The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1881-03-23

but cannot get all we wish to know
yet.
1t seems TO us that orange culture
absorbs too much attention there.
How about peaches, figs. and our
Northern grapes, such as Concord,
etc. We like good peaches and
grapes better than oranges, such as
we get here. Why cannot peaches,
Concord grapes, and strawberries be
grown cheaply for home use there
and to send North ? If there are no
drawbacks they will pay better than
any of thevegetables, as they require
less manure and labor. The Concord
pays here, at $50 per ton, better than
any of our vegetables in the Syracuse
market. In some localities IN this
State, however, the Rose Bug is
terrible pest to the grape grower.
How about evaporating fruits III
Florida such as figs, grapes, plums,
berries and some vegetables as sweet
potatoes. etc. Do any of the northern
people there try Sea Island cotton in
a small way and don't it pay decently?
A. BABCoCK,
Small F,uit Grower.
-PlanE Road, near Syracuse, ~ Y.
TIf Mr.. Babcock had been taking
the FLORIDA AGRICULTURIST he
would have found his questions
answered a great many times. We
cannot fill our pages with the same
matter continually. We publish his
letter that some others may CORES
pond with him. No one who reads
the paper regularly can accuse us Of
giving one-sided view Of Florida.
We hide nothing and have always
represented the dark side as well as
the bright. But we, who have lived
in tropical chimes almost all our lite
can know the advantages possessed
bv the State better than strangers.
Anything emanating from the CORES
pondent Of the San Francisco Bulletin
must be taken Gum .0rGno S0SiS, for
our superior climate, market advan-
tages, accessibility and superior or
anges are a jealousy to Californians.
The correspondent of the Bulletin
was on a search to discover and ex-
aggerate everything he could to our
detriment. His article shows a
spiteful determination to hold up our
dark side and influence immigrants
to his State by running down ours.
We have numbers of people residing
here who left California owing to the
severe droughts, which renders irri-
CATION necessary and is very expen-
sive; no crops of fruit can be raised
without it. Land in that State is so
high that man with limited means
has no chance Of purchasing. We
have letters received this week, from
persons residing in California, which,
we're we to publish, would show the
subject in its true light, but it is not
our business to detract from Califor-
MA, but TO defend FLORIDA. Both
States have their advantages and dis
advantages and chose who have
glass windows had not better throw
stones" We publish below the ex,
tract from the Bulletin. ED.
"The crowds come here about the
second week in January and stay I'm.
til the middle of March and during
that time, when it don't rain, they
boat and fish and hunt on the St.
Johns, st. Mary's, Indian and Ockla-
waha rivers, and upon some Of the
lakes that dot the country over.
They also visit the beach during
moonlight nights, especially at Fer.
, nandina, which is the finest beach in
Amerlca except the one at Galveston,
which is the hardest, broadcast and
handsomest, and one OF the longest
in the world. But, with March,
comes malarial fever, feas, mosqui,
toes and sand flies, and the invalid
has to light out just on the eve Of
/ e5nvaIescence. There is no State in
the Union that has so much insuifera-
bic heat, malaria and fever and ague
as Florida. There is young me,
chanc from Newark, New jersey,
engaged at Jacksonville il making
marmaiade from. oranges. He told
me the other day shat he had been
in Florida three years, and re.
! marked that il Was. nniorh,,. ~. L.