Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-03-11
Grant Cnnntp @erald,
From the Land Of the Orange

| WY 5ao1l S0iu Wnfo vi oaHudrY o. Whicn
has greatly modified the prospects Of
trade and fruit marketing. Yes. we
have had bad freeze which is costing
this state millions of dollars. The win
ter has been an unusually cold one
aside from the great freeze. Whitefrosts
gilmore or less severity have been and are
still frequent. But let no one compare
our freeze with Wisconsin cold snap
or a Dakota blizzard. There was no
frozen ground about here; only the
slightest hint of snow; only an inch of
ice in exposed pals and taass; no ice in
lakes or rivers. But the magnificent
orange crop or the part stM ungathered
is mostly ruined and sad lightness IS
felt in many pocket.
Don't imagine that the orange groves
are killed and the business destroyed.
The trees are all right and have not
even shed their leaves, and the fruit,
as bright and beautiful ms ever. but all
damaged is rapidly falling to the
ground. Thousands of wagon-loads of
such fruit may be seen, abandoned to
perish. The trees are putting out their
blooms for the next crop and there is
ne Encouragement or whining. Ispeak
only for this part OF Florida. Reliable
accounts from other places make the
case much worse, especially along the
Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
! The complaints of our orange men
are as nothing compared with the squeal
which has broken out in the papers in
regard to Florida land swindlers We
have no oranges at present for those
whs are bawling so, since it is human
nature to kick a man when he is down.
| suppose we will have to endure it
a while. A single failure in fifty years
and few dishonest land sharks in
northern cities have led sensational
writers into condemning the whole
state and everything connected with it,
A failure as often as once in fifty years
might be expected and pardoned in any
other industry. The land frauds might
be avoided by ordinary prudence and
penetration. A great ado is made
about few deluded Scotch immigrants
who have gone back to their desolate
fog-enshrouded mountains. Is it strange
| that among the thousands who come
here from the prairies, the mountains
and the factories. some should be dis
appointed 1t is said the jamestown
colony contained forty-six gentlemen,
many tradesmen and artisans and only |
twelve laborers. 1t is apt to be so with |
any place which is regarded as an FL |
Dorado.
Florida had been doomed little too |
much for its present state of develope- |
ment. A reaction that will insure only |
a healthy and well advised influx of |
population and wealth, will do us no
harm but permanent good. And Just |
so the orange men confidently point
out various ways in which the cold |
wave will do them good and prove an
ultimate benefit.
In regard to the paper cities and
barefaced land swindlers-spare not
the lash. You cannot condemn them
too severely. But do you not see in
these schemes the strongest proofs of
the great fact that there are real at
fractions in Florida? Such schemes
spring up in the glamor of every bo-
nanza. Bogus city lots in additions
which are found to lie twenty miles
away and under three feet of water do |
not condemn. but rather indorse and
exalt the real Chicago. The greedy
purchase of worthless mining stocks
shows that bonanza has inflamed the
public mind. Do you ever see our high /
moral and religious papers of the North
filled with schemes to sell lots in Geor-
gia or the Carolinasp You would soon
see it if there were prosperous young
cities rapidly springing up and sudden
fortunes made by investing in them.
Again, do not imagine that Florida
people alone are to be blamed. Sharp
villains in Chicago or Edinburg or Ian
caster can manipulate the business as
well there as here. You can buy few
hundred or few thousand acres of
land at $1.25 per acre; then name it,
advertise it, divide it into small lots on
paper, and sell them, but don't for
your conscience sake go near it.
There may be a little good land some-
where in your city and while you re-
main in ignorance you can hope that
you are selling such land to each one
of your confiding customers. You re-
ceive and give good and sufficient
title to a. small patch in a worthless
wilderness. Buy no city lots or other
lands in Florida without satisfactory
evidence that the land is good and the
price reasonable. Prices and values
cannot be estimated or guessed at ex-
cept from actual inspection. There is
plenty of land that would be cheap at
one thousand dollars per acre and plen-
ty more that would be extravagantly
dear at ten cents per acre, and lands
ranging all the way between and far
above. Honest land dealers have plenty
of good land to sell at honest prices,
but cannot hope to keep pace in adver-
Using with those who sell little patches
of nothing at $40 per lot. Fears have
been entertained that the orange bust
ness is being overdone. This danger
may be averted for the near future by
the breezes we are getting from the
North. JOEL A. BARBER.
Chuluota, Orange Co., Florida.