New-York tribune., 1877-07-11
ATTRACTIONS OF FLORIDA.

lgRoN STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THT TRBuNEl
PAItTKA, Fla, June 16.-So many highly-colored
sketches of life i'm Florida have been presented TO
the public by enthusiastic tourists that there can be
no harm in showing the other side of the picture.
The glowing accounts that appear in the newspapers
usually represent the peninsula as an earthly Para
disc Offering health. wealth and happiness to all
who will abide within its borders. They greatly
exagcerate the beauties and advantages of the state,
and nothing about its dsagreeable features and
the privations and annoyances inseparable from a
residence here. They are written, | imagine. by
people who come from the North in the Winter
season, and who are so enraptured by the sudden
change from snow and ice 10 foliage flowers, and
soft May air that they do not look below the green
surface of things. The plain truth is, Florida is by
no land of pure delight Its natural
beauties are few, and they lack the charm of
variety. Cypress swamps, festoons of trailing tree
moss like faded Grape, palmetto trees, with slender
trunks and fcatherdustcr tops broad, sluggish
rivers, black lakes trimmed round with level walls
of forest vast stretches of pine woods-everyw
swamp OF sandbank-theSe features of the landscape
attractive at first by of their novelty. grow
opprcSslvely monOtOnous by never-ending repetition
speak of East Florida only-the Florida of the
tourist and the heath-sceker Middle and West Flor
ida make a wholly different rcgon-a high rolling
country long settled aud resembling Central Georgia
and Alabama IN It's mann lc3tulcS III y tc ''"i''N
along the ST. Johns River and its tributaries that
has been SO much praised for its beauty and its
adaptation TO Northern immigration and it is TO this
section alone that nv criticism applies.
As a place of Winter residence for people who
have money enough to live upon. the shores of the
ST. Johns are in many ways delightful, and the
constant increase in the number of pretty cottages
and hotels upon its banks, together with the high
prices asked for good building sites, proves that the
locality bears close acquaintance WELL and grows IN
favor the more il is known. The settlements have,
however only dotted the wilderness here and there
On the lower river there is perhaps house every
two or three miles Towns there are none except
Paatka-the other places which make a figure on
the map being mere hamlets, containing each store
or two a wharf a hotel or two for Winter guests
and half dozen houses. There are no farms
along the stream. The clearings are rarely
larger than 10 10 acres, and appear
like little notches the solid wall OF the
dense woods In the whole length of the river there
is not cleared land enough to make falrsized Hi
nois farm Above Lake George there is perhaps on
the average a house to every five miles of river
shore The three towns on Lake Monroe, at the
head Of REGULAR Observation-Disclosures, Sanford.
and MiltOnville-can scarcely boast of a hundred
permanent inhabitants apiece. and subSiSt chiefly
ON the money spent by the seekers for health ana
pleasure who visit them during the Winter
months Almost nothing is raised on the solI
along the whole length of the river shores
except orange trees and a few garden vege-
tables. The inhabitants insist that the white
sand that Is left where the pines and palmet-
toes are cleared of the land Will produce every
thing that grows but nobody appears To be demon
strating the truth of the assertion. hear OF good
land and many settlements i'll the back country, ten
or fifteen miles from the river, but close inquiry
makes me conclude that the thckly-Settled region
snozen of consists of a few dozen petty clearings
each containing a potato patch and an orange
orchard in process Of slow development.
Almost everybody in the st. Johns River country
is engaged III trying to raise oranges. Very lew
groves are IN beaIing-indeed l am told 10y good
authority that between Jacksonville and Enter
prise distance Of 200 miles, there are only about
900 acres all told Of producing trees, but the large
profts realized from the old groves has induced the
settlers TO stake everything upon the venture of
rearing orchards of their own Nine men out of ten
are nursing young orchards and waiting lupatlenty
for them TO yield return for the money and
time laid upon them. 1t takes from SIX to ten years
~ bring an orange tree to bearing The cost oI
making a grove is very heavy. In the first place
the land if on the river, is held at fancy prices.
oomparatively little of it is adapted for orange cul-
ture. and good site commands from 500 TO 5000
an acre in its wild state. To clear OIL the
heavy growth of timber, and get the stunps
ont costs from $50 TO 500 an acre
more Then the Young trees for planting
are worth from 80 cents to 81 apiece, and at least
$50 an acre must be spent before the grove is
,outed Afterward it requires yearly expendi- !
urc of about 80 cents tree, or $50 an acre. to keep
,be growing orchard in good condition, for the
Grange tree is like tender child, aud requires con-
ant petting nursing, and doctoring TO make 1t
,.,rive By the time the settler has pad for his
laud started a grove of five acres, and built himself
q house he has spent $4,000 or $1,000 at least The
interest on his money the constant expense Tor the
,~e of his trees and the support of his family will
r;ry his first investment up to large figure by the
nm, he beeus to sell oranges Still, If he has the
,onev and the patience to hold on, and If the frost
,oes NOT kill his trees he will in the end realize a
,aYdsome competency. grove of trees IN full
-,r,no is AN Independent fortune An old tree pro-
rc,s from ] 900 to 1900 oranges year, when
hero is no failure of the crop and the fruit sell at
ron, L. to 9 cents apiece AT the grove. The pros
-,ct Of getting 500 year from tree is very fas-
.4nating. Counting 100 trees to the acre, very
s,all amount Of land can at this rate be made the
.ource of "A fortune.
.odweu in the midst of flowers and foliage that
inter never bhghts, to watch the golden fruit
reuiog among the leaves. and to receive thousands
Il dollars every year for the produce OF Few acres
nj land is certainly very agreeable way OF making
living ont Of the soil. There are so many draw
acks and accidents, however, that may spoil the
,,culaton and the outlay Is 50 heavy before there
. any compensating return that the business seems
.ue for the rich only to engage in Many Northern
oen have come here, attracted by the mid ana
opderfllly equal climate, and the stories told o1
n easy life and large income awaiting all who en-
liz tl.g