New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-06-07
BUSINESS IN FLORIDA.
OPENINGS FOR ACTIVE SETTLERS.
FROM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THE Tribune


Jacksonville, Fla. April ls.-Florida is some
thing more than land Of birds and nowers'
People who get their ideas about it from pictures
of the Ponce de Leon Hotel and the St. Johns
River steamboats, learn only half its story Gen.
eral Grant several years ago said IL afforded the
"best opening in the world for young men OF
small means and great industry" That statement
is now doubly true.
aTbe other day." says Mr.. N. NJ. Bowen, OF
Tallahassee, II went north by steamer with my
wife and child We lay overnight under the
Brooklyn Bridge The next morning we landed.
AS we started uptown we met surging crowd
at the bridge entrance Ny wife was aghast, and
asked what was the matter. ] told her it was
oulv the people going to their work Then, quick
as n fash, il struck me that that was eAactv
what Florida wanted--people'
Florida is bigger than Indiana and Illinois, YET
its entire population is less than that OF d. LOUIS
An Immigration bureau has been attempting to
attract settlers by bulletins and circulars, ou1
its funds are hopelessly inadequate. At Narcoosee.
near Kissmmee, and elsewhere, you encounter
colonies of British immigrants who look like
splendid material for building up new country.
But most of them work hardest at absorbing BASS
and Guinness, wearing out footballs and EngIlsn
saddles and inventing hyphened surnames. Ihey
depend on English remittances and are known as
pensioners few Swedes and Danes have gone
into the fruit trade, and are doing well. But III
this State energy and push can accomplish so
much that any young Northerner may accept
General Grants words as q direct injunction to
himself
The climate, despite counter-assertions from
land and house agents, is enervating II you sur
render 70 it, In hot summer sun Journey
across the street becomes matter of deliberation.
In some places the gray Spanish moss hangs thicKy
ou The trees. like so much vegetable cobweb omi-
rously suggestive Of fever and foul air. Dut
Northern men who have lived here summer and
winter and whose word is not 10 be doubted say
that able bodied adults are easily accllmated. AZ
Kew West met an active business man who went
there from the North in $50 TO die. Along the
COASTS there is always delightful breeze. Ocah,
Palatka and some other towns in the interior are
reported sicllly Along the great lakes, whoso
banks the drainage operations are opening 10 SET
tiers. the air is fresh and buoyant Inc
DAYS are hot, but the nights COOL
Kissimmee man was indeed driven from
| New-York last summer by the heao'
The Indian River country would be more aO-
tractiye If It would breed fewer mosqulooes'
| though in that respect Jersey City and Mli"auhee
outrival it, The eternal sand-fats and pine-for'
ests sometimes become intolerabe TO the trav-
|
at De Funak. Consider the air. Yellow fever
! is not endemic and would not occur but Tor inc
want of proper quarantine at Tampa.
| What can General Grants "young man of small
| means and great industry work at with proh'
| The field is so wide that the answer is complex.
| II he regards this land of lazy languor anu
comes here like the stout-drinling Englishmen
n drone away careless existence, his affairs will
soon be in the hands of a receiver. Otherwise, lie
| can prosper as o fruit-grower planter OF rlce'
sugar or tobacco, a catteraiser, OF MANUFACTURER
of native products. There is Large money IN
| oranges Since the great frost killed the
| trees in Western Florida, their culture
| has been confined to the peninsula, ana
a newcomer can hardly pick out an unpromis-
ing district, though he may make mistake WIN
his land But not everybody can wait ive or SIX
wears for a grove to attain its full development.
| All over the State, especially along the coast,
there are immense vegetable farms that every
year sends hundreds Of crates to the Northern mar
kets know of one plot of 1900 acres where
| ONLY tomatoes raised If the newcomer doesn't
feel equal to tomatoes. he cultivate the tooth
some but unromantic cabbage. If he likes
| Robinson Crusoe experience he can 90 to the
southern end Of the peninsula and grow pineappes
and cocoanuts, and in West Florida he can learn
all about the great profits on Leconte pears and
pecan-nuts. If transportation were cheaper,
vegetable farm would be bonanza.
Rice and sugar growing told about In letter
from Kissemmee. Another industry of excellent
promise is the growth and manufacture Of tobacco
Everybody has heard the story of the old lady
who thought the hotel was on fire when her next
neighbor lit a Florida cigar. This may be offset
by the statement that at this moment
using the Florida weed, and liking it,
At Quincy, in the western part of the State,
there are tobacco plantations of $1,000
acres In these George Storm, the well-known
manufacturer and others are interested. They
employ a settlement Of laborers from Alsace. and
an expert insrucs planters in the care of the crop
The Leaf thrives over wide area and is said to
give better results than in other States, with no
| greater care. At Tallahassee every storekeeper
has a tobacco patch, and one man amuses himself
by rolling hundred cigars Of an evening after
his shutters are up. Near Orlando, and all over
isolated tcbacco-patches on private lands that
keep their owners in cigars and could be prottably
After eating freshly plucked pineapples down
apples7 on the ST. Augustine bills Of fare, one
realizes what a golden opportunity awaits some
body who understands canning. What President
Harrison told the people of Memphis about manu-
featuring their field products applies as forcibly
here. There are thousands OF bushels OF Lcconte
pears that preserve easily and would fetch high
prices in the cities The same is true ofoysters The
oysters at Appalachicola and Cedar Keys are equal
to those of Chesapeake Bay, and now that the
beds there are falling, the example OF Mayor
Gibbs. of Baltimore, who is said TO be contem-
plating an oyster canning factory at Cedar Keys
10 employ 300 men, should find many imitators.
The ST Augustine hotels are probably the best in
the world Florida contains also some of the
worst. At Tampa two travellers to Cuba. not
knowing of the new hotel, paid N head for q
supper of which they could stomach nothing but
two glasses Of milk. At Key West even milk is
lacking The few cows the island fed on
hay brought from New-Orleans, and the common
ornament of the dining-table is pot of con-
densed milk full of drowned flies.
| Key West, by the way, is full of magnificent
| possibilities Just now 1t is a dreary place, all
sand and mangroves There is not a square
meal on the island, and nobody who has tried
+ 70 amuse himself there two nights in succession
wonders that the Cuban immigrants take to gam
bling. Yet with well managed hotel and reason
Of attraction The bay is full of fish. the boating