Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-07-07
A TRIP IN WAKULLA.
The County Prosperous and Something
About the Exposition.

kulIa SHOWS LnaJ JlOugn DelHg SOiuC us
lance from the line of railroad, the people
are in a prosperous condition. was
struck with the great chlnge wrought
since my last visit there, about year
ago. New houses, new settlements, re-
cent clearings and fine growing crops, at
tested the prosperity of this sec
ton. l was informed that quite
come in among item during the
last six months. ThOigh Wakulla can
not boast of the red cay hills and extern
sive hummOcks of he sister Leon, yet she
has good soil, some Inc hummock land,
and is destined at NJ distant day to have
a population far exceeding in numbers
and wealth that witch she now has. Her
deniZens are mOstF small farmers, who
raise enough to supply all their wants
AS a rule, they are free from debt
with little money ahead,
but an intelligel gentleman of this
class, whom | net at the county size,
made it his boast hat he had never in ais
life been compelld to buy meat. On the
| contrary. he alWa's raised enough to sup
ply the wants of himself and family, with
! a surplus to sell. Their great drawback
| is their remoteneS from market or some
depot. But, Notwithstanding this, they
are prospecting. The staple products are
corn, cotton and slgarcane. Truck farm
| ing is mostlmpOssible, as many Of them
| live from fifteen to twenty and thirty
miles from che nearest railroad depot.
Some few have fine orchards of
peach trees which thrive much better
| than thoseOn the stiff clay land of this
| section. IS this soil is so much like that
of COLUMBIA, Alachua and Marion coun-
ties, Wher the sea island cotton is grown
so extensively, | have wondered that the
farmers id not plant it exclusively. One
gentleman informed me he had been en-
gagged in.ts culture for several years, and
as he found it more profitable than culti-
waiting Ne short staple, it is more than
probable that others will follow his exam
pie.
Waklla has no bonded Indebtedness, and
as a ntural sequence the taxes are COM
paratfely low. Lands are appraised at
| low iures, and the ordinary county eX-
! pensel being light no one complains of
| high nXatiOn. All they need what they
| most iced is railroad running through
| the Ichest part of the county. This
WOult bring in new settlers, new ideas,
! and hfuse new life and energy into its
| peopa. Thousands of acres of virgin
! fores await the progressive settlers axe
! TO char them of their vigorous growth
nrepratorv to cultivation. In former
! daysthis county was noted locality for
| cattb raising. But old settlers inform
me tat the grange" is not as good as 1t
| wasformerly, and that there are cOmpar-
| ativIy few cattle in the county. This is
| owing to two cause.-the increased de-
maid for cattle from other points and the
| setting up of the country. The
! cattle ranger likes not to see
many settlements, but would rather be
! ''nonarch of all he surveys" The settle
mmts becoming less and less scattered
| and acre after acre fenced in, the cattle
| raser must of necessity, after awhile,
! lCOk out ''for fields and pastures new
| Another evidence of prosperity IN w a.
! IuIIa that | noticed, was the improved
and more comfortable dwellings Of its
people. The old clog pen" is rapidly DIS
lappearing and giving place to comfortable
| framed houses. Nor are they behind in
educational matters. l attended meet
ing of the County Board of
Public Instruction and found its men,
bers alive to the Importance OF the cause
they represented. With the limited
means at their disposal from taxation for
that purpose, they have established free
schools throughout the county, except in
a few remote and sparsely settled locali-
ties where it was impracticable.
In CrawfOrdville l found flour
ishing school of some fifty schol-
ars, but it occurred to me that,
considering it was the heated term, they
would have acted wiser to have had
spring instead Of a summer term.
DR.. II. V. Lucas, of this city, whom the
Governor has appointed Assistant Com
missioner to represent our State at the
coming great Southern Exposition at
Louisville next month, left for that city
last week. The Doctor, as well as the
Commissioner, are LOuisvillians, and are
naturally anxious that the State of their
adoption should have a creditable exhibit
of the products of its soil. Nor has our
worthy Chief Executive been backa
ward in seeking to carry out their
| wishes. for he has appointed AS
] sistant Commissioners in every county,
! when so requested. 1t is OF the highest
! importance that Florida should have a
| full exhibit, for from the preparations
| that have been Uade, the coming EXPOSE
! ton bids fair to exceed even that OF At
| lanta some two years ago. 1t Will be the
| largest ever before held in the South, and
| thither will be attracted visitors from all
! parts of the Unithd States. We may eX-
| pend thousands in keeping up Bureau
! of immigration and in publishing PAM
/ phlets, giving an account of our SOIL
/ climate and productions, but this is not
| near as effective as the proof
| of those assertions. Telling what our
| resources are and snoring them are two
! different things. We back up products,
| now let us ShOlU them. That Florida will
! have an exhibit there is quite certain;
! but that it will be fUJI one is not so
! assured. In this and Gadsden county
! several public spirited indiN iduals will
! send on some exhibits. Colonel Nj. Mar
| tin, of Mount Pleasant, in Gadsden county,
will send several samples of wine from his
| fine vineyard, the largest in the State.
! Another gentleman is engaged in collect
ing samples of the different hard woods.
If the East, West and South Will do as
well as Middle Florida, our Land of Flow
crs will have creditable exhibit. At the
Centennial Exposition of 1876 Florida
had more exhibitors than all of the other
cotton States combined, and, if my men,
ory is correct, the number of awards
granted her exhibitors exceeded that of
the entire South. At that exposition our
exhibits attracted almost universal atten-
ton. MAY we not do even better
at Louisville? As it will open on
first of August and last one hundred days,
there is ample time for exhibitors to avail
themselves of the opportunity of showing
what Florida can produce. Though our
Legislature made no appropriation, as it
should have done, it is hoped that indi-
Vidual effort may accomplish what State
aid refused.
Now that the last load of Irish potatoes
has been shipped and crates of other pro-
duce have almost ceased coming IN, and
truckers are beginning to compare notes,
those who realized good returns on their
shipments are encouraged and intend to
go into it more largely another year. On
the other hand, those unfortunates who
lost money by it say that trucking won't
paw. But does it really pay? 1t
does to them who are among
the first shippers. find that this class
hired all the hands and teams they could,
and in one week from the time they COM
menced digging all their crop was off to
New York or other markets. In trucking
it is ''the early bird that gathers the
worm" 1t is something new to our peo-
pie, and they have much to learn
both as to the method of cultivation, pre-
pairing for and time of shipment. In an
other year there will be still larger area
in vegetables, and no doubt, with in
creased u7xPoricnoo, romuncrotiYe prices
will be more general. Mr.. Thomas
p. Roberts, whose second season
this has been, informed me, when
asked if it had proved a profitable
one, that it was so much so, he intended
to enlarge his operations another year.
He gathered his large crop of nearly a
thousand barrels in about a week and
shipped them before the fall of prices.
He it was whose train of from seven to
eleven wagons would come in every day,
/ opd which I noted at tho time TrUc kin O