Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-03-11
The Full Extent of the Florida
NlaaAlar.


Disaster.
There has been much speculation
as TO the extent of the disaster to the
Florida orange crop. Fortunately
for the truth Of history Major Ben G.
Truman-a gentleman well known to
Angelehos-lately made trip to the
Florida groves. Under date OF jack
sonville, Florida, February 26th, he
communicates his views to the San
Francisco Bulletin, of the sth inst,
He introduces his details by the state
ment that the devastation Of Jack
Frost has been extensive and to some
extent irremediable in the Flower
State. We subjoin his talk with an
orange packer;
said to N. Q. Wamboldt, an ex-
tensive dealer in and packer OF or
anges, last evening: IL see by your
leading papers here that exaggerated
statements have unconsciously gone
forth regarding your late cold weather,
and that your losses in fruit have not
been so excessive nor the disastrous
effects to your trees 30 prodigious As
has been generally given out ?" Well,
have never seen the day that |
would not meet adversity OF any kind
half way, and believe fully in grave
yard whistling; but if you can show
me single orange tree in this place
that does not look az il it were dead,
i will close up and go with You TO
gaze at it. own an orchard out near
the race track, and | have good
many trees in it from twelve to Elk
teen years old, and the entire grove
looks as though big fire had swept
through it. Fortunately, | had picked
most Of my fruit, and have not suf-
fered so much as others; and | no.
ticed day or two ago that some OF
the oldest of them were trying to bud
cut, but the bad weather all along is
against them" "iiave the produc-
ers generally suffered much in losses
OF crops?" avery largely, | am
sorry to say. Throughout all this
part OF the country, and rs far as the
Indian river country, in fact, ma
jority Of the orange growers lost their
entire crops, either by freezing on the
trees or in the box" "Why," l in
tsrrogated, "did any of your oranges
freeze after they had been picked ?"
"Unfortunately, yes; had great
many freeze right in my store during
some of the coldest nights. The mer-
cary dropped to IT Fair. in this city,
and ice was found nearly half an incn
thick" "What is your estimate of
your losses of crop throughout the
State ?" "Well, we may never reach
IN exact reckoning, but it will greatly
exceed million OF dollars. My i'm
preston, from what can see now, is
that there we're 81, 5000 worth OF
oranges and other fruits frozen.
Nearly all the fruit | have in my store
to-day is from the Indian river, and
some OF it has been slightly frozen"
This is pretty bad as far as it goes.
But even in Southern Florida the ex-
hibit is not much better. Major
Truman continues;
From all accounts the effects of the
devastating wave have not been 80
serious in the south of Florida as
elsewhere throughout the State. At
all points up the st. Johns river from
Jacksonville to Palatka the semi
tropical fruit trees present the same
forlorn appearance. In that portion
OF the State known as the Manatee
country, and from Pine Level to Plant
City, none OF the bearing orange trees
will permanently suffer. The trees
-. Il L.
will nearly all die. The same may
be said Of many sections in the In
dian river country where large num-
bers OF fruit on trees were frozen and
rendered unfit for shipment. On the
east side OF Peace river few trees are
at all injured. The frost was severe,
however, and ice was formed on
small bodies of standing water. In
conversvtion with gentleman from
Stanford, he said; while the extent
OF country affected and the severity
OF the freeze is bad enough, do not
consider that we. are exactly where
we started from, FIVE, ten, fifteen and
twenty years ago; but there are few
of anything in the semi-tropical fam
lily except oranges left, and OF these
we have lost more than half our crops,
while at least all but the bearing trees
have been killed. And l greatly
doubt whether these latter will pro-
drce much the coming season. 1t
may be that l over-estimate the dam
age done, shall be greatly pleased
if am all wrong, you know, as / am
inte ~ested in small grove near San
ford OF 4S0 12-yeal -old trees. And,
by the way, some OF the deadest-
looking zones are trying to blossom,
and possibly all of them may pull
through. l shall be very much mis-
taken il Florida ships many oranges
next winter" Parties at Palatka,
Magnolia, Mandarin, Green Cove
Springs and at Enterprise tell about
the same story. ! met a man from
the latter place who had made ar
rangements to commence picking
what he had estimated TO be 25 900
oranges the day after the freeze OF
January 9th. He informed me that
the mercury marked l9' at his place
several times and that there was a
terribly cold wind all day, and that
every one of his $500 oranges were
frozen through and through. 81 do
not think any OF my bearing trees
have been killed." he added, "but
do know that | did not save an
orange, and l am afraid / shall have
none to speak of next season. Here
after shall not depend on oranges
alone"
ffIt has been oranges or nothing
with most of u.s." said one producer
a day or two ago, "and we must have
other resources. Three or four such
freezes as the one in January would d
wreck all who engage in orange and
lemon culture alone. The freeze OF
1855 will freeze out many a poor fell
low ] can assure you; and confidence
in our climate and capabilities has
already been badly shaken. The
weather has been as cold and
uninviting as it seems possible Tor it