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The Bird Dogs. Florida's agriculture has kept pace with its industry. In the center of the state, citrus groves were heavy last week with the biggest crop in history (an estimated 130 million boxes). The "bird dogs," i.e., the middlemen in the industry, sent radio-directed trucks speeding from grove to grove, lining up likely buys. Not long ago, such a huge crop would have meant vast surpluses, and the dumping of millions of bushels of fruit into Florida's lakes and rivers. But "this year, almost every orange and grapefruit will be sold at good prices−or at least safely stored in cans for future sale. For this happy prospect, citrus men can thank the $132 million frozen-concentrate industry, which in a few short years has leveled out the feast & famine industry by dotting the green landscape with 22 vast brick and aluminum cold-storage warehouses. Having poured millions into the liquid-concentrate revolution, the citrus industry may be on the threshold of another upheaval: crystal concentrates, easy to ship and inexpensive to store, that can be turned into fruit juice with the addition of water. Florida's Orange Crystal, Inc. last year offered $300,000 worth of stock to finance such a plant, sold the issue in a day.
The enormous growth of Florida's citrus industry has been paralleled by big gains in the relatively new pursuit (for Florida) of raising cattle. Until a few years ago, gunfights crackled over the Florida countryside in the best tradition of the West. But now 1,500,000 acres of good cattle land and 1,386.000 head of beef cattle are fenced in under the watchful eyes of Seminole Indian cowhands, and order reigns. Said 77-year-old Agriculture Commissioner Nathan Mayo: "We used to have nothing but scrawny herds of 4-H cattle−hide, hair, hoof and horns. Now there are more than 925 registered herds in the state." Though Florida beef is not yet up to the quality of Western meat, it is improving, and in the past 20 years 32 packing and slaughterhouses have been built.
In the Everglades, "winter vegetable capital of the U.S.," rice and sugar are fast expanding, and in central Florida, millions are made each year in tomatoes, beans and corn. Overall vegetable production has soared 500% in 30 years. One cattle breeder and farmer, Gainesville's W. A. Shands, a director of Florida Power & Light, has grossed as much as $1,000,000 on 125 acres of celery land alone.
New Crop. Florida's new kind of boom has cast up a new crop of millionaires. One of the top citrus men is Tom Swann, 52, who runs the groves and concentrate plant for Florence Foods, a big growers' cooperative, and also has 1,600 acres in groves of his own. In the state's growing cattle business, the biggest force is Florida's Lykes family, headed by John Wall Lykes (66) and nephew Charles (37). The Lykeses who also own the Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., Inc., largest shipper under the U.S. flag (54 cargo ships operating out of Gulf ports), have recently started to concentrate on concentrates. They control Dade City's $15 million Pasco citrus-processing plant, biggest in the state, which in 24 hours can turn out enough fruit products to fill three 50-car freight trains. On an average, the 83 members of the Lykes family are worth some $2,000,000 apiece.