St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-04-06

by the vigorous exertiOns of one or
two colored men, the bows would be
turned away from the bank, and al
though the sides of the little steamer
would sometimes bump pretty hard
against the trees, the captain always
sung out to "stand firm" and no one
was thrown down. Once only did the
boat get fairly ashore, but once it did
run its nose directly between two trees
and in spite of all the backing water
and polling we we're firmly stuck there
for five or ten minutes.
1t must be remembered that all of the
twenty-four passengers had seats on
the forward deck, where the view was
unObstructed by anything on the boat.
For twelve full hours they sat there
watching for alligators and enjoying
the strange and wild scene. The ALI
gators were quite shy and rather
scarce. While the party counted up
some twenty during the day, only two
or three large ones were cOnsiderate
enough to lie quietly on their log un-
til we came alongside of them, but
most of them would scramble off into
the water at our near approach.
| Sportsmen, so called, have made sad
havoc with the alligator crop of the
Ocklawaha, but they can no longer
shoot from the steamer, as that is for
bidden.
The one hundred miles of the Ockla-
waha river that we saw by daylight
were all of one kinda deep, narrow,
very crooked river, running through
an immense cypress swamp. One might
think the trip mOnOtOnOus, and so it is
in sense, yet the interest to see what
is hidden just beyond the short bend
which is directly ahead, the struggles
of the colOred men to keep the little
ship from running ashore, the shout of
some exultant one, "There's another
gator r'-the sweep of the immense
birds which abound in all this region,
all these things served to keep inter
est up to fever heat. And when the
big moon came up, and the colOred
hands sung and danced for nickles,
and the passengers sung "Silver Moon"
and "Sweet Home,n and remembered
the loved ones far away in the frozen
north, we felt there must be gratitude
in every heart, not only for those com
Portable homes and good friends 1900
miles away, but also for the opportu-
nifty and privilege of seeing the strange,
wild and weird scene along the banks
of the "CroOked Water"
Palatka, seventy-fve miles up the
ST. Johns, was reached in the early
morning. This is the most prominent
place on the river above Jacksonville
Directly across the river on point OF
land is the celebrated Hart orange
grove. AS it is the one grove in Flor
ida that has reputation everywhere,
we visited it, and were well repaid foI
the trouble. Mr.. Hart is a native OF
BrattlebOrO N. l.. Sperry, his super
intendent for twenty-five years, came
from Cavendish, VT, and married his
wife at Bellows Falls. When Vermont
ers meet at the ends of the earth il
does not take long to strike up an ac-
quaintance. OF Mr.. Hart's grove much
has been written. His Oldest grove is
forty-seven years old. There are in all
, his groves some 1900 bearing trees, and
about as many more which have not
yet yielded any fruit. Mr.. Sperry be-
lieves thoroughly in Seeding trees
He rather wait eight or ten years and
have large, vigorous tree, than by
budding into the native stock have 6
dwarf tree which will begin to beal
t frnit in three years. Consequently the
, Hart grove is beautiful sight for the
eye,-trees large, uniform, symmetri
, cal. 1t is the nearest approach il
! beauty to Wilson's or Roses groves il
t Los Angeles, California, of anything
: have seen in Florida.
L n
: the ripened fruit on the trees. At NJ
+ other place in the state have | seen i
= in any quantity, but here there are sew
I eral hundred boxes of the golden frui
f yet clinging to the trees. The reasol
t is that, while most people market thei
e fruit as soon as it is ripe, Mr.. Har
4 Ish h.,
= sells only on private orders. When b
+ receives an order for one or more box
n es, the oranges are picked, packed an
V shipped. This grove has such a nam
e that five dollars box is the standar
o price, while most raisers probably d
II not realize more than three dollar.
e The boxes are all of one size, and hol
e ninety-six of the largest oranges, an
i from that up to over two hundred, az
ir cording to the size of the oranges br
10 the price is always the same per box.
e There are many very interestin
d things about this grove. Mr.. Sperr
e shows one unusually large tree froI
81 WHICH nt mas BdIheIeu SIX JnOuSdHu
it anges in one year. 1t is magnificel
m tree and towers above all the other
lie Its remarkable size is attributed main
lie to the room it has, and in all the lat.
lie groves on the Hart place the trees a
Is set out thirty feet apart each way,
4 about eighty trees to the acre, instes
lie of eighteen or twenty feet apart,
of many orange-growers have done. A
other curiosity shown on this place a