Liquid Sunshine for Breakfast

One of the best possible ways to begin a breakfast is with a tall, cool glass of grapefruit juice. Many Arizonans, who breakfast in sun-drenched patios, are able to step from their kitchen doors and pick their morning's supply of grapefruit, fresh from the tree.

Thousands of other Americans, possibly not so fortunate as Arizonans, still are able to receive the same healthful benefits from a morning pick-up of grapefruit juice.

That they are able to enjoy the vitamin laden drink is a tribute to a group of far-sighted citrus growers who, wanting to share their blessings with other fellow Americans, are making it easy to buy top quality Arizona grapefruit.

The business of sharing our blessings isn't altogether altruism. It's good business, and it's big business, too. Nearly a thousand growers, cultivating more than 13,000 acres of grapefruit orchards, contribute their share of fruit to waiting trains which highball nature's yellow-packages liquid sunshine to an ever-increasing consumer market. Americans have become used to demanding the best qual-ity products within the limits of their budgets. And that's exactly what they get when they buy desert grown grapefruit. Arizona fruit is carefully graded and packed, like the jewels they are, in boxes in efficient packing houses often within a stone's throw from the groves. But the grading begins even before the fruit reaches the packing houses. Growers pick their fruit two or three times during a season, Each time taking only the largest, juciest fruit. The smaller fruit is left on the trees, to gain in size and goodness.

When the subject of vitamins is brought up, desert grapefruit growers beam. Their fruit has 'em and in large quantities, too! Vitamin A is found in great quantity in desert grapefruit. The vitamin, in the form of carotene, the substance which gives yellow color to the fruit, is generated by the rays of a bountiful sun which is rarely hidden by clouds in the desert region.

Scientists, delving into the mysteries of vitamins and what they do to promote health, have declared that grapefruit's vitamin A helps one see better and farther in the dark. That's a help if you are a soldier crawling toward an enemy machine gun nest in the gloom of a tropical jungle.

Another vitamin found in large amounts in desert grapefruit is vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, the stuff which keeps one from becoming subject to scurvy. Scientists say that vitamin C, such as is found in Arizona grapefruit, helps stimulate growth and general well being.

Romances which bloom under June moons often owe a part to grapefruit, and culls, at that. The elusive scents worn by lovely ladies are very often compounded of materials which have, as their base, essential oils squeezed from the rinds of grapefruit. These oils similar to musk and ambergris, help bind the components of expensive perfumes.

University of Arizona scientists, working in cooperation with the growers of desert grapefruit, are on their way toward their goal of predetermining the food content of grapefruit by laboratory, test-tube methods. The application of various types of plant foods, and the exact time of application, all have a very definite bearing on the final product.

Do you like your grapefruit sweet or sour? Do you like your grapefruit high or low in carbohydrate content? Well, believe it or not, strides in achieving just such aims are being made now, though scientists, ever cautious, won't reveal their findings until they've been double-checked. When their results are finally announced, fruit growers will be able to proPicking desert grapefruit is an exacting business. During each of two or three pickings a season, only the largest and most luscious fruit is taken Grapefruit gets its name because it often grows in clusters, like grapes. Caroline Hill holds a cluster of Marsh seedless grapefruit grown near Phoenix

Most of Arizona's grapefruit growers live in handsome homes located right in their groves. Here hospitality and gracious living typify Arizona Arizona desert grapefruit is rushed to the packing houses the day it is picked produce even a better fruit . . . just the kind madame, and the doctor desire.

Despite popular belief, grapefruit which is slightly tart is really better, and more flavorable than the sweeter type preferred by many Americans with an overly sweet tooth. Here again the scientists are ready with advice; if you like your grapefruit extra sweet, put sugar on it! The very thing which gives grapefruit its delicious flavor is the citric acid content. Citric acid by the way, is alkaline in its reaction, which makes it so valuable in combating colds. The more sour the fruit, the more citric acid it contains. So if you want to knock that cold, don't spare the grapefruit juice!

Arizona's vast citrus industry owes its existence to man's willingness to bow to nature. Because of that spirit, great dams holding billions of gallons of water, were built so that the desert would bloom and produce for the benefit of mankind. A dependable water supply is thus available to the growers who, at the precise moment when it will do them the most good, open the flood gates of the canals bringBringing the water to their orchards.

Modern equipment and methods, providing the greatest of care in handling, are employed in the great groves in Arizona Every year, beginning along in October, but not reaching a peak until April and May, car after car filled with choice grapefruit rolls from the freight yards in Phoenix and Yuma, bound for customers located in the main, the seven western states. Canada and the Hawaiian Islands too get their share of Arizona grapefruit. Hawaii, as much as it hates to admit it, just can't grow grapefruit, even though it wants to. A vast majority of the desert grapefruit growers are men who have retired, as successes, from their life's work, but who wish to remain active in some pleasant occupation in a mild climate. More often than not they build their homes, beautiful show places, in the midst of their groves. These men, substantial and brilliant, are bound together by their organization, the Grapefruit Administrative Committee, a self-supporting organization authorized by the secretary of agriculture. The principal aim of the administrative committee is the placing of desirable grades and sizes of fresh fruit on the market. A natural consequence is better prices for the growers inasmuch as graded fruit can command a higher price. Fruit, when it leaves the packing houses, goes in plainly labeled boxes, which describe the size. So-called culls, which are fruit rejected for slight skin blemishes, extremely thick skin or peculiar shapes, are going in increasing amounts to processors who can grapefruit juice, extract essential oils, or make soda pop. Experiments on the value of the pulp refuse of canneries as fertilizer is being investigated, and the time may come when grapefruit, like the pig, is utilized to the nth degree. Despite ceiling regulations, growers of desert grapefruit are giving the consumers more fruit without reducing the quality. And, by a happy coincidence, the growers of the fruit are getting a bigger, and a fairer share of the consumer's dollar. Which is good news for all of Arizona!

ARIZONA GRAPEFRUIT Ammunition for the Armed Forces