Daily Los Angeles herald., 1883-09-05
How Is It in FLORIDA 2

Mr.. John Huntley, who went to
Florida few months ago to lind a
better country than California, has
written his Impressions TO his friend,
DR.. J. Dodson, of Downey City. From
his interesting letter published in the
Downey Signal. we make the following
extracts, which show how Florida looks
to Californian.
ALArIA, Hillshbrough CO., Fla.
August l2, 1883.
Dr. D0psoN; After delay of two
months / will write again. | have been
studying this country and have come
to the conclusion that this country has
no inducements for Californian.
While this is good country for men
from the poor parts of Georgia, Alabame,
Tennessee, and the poor parts of New
England where they are used to making
the land, clearing it of rocks, working
among stumps and manurng everything
they plant in the hill, aud then only
make from ten to twenty bushels Of corn
to the acre. There is not ton of hay
raised in this county. There are no
apples, peaches, pears, apricots, figs,
prunes or plums; all the fruit that is
raised in this county is oranges, and
from this fruit comes all the money
from agriculture at present. We
raise lemons and lines and | only
know of one lime tree. Bananas and
guavas grow here, but were pulled last
winter by frost, aud there will be
this year When we arrived here in
June they told us that they had just
shipped ell their vegetables, aud | think
they had, for we have been unable to
get anything from field or garden until
last week we got some sweet potatoes;
and there is nothing but sweet potatoes,
sugar cane aud cotton growing. We
raise some Irish potatoes in the winter
but the seed comes from the north with
all the corn on the market, oats, hay,
bacon and evea su gar, all comes from the
north. We ship some cattle that brings
some money into the country. A good
three-year-old steer only dresses two
hundred and fifty younds The cows
are smaller and only have calves once in
two years and give about quart of
milk once day; they seldom get fat ON
account Of ticks, flies and mosquitoes.
Flies trouble cattle as much at night as
in the day time. Land is so high that
there is little margin for profit. Unim-
proved land is held at from ten to TWEEN
tyfve dollars, and this is COW
cred with heavy pine timber on
an average OF one hundred trees
to the acre, and we can get it cleared for
twenty-five dollars an acre, making it as
high as the land around Artesia tthe
company landI aud the land is very poor
at that. The weather is sultry beyond
description. By o'clock thesweat will
stand in large drops on you and you
must get into a shade. The mercury has
been up to l07' in the shade and not a
breath OF fresh air; the sweat dropped off
my horses running loose in the pasture.
BY and s O'Clock there was not dry
hair on them all through the month Of
July. In the afternoon we have thun-
der storms and rain falls in showers
Our oranges this year crack open and
fall off. We will lose one-fourth of our
crop; we expect to get one dollar per
hundred, and our trees are not full like
they usually are There are no nurser-
les here, and in this we have no advan-
tage over California. Take these away
and everyone says Florida is ruined. /
forgot to tell you that the nights are as
hot as the days and we sleep with doors
and windows open and without covers
and then sweat all night. shall return
between now and spring. shall go to
Iowa as soon as the yellow fever disap-
pears. Yours truly,
JOHN HUNTLEY.