 For ages upon ages the sun burned down upon this place, this unplanned Eden, this spawning ground for time. Mark the richness here, the lush fruit of sun and rain, of microscopic nourishment, and the bounty that the long dead pay to living things. So it must have looked in the beginning, in the morning of the world, so it must have looked to the first man who wandered into this place, the taste of this bounty of the sun to give it all a meaning and a name. The National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation presents Bounty of the Sun, the story of the citrus industry in Florida, and of a 20th century discovery of a fountain of youth. This is the fifth in the series, Heritage Over the Land, documenting what we believe to be one of the most remarkable developments of our time, the rebirth of the American South. A short time ago Henry Cassidy, a distinguished foreign correspondent, led an NBC documentary team into what was for him a new and undiscovered land, the hills, the plains, the twisting roads that stretch below the straggling line of Mason and Dixon. Here with his fifth report on this modern odyssey is Mr. Cassidy. When the ill-fortuned Ponce de Leon first ventured ashore on the coast of Florida, he was seeking, so they tell us, the fountain of eternal youth. The Indians had told him that somewhere in the jungle, there lay a magic spring, a thing of clear bubbling water, where whosoever drank would know eternal youth. The poor deluded conquistador wandered the length and breadth of this land, drank of a hundred springs and brooks, but he died, one fancies with some resentment at a respectable old age. Across the centuries, we should like to advise him that while his search was an impossible undertaking, he was considerably closer to success than he could have dreamed. Oh, I'm an old man, and I just loathe. I played golf until I was 75 years old, and then I stopped. Then what do you do? You sit and talk to the people in the lobby? Yes, and read. I would think that you, Mr. Means, as one of the first tourists ever to come to Florida has seen as much as anybody has. We came to Lakeland practically every time we came to Florida because my wife had an uncle that lived here, and he was postmaster and lived to be 96 years old. And that is Florida, or part of it, this year of grace 1954. The fountain of youth that the old Ponce de Leon searched for has kept it secret, but there is other magic here, the magic of sun and wind and long white beaches, and on the level lands that stretch away toward the interior, a wizardry that the ancient ones would not have dared to dream. When the story of American industry comes to be written, there will have to be a chapter somewhere on this development, the process whereby fruit juices are concentrated and shipped, fresh as the moment the liquid was squeezed from the fruit to markets a continent or more away. It's within the memory of men still living when an orange or any citrus fruit was to those in the north at least a rare delicacy. Refrigeration changed that for some, but the price was high, too high for many, and in thousands of homes the juice of citrus was unknown. Then suddenly it seems a new development frozen concentrates. It was to bring changes in thousands of homes across the land, changes too for the miles upon miles of citrus groves, and strangely enough for the newly born cattle industry in Florida. Well, like so many stories, it really goes back quite a little way. I believe the first citrus juices to be concentrated were concentrated in Italy before 1900, and it was concentrated by freezing. That is, the juice was allowed to freeze into a cake of ice, and the ice was then separated from the sugars and acids which were soluble in the water. The northerners, I don't know whether they still do it, but used to make applejack in Jersey, and they'd take a barrel of hard cider and put it out in the back in the winter day, and the water would freeze out of it and leave a core of alcohol in the middle which they would dip out. I have heard they're still doing that, doctor. I say, well, applied to citrus, you get a concentrated product that way. This is L. G. McDowell, Research Director of the Florida Citrus Commission at Lakeland, Florida. Here, for me at least, the story began. A story we would follow across the length and breadth of this state. A story whose ending is not yet in sight. More recently, however, the orange juice was concentrated by evaporation of water from the juice by boiling. Now, as you know, water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. However, if you boil orange juice at this temperature, you would get a cooked taste. A lot of work the last few years has been on the reduction of the temperature at which this boiling takes place. Now to do that, you have to lower the pressure above the boiling juice. So at the present time, the water is boiled off of the juice at temperatures of about 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The gimmick in this frozen concentrated orange juice was the idea of carrying our concentration past our normal stopping point and then adding freshly extracted orange juice to the concentrated juice to dilute it to the final concentration that we wanted and then freezing the mixture. And that was successful in adding the bouquet back to the concentrate. In the beginning, the water was removed by freezing. Now, the technique is through vapor, through steam, which is water in the vapor phase. The resultant product is then frozen merely to preserve it. Now, Dr. McDowell, what has been your part in this development? Florida Secretary's Commission was working under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Winterhaven, Florida. Under that agreement, we had several research workers working along these general lines. It so happened that it fell to my lot to think of this gimmick of adding back the orange juice to give the fresh flavor to the concentrated product. However, I'd like to make clear that there were two other workers involved in the process who did all the actual work. And Dr. Valhize, who you're going to talk to later, was in on the scene very intimately, too. Dr. McDowell, what's the birthday of this gimmick of yours? It was in April of 1944. Actual commercial production started in the season of 1945-46. Ordinarily, it would take longer than that, I suppose, to have some new industrial device put into production. Well, in the chemical industry, they usually say that it takes about seven years from test tube to the first consumer sale. In this instance, that was compressed to about two years' time. Well, then that, Dr. McDowell, would indicate that the citrus industry grasped immediately the importance of your development. Yes, I think that is true. It's a commonplace that huge things often have a small and modest beginning. So it was with this process whereby juices are caught at the moment of their perfection and trapped in ice, even as the creatures of prehistoric times are preserved lifelike in the glaciers of the north. Listen to the story of a laboratory report of penciled outline. At the time that the frozen orange concentrate research was done, a cooperative agreement was in existence between the Department of Agriculture and the Florida Citrus Commission. Under this agreement, there were several research fellows working at the laboratory in Winterhaven under the direction of Dr. McDowell and myself. Now, this to me, Dr. Velthice, is a dramatic thing. What did it look like in the days when you were working at it? After work began on this project, it was only a very short time until the possibilities were quite evident. As Dr. McDowell has indicated, he forwarded a penciled outline to the laboratory in April of 1944, which had in it several ideas. Among them, substantially, the ideas are now incorporated into frozen orange concentrate. Juice was obtained on a small scale in the laboratory by hand reaming and processed into concentrate in substantially laboratory equipment, and the concentrate had excellent flavor. Dr. Matt Velthice, in charge of the Citrus product station of the United States Department of Agriculture at Winterhaven, Florida. I asked what changes this new process had brought to these lands? Well, I believe that the industry has increased in volume approximately a third. The production now is in the order of 65 million boxes a year of oranges. Well, Dr. Velthice, here in the development of concentrated orange juice, you've had cooperation between a state commission on which Dr. McDowell serves and a federal station of which you are in charge. Could you tell us how did that come about? Oh, it came about very simply. The Florida Citrus Commission had recently established a research organization and had funds to invest in citrus research. At Winterhaven, we had facilities. The organization and building existed and there was room for these men to go to work there. When it's possible for two organizations to get together like that, why benefits can frequently accrue to both organizations. Then carrying it one step farther, Dr. Velthice, here you have cooperation between state and federal governments and their stations and agencies. How does it then apply to private industry? In laboratories such as ours, state or federal, in which public funds are involved, the information is made available to the people that can use it as rapidly as possible. Sometimes it is by publication, but in this case it passed by word of mouth. People from the industry visit the laboratory, how many instances, to discuss their problems with the technical experts who were stationed there. And in this particular case, that is the way the information was passed along. And I take it private industry was quick to grab it. Oh yes, they were. While Dr. Velthice was talking, there came to me a conversation I had several weeks before with a cattle man in Bartow, Florida. L.S. Harris, speaking of one of the most revolutionary developments in the cattle industry since Gene Autry, the use of citrus pulp as feed. Most of your feed books don't recommend citrus pulp, but we have been feeding citrus pulp dehydrated for about 10 years. We feed even our show cattle gets a 50% ration of dehydrated citrus pulp, which we find as for the health of less disease and less sickness amongst cattle. In 1920, the production was about 15 million boxes. Last year, it was almost 120 million boxes, so that's doubling every 10 years practically. And new developments in the industry. It's been everything except static. Well, what would that land have been in before? Oh, it was undeveloped land. Today, the acreage is around 438,000. Well, that was 1950-51, and 62,000 was non-bearing. We've been planting new acreage at the rate of about 15,500 acres a year. Some people estimate that by 1955, it'll approach a half a million acres. That was Robert Evans, General Manager of the Florida Citrus Commission. Production doubling every 10 years is already there planning for the time when there will be half a million acres. That's big business. Compare it with tobacco in Virginia or North Carolina. Compare it with cotton acreage in Georgia, and it's still big. I remember one day walking through a grove on the outskirts of Winterhaven, Florida. With me was Mr. Tom Swan, the owner of these acres that stretch like some orange colored sea beyond the horizon. The sun beat down with a harsh benediction until it seemed you could almost hear the growing things. We have about 1,600 acres. A portion of it is young grove, and I was told about 350,000 boxes. What would the value of that be roughly, Mr. Swan? This year it's perhaps worth twice as much as it was last year on the tree just about. How long have you had your groves, Mr. Swan? The grove, one grove, my father bought in 1908. That was the beginning. But how did the groves expand from there to this? Binding land, carrying it, setting, growing the trees, setting young groves. And are you still expanding? And we're still slowly. About 50, 60 acres a year. That's a real steady growth. Mr. Swan, do you have anything to do with this concentrated orange juice that they're telling us about down here? I am president of a cooperative organization which has a manufacturing plant. They make frozen concentrated orange juice. In addition to growing, you're also participating in the manufacture of concentrated orange juice? That is correct. Well, how did that come to you, Mr. Swan? Well, it happened that I was on the factory chairman's commission at the time the development took place. I hired Dr. McDowell, and he did the research. Then here you have a complete chain of events. You men orange growers stimulated through your commission the research that led to actual creation of concentrated orange juice. Then it came back into your hands, and you men who grow the oranges also operate the manufacturing plants for the concentrate. That's right. I must say that it's a modern miracle. Even miracles are compounded of planning, hard work, and for a first-class miracle, a dash of two of inspiration. Mr. Swan had spoken of the Citrus Commission, but like the seeming ease of a magician who produces a bunch of flowers from the empty air, hours of labor precede the easy manner and the nonchalant way. It was one of many growers who took some small part in creating the commission. We arrived at these various critical periods in our Citrus life, and we had arrived at one then, something had to be done. Citrus was selling at such a low price that the producer was hardly getting cost of production. So we banded together and went to the legislature, and the move was backed by most of the growers of the state of Florida, asked the legislature to impose a tax on the growers to produce revenue to set up the Florida Citrus Commission. Mr. Evans, now general manager of the commission, took up the story. They went to the legislature and prevailed upon the legislature to pass the Florida Citrus Commission Act. Under this Act, there is a commission of 11 Citrus growers who administer the program. These men are appointed by the governor for two-year terms, and they serve without salaries. Although we are a state agency, it is operated largely the same as a private organization so far as actual operations are concerned. The primary objective of the commission is to improve the welfare of Florida Citrus Gores. In setting up this Act, it provided that the commission would carry on work on advertising and promotion of Florida Citrus fruit and on research. Mr. Evans, all of this work that you're doing takes money. Where does the money come from? When they thought that this program was needed in 1935, the Florida Citrus Gores, the group representing most of the industry, got together and decided that they needed this program, and the only way to put it into effect would be through an act of the legislature under which all growers would pay a part of the cost. So they went to the legislature and prevailed upon them to pass the Citrus Commission Act, which provides for an excise tax on each box of citrus fruit is produced. And how much does the tax amount to? It's approaching a total of four million dollars a year now. Actually, on each box of fruit, it's three cents a box on oranges and four cents on grapefruit and five cents on tangerines and limes. So this is a really rare case where a group of farmers has asked for a tax to be imposed on themselves. That is correct. Listen to this voice. Robert Rutledge, General Manager of the Florida Citrus Mutual. From 1930 to 1940, the citrus crop doubled. And then from 1940 to 1950, the crop doubled again and brings us up to over the 100 million box mark. We at all times try to send the very best quality to the markets, especially since Texas had their freeze several years ago. They had a freeze there that knocked out about 85 to 90 percent of their producing groves. And since then, while we have tried to supply the markets that they used to supply in the Southwest and the Midwest, to give you an idea of the bigness of the situation, as far as concentrate is concerned, they will utilize 36 million boxes of fruit this year in making the 46 to 47 and a half million gallons that will serve the consumers throughout the United States. It has, in many ways, made our price pattern a little more erratic than it used to be. But at the beginning of Concentrate, the prices were good. And then we go into another season, prices are not so good. This season, prices, as far as the grower is concerned, are good and give everybody a reasonable profit. And as well, it makes a retail seller that really moves the fruit into the consumer pattern. Bob, you fellas seem to have names for everything down here. I understand that Lakeland is called the World Citrus Center or something. Yes, that's right. Have you got a name for this concentrated orange juice? Indeed we have. We call it the Cinderella product of the industry and it's based on this fact that about two seasons prior to the really coming in of Concentrate, as far as the growers were concerned, prices were not too good. So Concentrate came along at a time where it strengthened the grower price considerably and it got the name of a Cinderella product. You've established then that concentrated orange juice is feminine. Well, in a way, yes. But you might by that inference point to consumption, frozen Concentrate orange juice is the largest seller of frozen foods. In fact, it is larger than all the rest combined of the frozen food line and at no time in the frozen food history of the business has a product grown so fast. Bob, I was interested in what you were saying about fluctuation of prices. Why is it, even with this new development, that you should have such wide variations in price? Well, a price, as you well know, is very much attached to the supply and demand conditions of the country, the amount of money that's available for food products throughout the country. In other words, the consumer expendable income and a lot of other related facts. And each year we're dealing with a different set of facts, so each year we're dealing with different pricing conditions. So as a result, we do get different prices. Well, is it a good business to be in? It's an excellent business to be in over the average. Over the years, it's a very, very good business. Well, there's one point that I would like to underline. And that is that frozen concentrated orange juice is essentially fresh orange juice from which water has been removed and is then frozen to maintain its quality. It's not pasteurized and unless it remains in the frozen state, that is at about zero degrees Fahrenheit, it will rapidly lose its qualities. As is certainly right, Mac, frozen orange concentrate must be kept at zero degrees Fahrenheit or below. And at temperatures above zero, deterioration will set in and eventually the product will meet consumer resistance. I think we ought to bring out again the fact that the product is shipped to the market, mechanically refrigerated rail cars and mechanically refrigerated trucks at zero degrees. And that we want to impress on all of the wholesalers and the retail storekeepers and the housewife herself to not break that chain of preservation of the product and to keep it at zero. That is frozen solid until she wants to consume it. Drs. LG McDowell and Matt Veldhuis, their voices were the voices of many. Long after I had returned to the north, these and other voices echoed in my memory, came back with the rhythm and power of some yet to be written epic poem. I hired the only horse who was and every mule I wrote down to this section where I now live. This was a pineapple plantation where our house is now at West Palm Beach. I inquired what the name and the place and he says this ain't no place, it's just where folks should stay. But this state, this place of sun and wind and the long surf that rolls up from the warm seas of the south has other products. Edward Blackwell, more than 100 years old, a seeker like old Ponce de Leon of the Fountain of Youth, whose eyes have looked long upon this land and found it good. I was born in Buffalo, New York on September 23, 1852, and I have my father's diary and in writing recorded, boy born about nine o'clock this morning. Now a man who has lived a hundred years and who has known the south since 1878 is certainly one that I could ask, what do you think the south is going to do from here on? It's going to still grow and improve. And so he found his fountain of youth are almost so. The distribution of age groups in the state is very interesting. There are over 278,000 people in the state at the present time over ages 65. And also there's a very rapidly growing younger group in the so-called elementary school area. This leaves a great, not exactly a void, but a very much lower percentage of people in the middle age groups in this state than you'd find in most. Dr. Russell S. Poor, a man with a big title and a big job, he's chairman of the University Relations Department of the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Physics and director of the Medical Center Study in Florida. One of his duties is to analyze population trends in the state. Look closely on your charts, Dr. Poor, and tell us, what have you seen? Florida is growing at a very much more rapid rate than any other southern state. As a matter of fact, perhaps only two other states in the Union are growing at the rate. We predict that there'll be a conservative, lay four million people in the state by 1960. How many are there now? A little less than three. So we expect another quarter. Well, Dr. Poor, what about longevity? If I came down here to Florida to live instead of working in New York, how long would I live? I'm not sure that longevity has been classified strictly by states and I'm not sure I'm a good subject either, but perhaps you could take some more typical example. Of course, longevity in the last 10 years has increased tremendously, as you know, so that average age expectancy is somewhere around 68 in contrast to its something like 12 to 15 years less than that 10 years ago. Of course, we feel that the sunshine of Florida is conducive to this kind of thing. Consequently, in our planning, we have thought of our project here as the planning for a health center with the emphasis being upon prevention, rather than upon the treatment of disease. But somehow statistics, charts, lines on a drawing board can never tell the whole story. Let's go back to Lakeland, to the front porch of a local hotel and the charming elderly lady who was gracious enough to chat for a while, with the inquisitive man with the microphone and the questions. Could I ask your name? Mrs. Catherine Ricker. And where do you come from Mrs. Ricker? Pakistan, PA. Pennsylvania. As you can imagine, one of the things that has struck us most in looking around the South here is seeing so many retired folks who are living down here. And since you come from Pennsylvania, I suppose you're one of those, are you? I just come for the winter months. Oh, you come every winter? Every winter, for eight years. But every year, there's so many, many people from the North stay here. Well, Mrs. Ricker, what brought you first to Florida? Weather. The weather? Yes. Get away from the snow and ice. Yeah, well, that's a laudable ambition, I must say. Tell me, Mrs. Ricker, how do you spend your day? Well, I walk around the lake and I read some, and I, there's always someone to talk to down in the lobby. And how about evenings? Do you go to? We play cards every night. Are they other people from the North? Oh, from all over. Chiefly from the Midwest. They come from Michigan and Wisconsin and Ohio, Kentucky, down through there. Well, Mrs. Ricker, you say that you meet a lot of folks in the lobby of the hotel. What kind of folks? Most all retired. They're all old people, older people. And what would they have been doing before they retired, most of them? What kind of business were they in? Some of them are doctors, some of them are dentists, and they're businessmen. And you get to know them well down here. Oh, very good. We're just like a family. This, then, was the land that we saw, this unplanned Eden spawning ground for time. Now host to those who have learned to laugh at time. Ponce de Leon sought miracles here, but we later voyages found the miracle. It was we who drank of liquids that defy the crawling hours, the days, the years. You came too soon, Senor de Leon. The miracle you thought was not yet come. It was for us to catch the dream and the fulfillment to find the bounty of the sun. You've been listening to Bounty of the Sun, the fifth in a series of documentary programs on the New South. These programs are written and directed by William Allen Bales, produced by Miss Lee F. Payton, and brought to you in cooperation with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Next week, the truly incredible story of the growth of big industry in the South, and the bonds that had to be broken with a long, dead past.