Abstract
On Friday, November 13, 1931, the Vero Beach Press-Journal reported that “the possibilities of commercial sugar cane production are to be thoroughly tested by the Ammoniate Products Corporation, owners of large acreage within the Fellsmere Drainage District.“1 Four days later the editorial writer for the Fort Pierce News-Tribune declared that the reports of positive economic development in Indian River County were based on more than “synthetic enthusiasm.” Real progress was taking place. Frank W. Heiser, general manager of the soon-to-be-defunct Ammoniate Products Corporation acknowledged that he planned to clear 1,000 acres of muck land “for the planting of sugar cane.“2 During the next twelve years, Heiser’s Fellsmere Sugar Company and its successor, the Fellsmere Sugar Producers Association, succeeded in establishing sugar production in central Florida, and the small town of Fellsmere prospered as commercial sugar cane production became a reality. Today, Heiser’s work is forgotten. In the 1930s however, Heiser’s efforts placed Fellsmere at the center of the developing sugar industry in Florida.
Recommended Citation
Patterson, Gordon
(1996)
"Raising Cane and Refining Sugar: Florida Crystals and the Fame of Fellsmere,"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 75:
No.
4, Article 4.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol75/iss4/4
