The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1881-06-22

and then you will see one of the ch oice spots
of Florida.
From St. Louis by railroad to Jacksonville,
Ela the fare is $29.25, (emigraRt rates), and
household goods i'll boxes S5c per 100 lbs. Cor
respond with John w. Moss Gen. Pass. & Tick
ct Agent, Sd street, ST. Louis, Mo.
Annoyance from insects is no greater than in
MANY other parts of the United States The
weavil makes it troublesome to keep corn or
peas. We have no black gnats or sand flies,
and q bar ut night protects us from mosquitoes
during the few weeks in summer when we are
subject to them. They neyerannOy us in day.
time, as they do in some parts of New Jersey.
The sting of the scorpion is less painful than
that of the bee. AS to fleas, they are easily
raised during the dry part of the year, but are
also easily kept from becoming troublesome.
There are less snakes ON our uplands than in
any unsettled part of the United States.
Poultry thrive and almost every one reports
their culture Especially egg-producing,) as
quite profitable.
As to the oft-repeated question as to The cost
OF planting or establishing an orange grove:
the contract price Tor trees and land delivered
or decided to owner when trees have been five
years planted, ranges from 50 to $i5 Il tree.
Ihe cost per acre, (say 30 to GO tees) of plant
ing and maintaining for five years i5 NaIiously
estimated at $40 to $500 and, as actual sales
prove, such grove would have commercial
! value OF fully $500 to $500.
As TO annual expenses: young groves are
! cared Tor by contract at from SIS to $50 per
acre. Carpenters wages range from 81 80 to
! $500 per day, and that of laborers from $12 to
SIS per month and boarding, or 81 per day,
cepI at special work Rails are split at 81 10 to
! 9i-O per nunOreU. New lanU is DlOWeU 1Of
! $3.50 an acre, and Old land for 50.
! county.
! Apple orchards are not to be found here-it
| lsnot an apple climate-yets some are produced.
The LeConte pear has not borne yet, but there
| are nice trees growing. PlumS are usually de-
| Stroyed by curculio.
! Our drinking water is generally from our
| clearwater lakes, occasional springs are
| found), it is soft but not so cool as one could
desire. Asthmatic persons who come here
| from the Northern States benefited
Because we have from fifty to seventy inches
| annual rainfall some persons judge that we
| have damp climate one productive of rheum-
atsm. This is not so.
Abundant supplies of all Northern garden
vegetables can here be raised on good ham,
mock garden lands. and perhaps even better
! on pine (sandy) land provided the latter is en-
| riChed as it should be, before attempting much
| in the way of gardening.
Pigs, old enough to eat corn, sell for 81 90
each hens can be had for from 25c to 40c
eggs sell at from l5c to 25c per dozen. Board
| ing might be obtained among some of the
| families here for $1,000 per month, or $500 to
! $500 per week Flies worry cattle here but
| little, (some in suInmer) not at all as they do
in the cattle country y 100 miles south Of here
I One lot of wheat on hammock is reported
to have yielded fifteen bushels per acre. Occa
| sional heads are found among growing oats
| which indicates that there is nothing in the
climate to prevent wheat growing House
I servants are obtainable at So 90 to $500 per
month. On good hammock land corn yields
% to 40 bushels per acre: on pine land,
| ten TO twenty nVe per acre. Oats
generally from ten to twenty-five bushels, Cot
ton Qong staple) ON pine land, not fertilized,
| twenty-five to fifty pounds of lint, which
sells at from 25c to 3Oc per pound: Hammock
land produces from loo to 0pounds. A farmer
while whiting for the grove to yield return
| may produce, for sale, cotton, COW peas, corn,
eggs, pork and ,as soon as transportation facil-
| tiles are completed, garden vegetables As to
| soil, our up-lands and fine rolling pine lands
are sandy "a very fine sandy sometimes with
| clay SubSO1l HammOckS are generally low
and soil INf.
clay, and vegetable matter. These lands are
sometimes low and wet, but generally high
enough to be dry. Low, wet hammocks are
unfit for the citrus fruits, but fine for bananas
| glavaS and some kinds OF vegetables.
Beneath the pines on the up-ands the wire
grass grows in fact these lands resemble a
vast natural park
| No estimate of the amount of capital needed
! to start grove can be given, as one man will
often succeed with $4,000 Cor even with naught
but his strong arms and good sense) where
others with abundant capital will fail. One
must start right, then success is sure. To start
right, carefully watch the movements of sue
cessful men. Northern men in good health
can and do work through our summers.
We would specially impress our cores
pOndents with the necessity of coming
| this far south so as to be south of the line
of injurious frosts. The sad experience.
during the past winter. of those having
groves not over fifty miles north OF here.
when thousands of dollars worth of fruit
was frozen on the tTeeS,On DeceIl Der 3Otb.
| and tender garden vegetables killed on
April 1st, justifies us in this course. Ice
| formed at Palatka, April 1St, on vessels of
water, and the freeze of December 3Oth
caused lemon trees to she'd all their leaves
and killed some of them, while very few
lemon leaves were injured here Even
some pine-appies which were left uncOy-
cred are now in bloom though the leaves
were slightly lujnred
A United States mail route runs through
| nrYr pJC CrlNh n nd In