The Russellville Democrat., 1882-11-30

ed as I have seen. Mir. W. c. Can non, also former citizen of Yell county, and once resident of Rus sellville, makes his home at Orlando.
 The orange crop is good this year. The various packing establishments here are busily engaged wrapping, packing and making ready for ship
 ment the golden fruit. One day last
 week train of sixteen ar-loads of oranges left here for the north. The Indian rIver orange is the best. A very good quality of the fruit retails
 here for two cents each. We had a schooner from the West Indies a
 week or two since loaded with pine apples, bananas and shells. The
 market was stocked and bananas sold six for nickel and pineapples
 from fifteen to twenty-five cents.-
 Vegetables will be plentiful in three or four weeks, and from that time on to hot weather, which is June and July. We can get pretty good as sortment in the market now, and if you should ever start out marketing in Jacksonville you needn't forget
 to take some change along, for you
 will pay good price for what you
 get. l saw eountryman step into
 restaurant to sell half bushel of
 string beans, and he asked only
 S1.25 for them. Anything in the
 way ofvegetables will sell here. You can sell all the okra that can be pro
 duced and get good price for it.
 was told by gentleman, few days
 since, that a darkey near this place
 shipped and got the cash for $l200
 worth of tomatoes. We'll that was
 all done between the first of Febru.
 ary and the first of June. This was
 an exceptional case. He was kind of "Sam Brown" fellow, and would
 make pretty good thing anywhere.
 Plneapples and bananas do we'll
 further south, and I have seen both growing finely and bearing. The guava and the lime were new to me. The guava is a nicely favored fruit and eats something like a pawpaw. It makes splendid jelly. The lime makes splendid lemon ade, if 1t can be called that. They are about the size of hen egg, rlnd thin as wafer, and, on actual count. are forty times more sour than a lemon. They answer every purpose of lemon and retail for ten cents per dozen. So far as growth is con. cerned the lemon is success here, but the quality is not good.
 The estimated cost of putting out and tending an orange grove of ten acres until 1t bears is $500. It is said that a man can have grove in bearing in four years by getting budded trees. The seeding is sad to be the sweetest orange. It takes from seven to ten years for a seed ling to bear. Everything that grows, except sweet potatoes, requires fer. tllizer. And it is not just a little Fertilization now, and little next year. You have actually got to make your ground, and keep putting the fertilizer to your trees. And. inst to sum the whole matter up, think that the only things about Florida that are inviting are the oranges and the climate. We have had delight ful weather so far-just about like our May In Arkansas. It does not rain so often now as it did when I first came. l verify believe it rained every other day for a month after I arrived, and it wasn't the least trouble either. A little white cloud that looked to be about as large as a hand would slip up and pour out a perfect torrent and never thunder once.
 To the average western man, who has been used to the clear and swift. running rivers that flow southward to the gulf, etc, the St. Johns river IS a curiosity and study. Its direc- ton is north, with the exception of the twenty-five miles from here to the Atlantic. The water is of an amber color, and the stream itself is q sluggish bayou in places, but just about the time you think you are go- ing to find the head of the river you jump right oil into lake maybe four or five miles wide. Lake George. which we pass through, is fifteen miles wide and eighteen miles long. On the upper St. Johns, the river is SO narrow and so crooked that the boat had frequently to stop the en. zines to make the turn, and while the stern of the boat would be against one bank, the bow would be almost touching the other. And there, too. is where the pretty Palmetto trees grow. All along the edge of the river, it has no banks) there is a perfect ridge of them, very much like the pictures of the palm tree.
 l have already made this article longer than l had intended, and have only given you one side of the ques. 1 ton. If this does not form a speedy acquaintance with the waste basket may shortly give you the other side.
 With kindest regards to friends | md an extra hand-shake for each of