Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-03-18
Letter From Florida.

EDITOR CHRONICLE:-ThiS Is my
first attempt to write letter for
your valuable and highly apprecia-
ted paper, which has been a dear
friend to me since | came to FlOri-
da. / came to Ocala November
last. The orange, lemon and ba
mana trees were loaded with lus-
ciOus yellow fruit. Ocala is the
present terminus Of one of the many
branches of the Florida Transit
Railroad. 1t is the county seat of
Marion county, and lies 100 miles
southwest from Jacksonville. Its
population is / 200. There are six
churches !; three for whites, MethO-
dist, Baptist and Episcopal, and
two for cOlOred two public schools,
one white and one colOred three
hotels, and several boarding houses.
Within the borders of Marion lie
several beautiful lakes, viz: Or
ange, Lock, Lucia and Weir lakes
and around these are some of the
largest and oldest orange groves in
the state. Marion contains Il good
deal of hammock land, as it is call
ed. Hammock simply means ele-
waited and more or less rolling hard
wood land, pine lands are mostly
level, always sandy and poor. The
growth of hammock are mag
nOlia, granditlora, sweet gum, white
oak, dogwood, ash and other hard
woods. In most places, cabbage
palmettOes, the only large palm of
this section of the State. The wild
orange is found in the hammOcks.
The soil is composed of sand, but is
quite rich both in minerals and
vegetable matter, the former is con-
tributed from the lime stone rock,
composed almost wholly of large
and small shells. The hammock
land cover only a small area of
Florida, ) TO 10 per cent, the larger
portion bearing the long leafed pine
scOuTged with the dwarf palmetto.
Marion county can have her trop-
icals the year round, the winters
being very mild, only one frost
that did any damage here this win
ter. Vegetables are plentiful here,
such as cabbage, corn, English peas,
snap beans, radiShes, onions, beets,
turnips, sweet and Irish potatoes
&c. Strawberries have been ripe
here for several weeks. 1t is the
pleasure seekers delight to visit the
orange aud banana groves and
to roam through the canopy of
green foliage, bright fruits and fra
grant flowers. \ hundred varieties
of roses in bloom from Jacksonville
to the South end of Pensacola.
There is no more charming trip on
earth than to leave the icy region
of the Northwestern States and visit
the land of flowers, the sunny
South, where we can retire and en-
Joy the sunset of life, where snow
drifts never enter, but among flow
ers, fruits and singing birds the year
round.
The gentleman that l am living
with is the Oldest and principal or
ange grower in Ocala, Mr.. Adam
Eichellarger, who has resided here
for more than thirty years and was
among the first to start the orange
business some fifteen years ago.
lie has several hundred acres IN
orage trees and twenty in bananas.
The general topic OF the day here is
buying and selling or making or
ange groves, no crop discussed or
thought of but the orange produc-
ton. Land planted out in trees
with Il good stand, are worth from
$500 To $1,000 per acre, according
to the age of the trees. Good ham
mock land unimproved, is worth
from SO to 500 per acre, One-half
mile from town. The same kind of
land within a radius Of miles, is
worth from So to $50. Pine lands
are worth from quarter to half as
much. Corn sells for 81 % per
bushel, oats 75c, both from the
North. +. c. j.
ocaIa, Marion Co., Florida, March ;, lSS2.