Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-07-25
A Letter from ]. O. Hart.

Hartland, tla., July lIth, 1870
To the Editor of the EXPOsIToR:
Thinking my friends in Brocl1way,
Lynn and Greenwood would like to
know how / am getting along in my
southern home, will try and make a
letter interesting to them. Myself and
| family are we'll and like the climate
here very much although my wife. at
| times, feels a little homesick. The
summer has been very pleasant, no bad
storms but plenty of rain to make
things grow, weather rot very warm,
about So in the shade and 90 has been
the warmest. l have built comfort
able house and store on the banks of
this beautiful river and we have post
office now. opened my store the first
of June and have the post-office in q
part of it, myself as postmaster. /
have named my place Hartland, so
please direct to Hartland, Brevard Co.,
Florida. | have been very busy clear
ing and setting out orange trees and
bananas and fitting the ground for pine
apples. | have 1000 plants coming
from Key West the last of the month.
| shall expect part of crop from my
pine apples next season. Bananas do
not fruit as soon, it takes about two
years, and oranges from three to four
years from the graft. The place that
bought had small piece of land
cleared and some sweet potatoes plant
ed last October. | have been digging
them and planting again. We take the
old vines, cut them up about a foot
long and stick them back in the ground
they then grow and bear potatoes. The
natives dig and plant the sweet potato
N ~ Va cd
plenty of tomatoes, green peas and are
now feasting on water melon and pine
apples. | planted some sweet corn my
wife brought when she came the first
of April. 1t has ripened and | have
planted the second crop on the same
laid. We are only about three miles
from the ocean but Merritt's Island lies
between, us and it. The island is about
one half M lie wide and five miles long.
4 short time ago our family and anoth-
er took a sail boat and went to the
ocean beach, goin., around the Island
the distance was about twelve miles.
We gathered about bLshel OF shells,
Got over 300 turtle eggs and saw one
large turtle which l think would weigh
about 400 pounds. The eggs OF the
turtle resemble hens eggs, ABOUT he
same size and taste. In fact they are
used for the same purpose. A goodly
number of our friends and neighbOrs
assembled at our place last Wednesday
evening and very pleasant time was
had. Plenty of ice cream and cake was
served with music, singing and some
speaking. All seemed to enjoy them
selves immensely. The most Of the
settlers here are from the north and
Wnen we gather together it seems Ike
old times. Nearly every state is repre-
sented but the state of Minnesota takes
the lead. The river here is about | miles
wide, water salt, has no current. Every
family has sail boat and go by water
as there are no roads as yet in this part
of Florida. The steam boats pass up
and down every day and always there
are sail boats passing. But my north
ern friends must not think this tie
Garden of Eden, there are draw lacks
here as we'll as in the north. First the
land is very poor, pine sandy land. In
order to raise a crop we have to fertiliZe
heavily and that Is where the cost
comes in and then the mosquito, flies,
sand flies, snakes, alligators and in fact
every thing for pest The river is
full of alligators and plenty of fish.
| The salt water fish | think very fine.
The alligators seem harmless, as the
children go in bathing every day and
are not molested. VIII close this letter
for this time. Our regards are extend
ed to all. J. G. HART.