruit
grower to the buyer. According to
official figure this means $735 per acre.
Following that, according to experience
of growers on the pennsular, the in
crease will run.
Boxes Gross Net
Sixth year ..., .2l0 $3l5 $500
Seventh year $50 525 400
Eighth wear -. 400 1856 600
''At the end Of the eighth year the
total value of the acre grove, amounts
to $1,000. The net income during that
time will have amounted to $1,000,
showing 81, l5O profit, with approx
mately 5000 per year net income, ac-
c0rding to the experiment station esti-
mate, though some growers assert that
", 500 an acre is no unusual net an
nual profit.
HThis commercial side of the grape
fruit, which puts them in the nuggets
OF gold class, has developed since north
ern visitors to Florida acquired the
taste which has now spread so contag
iously through the states. Some OF
them learned to know and like the
pomelo and certain demand was Great
ed by their desire for the fruit upon
their return. Somewhere about 1850
Or 1886 the first pomelos were shipped
from the state, sold in New York and
Philadelphia and Melted the shippers
about fifty cents per barrel. This was
the beginning, and better prices were
sOoh realized.
Growing, the grapefruit is spectacu-
lar, dangling in great lunches of pale
yellow globes on the tree that attalns a
height of thirty feet. The fruit. no
longer despised, ships well, and its
pongent flavor has made piquant ap-
pealto the jaded stomachs of an over
worked nation. That it is such an ex-
elusive product of pomelogist mas
heightened the interest in its production
A9d Its marketing, and has made 1t one
q the conspicu,usIy unique products OF
&he new century. |
The pomelo was brought to Florida