The Florida agriculturist., 1885-02-04
The Reason of It.

To strangers in Florida one of the most
puzzling problems is the apparent high
price of land, and the steady and strong ]
advance in values in the face of ominous
predictions of collapse. For years the
cautious and timid ones have been claim
ing that prices of land were out of all
reason. They have been drawing invid-
ious comparisons between FLORIDA
sand'' at fifty to two hundred dollars per
acre, and fertile agricultural lands in the
Middle and Western States at three to
thirty dollars per acre. They say Gan
acre of rich aluvial land in Illinois will
produce five times as much corn as an
acre of this land, and yet you ask five
times as much for this poor sand" They
have felt morally certain that the high
prices could not be maintained. Many of
them have said ooh, you are wild. Wait
until this craze is over, and will buy a
bearing grove at twenty dollars per
acre" They were honest in their claims
and fully believed that their predictions
would be verified. Some have come back
the second and third winter, only to find
prices doubled up. In such cases some
of them have expressed regrets at not
having bought last winter" and taken
advantage of the advance. But "now
you are out of all reason"
Probably every resident in the State
meets score or two Of such people every
year, and will continue to meet them so
long as there is a foot of good orange
land lying unimproved in the State.
But while one class has been over-tim-
id, another has grasped the situation and
taken advantage of the opportunities of
fered for profitable investments. They
= n ctr
pressed it in the Reporter office few
days ago: fThere is no difficulty in get
ting capital invested, when capital can
be assured of drawing out a reasonable
profit; and Just so long as your lands are
capable of yielding a reasonable profit,
so long they will advance in price," This
! stranger further argued that it was an
/ advantage to the country to have timid
ones frightened off, as it leaves the field
to men who la7@ Iaith to invest, and
courage to improve and develop. This
man. has solved the whole problem in his
few days sojourn here.
Long experience has demonstrated Just
what the agricultural lands of the North
may be made to yield. Prices, of course,
vary from year to year. But the yield in
bushels per acre can be counted with
great accuracy Beyond certain point
/ it is impossible to go, and that limit can
be easily determined. This being true
it is easy to determine just how much
one can afford 70 pay for land for purely
agricultural purposes. The rule is an ar
bitrary one. The man who goes beyond
the point fixed by it will be made aware
of his mistake.
A similar rule, of course, will apply in
Florida. 1t has not vet been determined
because no orange grove in the State has
yet reached its full bearing capacity. But
with the fruit growing industry in its in
fancy let us compare the figures.
Forty dollars per acre per year will ex-
exceed the average of the very choicest
of the agricultural land of Illinois, Iowa,
or Kansas. If this amount could be as
sured, lands in those States would COM
mand double their present value. An
acre of orange trees in Florida, in full
bearing-not full grown for we have none
such, will yield thousand dollars. Some
groves are yielding more than twice this
amount and are increasing their crops
each year. Here then is the difference.
If the land which produces crop worth
forty dollars is worth one hundred dol
lars per acre, other land which produces
crop worth thousand dollars must be
worth twenty-five hundred dollars per
acre. In the case of unimproved orange
land the value would be in proportion to
its capabilities.
Taking this view of the case and meas
uring the value of orange land by the
same rule which determines the value of
agricultural lands it will be seen that
present prices are insignificant, and that
values will have to double four or five
times yet before they are at all liable to
stop, and collapse is next to an impossi-
bility for many years to come.
The truth of the whole matter is the
conditions in Florida are distinctive. She
enjoys conditions and advantages which
cannot be approached by any other por-
ton of the United States. Her capabili-
ties are not misunderstood; her resources
are only beginning to be developed.
Even those who have improved the glor-
ious opportunities offered here, only half
realize the extent of their good fortune,
and cannot comprehend the possibilities
or even the probabilities of the future.
They know that they have done we'll.
Thev are assured that they will do better
in the future. With this they are apt to
feel contented and comfortable. Cove
tousness is unknown to them, and if some
enterprising stranger comes in and out
strips them in the race, they simply re-
ioice in his success, and continue to en-
Joy what they have. The friction which