The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-04-12
Florida Letter.
From the Columbus undiana) Democrat

PINELLAs, FLA, Feb. II, 1877.
Dear Sister:-I received your
welcome letter on Saturday 10th
and will endeavor to answer to
the best of my ability, your mani.
fold questions. I am always glad
to hear from you, but sorry to think
you have to stay where the weather
is so cold and changeable.
The only cold weather we have
had this winter was that | mention
ed 10 my last letter, (the first week
in December). 1t was cool and
frasted a little every night for a
week, but since then l have not seen
a smidgen of frost; perhaps there
was less frost here on the point
than farther back on the coast.
Tomatoes grow here the year
round, we have some now foot
high that we put out last month;
we have also beans, radishes, water
melons and pumpkins growing fine
ly. My husband is planting sweet
potatoes to day. January is the
time to plant corn and Irish pota
toes. Neither Of these do as we'll
here as they do north, the soil being
too sandy but if manure is used
either crop will average we'll. Cab
bage is planted in November, tur-
nips, chowder pear and sweet pota
toes grow here every month in the
year, as do also peppers. We may
garden any month in the year ex-
cept April and May. There is lit
tie too much rain during these two
months for gardens to do well. Vic
lets have been in bloom here since
the middle OF January. 1 send you
one that was picked last month;
roses, pinks, oranges, lines, lemons
and pomegraniIes are in bloom now
and the woods are full of wild flow
ers. We have 200 lemon trees out,
100 orange and a small grove of
guavas. These grow like a ounce
bush, the fruit is about the size of a
ounce and shaped like a large
lemon. The guava jelly is thought
to be the finest in the world. The
fruit raw cannot be excelled by
that grows; stewed as
sauce it is far superior to apples,
peaches or pears. There are good
many varieties of them and of as
many different colors. One variety
is red Oh the inside and has the fla
vor OF strawberries. some yellow
and some green outside. They
bear every month in the year but
produce most in August, Septem.
Der and October. We also have
out a fine lot of citron trees, the
leaves of which smell like the oil
OF citronella. We intend to have
100 lime trees out before March
is OVER the fruit is like a lemon
only great deal smaller, about the
size of a walnut aud is used for max
ing Citric Acid; it and lemons are
used with soda in bread here. We
intend planting some bananas this
spring, they grow finely here; the
fruit as We get it here is far superior
to that you get north as it has to be
pulled before entirely ripe so as to
bear shipping and it is the same
way with oranges.
We will make a living from oran.
ges, lemons and lines. In three
years lemons average 90 90 per
tree, in five years IS 90 and the
older they grow the better thew
yield. Oranges in eight years aver,
age from 81 90 to $40 per tree, and
increase with the age. In FIVE years
we will realize $1,000 from our lemon
trees. This is not talk, it is facts.
We live now on whatever we can
get. Mostly on sweet potatoes, fish,
oysters, clans and meat. We do
not use much coffee or tea although
they can be had at reasonable prices,
Flour here is 80 so per barrel:
brown sugar ten cents per pound;
bacon 16 cts. per pound. Water is
good here. Fresh fish here are
luscious, they are salt water fish
aud are far better than fresh water
fish.
When we get tired of oysters.
CLANS or fish we kill a wild hog or
deer. My husband killed a wild
hog that weighed 200 pounds a few
days ago. All the meat, fish or
oysters we want can be had for
nothing. We are buying Irish pota-
toes now but will have some of our
own growing in four or six weeks:
We will soon have plenty of beans
and tomatoes.