The National tribune., 1892-01-14
ON INDIAN RIVER.
An Illinois COmrads Thinks lie has Found the
Lost Garden Of Eden.


EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: Thinking
some of your readers would like to hear from
comrade Of Co. A, 18th III. Cav, I send sketch
Of this State since Northern people have begun
10 settle here. j left little town in Michigan
over year ago, and have been here now about
year and eight months. i have been asked
many questions about this country and one
young man wants to know what chance there
is here TO make money.
/ answer that young man with a few
hundred dollars and willing to work, can in a
few years, become quite wealthy. For instance.
let him buy 10 acres Of land and plant out 900
orange trees; in 10 years his 10 acres will DO
worth $4,000, or $1,000 an acre. The fruit on
his trees viii, when 10 years old, bring him
$1,000 and will do il year after year, as orange
and lemon trees bear fruit every year, there
being no failure, as with apples in the North.
i came here with but little money only about
5000, and bought 164 acres of land on the west
side of Indian River. 30 miles below Ttusville,
established pOstOfhce, so that now the mail
comes to my Office, whereas before the few
settlers here bad to cross the river, which is
here one and a-half miles wide, for their mails.
/ bought wild land, paid sloan acre; have now
a $500 house, aud four acres cleared; have 100
orange trees out, 300 bananas and 1900 pine
apples. / ann offered now 5000 for a half in
terest.
Some Of my banana trees stand over IL feet
high and a good many have fruit on them.
planted them little over year ago, when
they were slips about six and eight inches high.
Some Of the leaves are four feet long and make
a fine show Of foliage. There is not much
raised here in the Summer season. / have
fine crop of sweet potatoes and COW peas grow
ing. We plant sweet potatoes any time from
the first of April TO October / am digging
some now for use on the table, and selling some
that / planted last September, which are worth
81 a bushel. There is no trouble in raising
them. As we dig we cut the vines in places
about a foot long and stick them back in the
ground that is all that has to be done with
them till they are dug.
We have a very healthy climate as much so
as any on the globe, aud this State IS a great
Winter resort for invalids. Land along the
river has advanced in price some since / came.
the land adjoining mine being worth from $40
10 $50 an acre. Twenty acres joining me on
the north is for sale, and can be had for so per
acre and is excellent orange and garden land.
/ should like 10 see one or two good men come
and buy aud plant groves. j have about three
acres that am preparing for Winter gardening.
/ plant about the first OF October NV plan Is
10 put in Irish potatoes, beans peas tomatoes,
turnips and onions. My potatoes last Winter
brought me s. per bushel, beans 81 a peck,
turnips 81 a bushel, onious from five 20 eight
cents q pound. The COW pea grows large and
perfect / have pods nine inches long with Is
peas 70 a pod not sweet like the Northern
pea, but a rich mealy. nutty taste. We eat
them green or dry, and they also good for
chicken or pig feed, and are very nutritious for
COWS aud horses.
/ was told before coming here that the
country was alive with rattlesnakes aud ALI
gators, but have not seen live RATHER since
came, aud only two dead ones. The natives
told me to get whisky to drink in case / was
bitten. i got the whisky last Spring, and have
been looking for the snake ever since. so as to
have an excuse to drink that whisky. but nary
a snake can ind AS for alligatOrs see them
every day, and there is one that lives in the
river near my house all the time, and is so
tame will let me come within rod of him, and
not take alarm. / intend to capture him this
Winter, and have him dressed up fine to ex-
hibit in a Northern store window. We have
the credit among you Northern people of being
broiled TO death with heat and devOured with
musketOes; but do not waste your pity, while
we luxuriate in a refreshing ocean breeze, and
sit within rooms with well-screened doors aud
windows; aud the cool September rains have
silenced those that We're buzzing and biting, SO
We sleep and eat in peace, with good will toward
alL-JoHN 9. HART, Hartland, Fla.