St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-11-09


him for sale. When Informed that the
negroes were all free, he calculated !:
white mans nigger mebbc free, but
ger Tail grasped the darkey by the
nape of the neck, pushed him into the
canoe and padded back to the ever
glades.
Col. Hardee'S Orange Grove.
A few afternoons since Il number of
the attaches of the Times Union visited
Col. l.. A. Hardee at his home ut Hon
eymoon for the purpose of seeing his
orange grove, some of the party never
having seen one before. A great deal
has been said, in II general way, about
Honeymoon, but none of the Times
Union party were prepared to believe
that inside the borders of Duval
county, and, in fact, almost inside the
limits of the city of Jacksonville, ex-
listed one of the largest, most thrifty
and heaviest bearing orange groves i'll
the state of Florida; and, in fact, we
doubt very much whether the regular
visitors to Honeymoon are aware of
this fact themselves, but nevertheless
it is true.
The party met Col. Hardee standing
at the extreme northeastern corner of
the grove. and on being asked if he
had any objections to our entering and
inspecting the same, the colonel replied:
"No; on the contrary | will take great
pleasure in showing you through my
self; and, by the way, you are the first
tl,Au,rbt -
worth while to take the trouble to
come ont here and see for yourselves
exactly what can be done ut home. |
frequently blame You newspaper men
for remaining quiet and allowing Wis
itorS to 90 south to see orange groves,
under the impression that the fruit
cannot be successfully grown here,
when you actually have right here,
within one and IL half or mt most two
miles from the post office, what ! claim
to he the largest and finest grove in
the state, which fact | am prepared to
demonstrate"
GLOW large is your grove, colonel ?'
'Oh, it covers one hundred acres.
though it is not all in bearing yet.
Why, sir, will walk with You straight
through the grove II distance of one
mile. and then we will not get through.
In the Younger portion of the grove,
where the trees are not bearing, | keep
my nursery stock. This stock is plant
ed in alternate rows and between the
trees"
GLOW many acres have you in bear
ing ?"
FIWcnty or twcnty-hVc."
: An .,lA,,f hIu- ~
'In all, or do you mean hearing ?"
~ mean both"
"Well, have in the neighbOrhOOd
of 1000 trees hearing. ! cannot say
how many there are in all, including
the nursery stock-it is somewhere be
tween $50, 900 and ,000,0O0 trees that
is as near as can come mt it,"
GLOW many oranges do you expect
to gather this year, colonel -
81 do not know, | estimate that
there are over 5OO, 900 on the trees ;
but Mr.. Conner. our largest fruit
dealer, who has visited the grove, eSti-
mates that there are between 75O,OOO
and 900. 900 on the trees. How they
are you can judge for yourself" said
the colonel, as the party entered the
hearing portion of the grove; and,
sure enough, there we were in the
midst of a magnificent orange grove
the large. healthy looking trees all
loaded down with fruit. In passing
! from one portion of the grove to an
| other. we frequently saw limbs hang
| ing to the ground, and others prOpped
up by poles in order to assist them to
support the immense weight. There
were oranges of all sizes and varieties,
| a great many of the trees, though
loaded down with pretty ripe fruit,
were still in bloom and countless num-
bers of young oranges from the size OF
a buck shot up could be seen. There
were also oranges of every variety,
from the small tangerine or "kid glove
to the largest navel orange. and be-
sides these we were shown during the
afternoon bearing banana plants,
pecans, peaches, app.es, figs, plumS
and all other kinds of fruit, which the
colonel grows on his place to per
fectiOn.
A rather amusing feature of the
grove which will be noticed at once Ii
the cOlOnel's peculiar method of eXper-
imenting with his trees. The trunk,
of some are literally filed with nails
while pieces of wire, bone, iron, sticks
railroad spikes, etc, are to be seen on
every hand, all fastened to or in some
way connected with the tree. In
places where four or five shoots run
up from the ground in Il cluster, form
ing as it were, as many separate trees
the colonel, by his various experiments
is succeeding in forcing them all tC
unite into one large trunk, and by tlii
means he says that within a few years
he will have trees three OF four feet il
diameter.
GLOW long have you been here, col
onel ?"
81 started this place about thirteeI
years ago. At that time had sever
children, not cent of money, wa
800, 900 in debt, and had otherwise ;
! bad character generally"
"What do you value your grove at!
Haven't got any valuation on il
Refused this summer 100000 il
cash for it. expect To net this yea
}! $lO,0O0 from the sale of my orange
. alone, to say nothing of my nurser.
! business, which is now simply immense
and my potato patch. VI Florid
Times Union.
What To Say.