St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-04-02

blooms, is seen. Not vine is planted.
There is not even garden. Out of
little cheap cabin in the middle of the
grove comes the barefOOted proprietor,
blear eyed and stupid from weeks
debauch, followed by his ragged and
dirty children. Rum is poor motive
power in Florida as we'll as Vermont.
Next south is Sheffield's grove. Nine
years ago not an orange tree grew here,
and many were set ont only seven years
ago. Now there are one thousand
large and fine trees, of seven sizes, in
rows as regular as a checker board,
producing excellent fruit. Last week
a cash offer of twenty thousand dollars
was made for this grove of ten acres.
The price is thirty thousand, and it will
very soon pay large income upon that
sum.
Next south is the grove of Mr.. Gau-
thier, and south of that, is DR.. New
sOme's place. Both were made under
substantially the same circumstances,
and with about equal results.
DR.. NewsOme told me that in 1868 he
came here from Alabama, ''utterly
strapped" by the war, with not fifty
dollars of property in the world aside
from little household furniture, and
with six children. He started in the
woods, cleared his land, set out his
trees, worked hard and lived ecenomi-
cally. Now he has one thousand orange
trees, sold $3.50 worth this year from
! his tlUO best trees, and has refused an
, offer of fifteen thousand dollars for his
| place. His boys besides have good
places adjoining him. All these groves
have alake frontage and steamboat land
l ing, and are upon rich hammock land.
Many other groves nearly or quite as
t good lie beyond these on the lake
shore.
These hammock lands, with lake
fronts unimproved, are now worth one
hundred dollars an acre. Ten acre,
make large plantation. These results
are all actual, and reliable, but are less
than are said to have been accomplish
ed by others. There is a grove upor
Lake Jarvis, from which $4,000 wortl
of fruit is said to have been sold this
year, and fabulous prices are said t.
have been offered for groves near Pa.
latka.
On the pine land, which can be
bought in good locations for ten dollars
per acre, the results are not so quick
but equally certain, and the fruit is said
to be finer Five years ago this Feb
ruary, G. H. Smith located on pine
: land, one mile and half from Dunn's
Lake, and steamboat landing,-the
same distance from where we are stop
ping. His land cost him about five dol
lars per acre. He cleared it and set out
five hundred orange trees and took care
of them. Many of them are now bear
ing, and he has five hundred more trees,
set out last year. To-day it would take
$4,000 to buy his place.
By his side is Mr.. Vincent, who came
at the same time, and who has nearly
equal results. OttisOn and Cook own
the next place. They came at the same
time and bought out some improve
ments made by a "cracker,n among
them some orange trees, then six years
old. This year they sold nearly six
hundred dollars worth of fruit from
thirteen trees. All these parties came
from Nashua, N. H.
These are samples of what is being
done all about here. Others have STAYED
longer and accomplished much less, but
the reasons are obvious and are the
same that make poor farmers in the
north-indolenoe, trying to cultivate too
much land, neglect to guard against
the assaults of weeds and injurious in
) sects.
The cost of beginning is small, say
one hundred dollars for ten acres ofland,
one hundred and fifty dollars for clearing
and fencing, and from fifty to two hun
dred and fifty dollars, according to the
size of the trees, for five hundred young
orange trees. Five hundred dollars
now builds house suitable to this eli
mate for man of moderate means. A
good horse, cart and a few farming
tools, must be added. lnexhaustible
muck beds furnish most of the fertiliz-
ing material necessary. With these, and
work and good judgment, a valuable
property can be built up in from five to
ten years. Meanwhile a man must live
from his remaining five acres of land, his
COW, pigs and poultry, and other capi-
tai brought with him. Fuel costs moth
ing, the rivers and lakes swarm with
fish, and clothing of course costs much
less than in a cold climate. With more
capital, Of course better style of liv-
ing can be adopted, more land cultivat-
ed, and richer property built up
There is no time here to speak of the
many other industries or productions
that are available in this state.
All this does not prove that Yer.
mont farmer had better leave his dairy
for the orange groves of Florida. He
, must leave green grass, old acquaint
ances, home that is dear to him, will
all its associations; good roads, eli
mate that makes him vigorous ant
strong, and a manner of farming will
,, which be is familiar, for sandy-lookin.
land, strangers, Door roads. a somewba