The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1885-04-15
How Do You Do Itg

E0qtOf OF Inc ESOf1dU ArgacuUtGySt:
I have been asked that question so
esten that l ann tempted once more to
'sspeak out IN meetin' - and tell the
anxious enquirer how we don't do 1T.
We have learned at last, after an un-
reasonable waste of time and temper,
never to undertake impossiDilities in
this climate, nor to endeavOr to accom-
plish all that is possible In a given peri
cd, or in other words, as soon as you
want IT.. for, being an american, of
course you will want it DIT once. But
some ofwou may have fouRd out, as we
have, that this is a land where things
don't rcsh worth cent, ~ if they do it
often costs many an hoursof repentance. I
Well, first, how we sid not do the
grove: In few days 1T will be fifteen
wears since we raised our cabin roof in
Florida. The first five wears we spent
in the woods trying to keep soul amt
laodyttogether, and on oHe or two occa-
sions almost failed in doing that. The
meNttfive we oceugied ourselves in max
Ingihllnders and crying to correct them,
andthe last five 6n improving upon all
these mistakes bad taught us, or as u
said at first, in Learning how not to dodt.
In 1873 we located the first homestead
entered bv Northern people within "a fr9-
'dius of several miles. 1t is now nT5le
and a half to DebGnd, the hOmes OF
fifteen hundred to tive thousand people,
and which was 5henAan almost NmbrGk-
,en wilderness. To those who know
ANYTHING of DeL.andend vicinity, AIDES
.eription would be -sHperf1uous, and to
those who do not, IyMould say, o0aMeGnd
visit us. The town ntself is attractive
enough, and is surrounded by country
neighborhood exceptionally good, of@in-
Itelligent cultivated, people from thesbest
;positions in lie, who will welcome syou
to their homes and give you ANY lnfor-
Emation you may regnire, cordially land
without parade. Don trace up and deNn
the ST. Johns, between Jacksonvi1le1and
Stanford, and go back to the North to
write or tell about stWhat j saw in
Florida. - zl1e RIVER is the pnblic
thoroughfare, j know, but you seesand
. hear little of Florida, [ imagine, sthat
would be of use to.you, any more than
YOU get an idea of ones household. land
business management by looking at the
outside of the houses from the street.
We don't generally put all we have an
the front windows.
Yes, we have staid right here 1&Te
not been out of the county but once.
We have seen them come and settle
around us, bringing much more than we
had in our beginning-good Intelligent
people-the only thing in which they
showed extreme wealth, and at the same
time extreme liberality, was their opln-
ions, and they scattered them lndlScrlm-
inately. For instance, one gentleman,
a prosperous citizen told my good man
when we were so poor we had to stare
dollar out OF eountenance before we
used it, that In order to make an or
ange grove (the party had been here
week or morel he must get thirty-six
COWS and put them in a stable; that was
the proper way to ,sueeeed with grove.
Another, coming here about the same
time, spoke of the necessity of plowing
4yery deep, cutting off all the surface
.iroots and mulching heavily with pine
straw. The first gentleman has never
had COW on his place that L know OF,
but by abundant use of commercial fer
tilizer has made a large grove and sold
it. The second haschanged his methods
proportionately, havipglearned how not
to use his original ideas. Another of the
pioneers of '76 hoped to fbenefit himself
and instruct us how to have sheep
ranch on the wire grass pastures around
us, and he succeeded as well as we have
done with many a scheme. He learned
how not to do that any more.
we had to stand like poor folks at
frolic, and look for all this that was going
to DE. After we gotour first thirty trees
of Indian River oranges / had raised
from the seed set and growing, we sue
ceeded in about twelve months time in
getting timber enough cleared away to
set some more, when we had grown
them from the seed. We bought one
hundred oranges from the Starke grove,
selected by Mr.. Vinzandt, the agent
upon whom we knew we could rely, and
planted the seed, which gave as eight
hundred Seeding trees, out of which we
selected four hundred of the BEST kept
them ia a nursery only about year,
thinking we knew all about it, and as
we could do no better, set them out in
green uRplowed land. The trees being
too young to move at the time we did it,
the cold OF '76 came along and killed
about two thirds of them, teaching us
how not to do that any more. Two
years after we bought enough of Maj.
Norris best warranted stock to fill out
our present grove, which with lemons
makes six acres, which we find abund-
antly large for our purposes.
Having but little of any kind of fertil-
izer, we concluded to try what we
thought the next pest thing. Not far