The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1892-04-06
SOUTHERN SCENES.
Among the Sugar and Rice Plan
tations.
In Orange County.
Ocala and It's Surrounding.
NO. g..

To klSsimmee, the city whose very name
contains such pleasantly suggestive
sound that it had been the great OBJ
jective point for the gentlemen ever
since the publication of our itinerary.
Imagine their delight upon emerging
from the car, to find smiling group of
ladies awaiting an introduction, each
one wearing a yellow badge on which
appeared the words, "Welcome to Kis
simmee." With great alacrity the gen.
tlemen of our party advanced toward
the welcoming group, no doubt placing
much mental stress on that final sylla-
BILE, and each received IA warm hand
shake, accompanied by-a yellow
badge and nothing more.
Our generous hosts had fine break
fast awaiting us at the Tropical hotel
and conducted us hither, while the
ladies of the committee took possession
of our day-coach which, on our return,
we found fragrant with flowers and
beautified with trailing vines and semi
tropical plants. Breakfast disposed of,
we were given carriage drive about
this pleasant town of 1900 inhabitants,
stopping to look over their fine new
S25, 900 court house. Kissimmee is the
county seat of Osceola county, and is
beautifully located on Lake Tohopeka-
liga, which is said to cover an area of
IA square miles, besides mOnopolizing
nho,. Of hn al. Nhnh hot
Tutwiler of the Sugar Belt Railway
having extended an invitation for us to
visit the sugar mill not far away, we
next proceeded thither. Nine hundred
acres of sugar cane are tributary to this
mill which, owing to the sugar bounty,
has been greatly enlarged and this year
produced 1,000,000 lbs. of fine sugar.
Although the works had shut down a
few days before, the various processes
were thoroughly explained to us, and
we came away greatly enlightened on
the subject of sugarmaking.
Thousands of acres in this vicinity
which fifteen years ago were worthless
swamp land, have been reclaimed and
planted to sugar-cane OF rice and, on
our return from the sugar mill, we
stopped at large rice plantation of 1900
acres. The rice crop is similar to oats
in appearance, though about two feet
taller, and is threshed in the field, then
through the cleaner, FOUNDER, separa-
tor, and graders, whence it energies
ready for market. Returning to ks
simmee, we babe farewell to its agree
able citizens with even greater reluc-
lance than usual, j. +. Beal's conun-
drum, SIS Kissmmee in it?" being re-
sponded to by our party with such
heartiness as evoked "a facial ripple"
of unusual dimensions. The two boxes
of "Florida's golden apples" that were
here put aboard our train, proved most
delicious, howbeit rather transitory,
souvenirs of this enjoyable occasion.
The ride to Orlando was a short
though merry one, and we reached that
enterprising city with good appetite
at the San Juan hotel. Orlando is a
wide-awake town of some 5000 inhab-
itants, and is the county seat of Orange
county. Here, as elsewhere in Florida,
our entertainers could scarcely do
enough to make us welcome, and after
dinner for several hours we were driven
about through pleasant streets, or past
beautiful groves laden with golden
fruitage, stopping at last at the lovely
home of Hon. Mahlon Gore, president
of the Florida Press Association and
whom we had met at Jacksonville. Mr..
Gore has fine orange grove which he
placed entirely at our disposal, besides
presenting each lady in our party with
a cluster of orange blossoms, and having
sampled many different varieties of the
orange, we continued our drive.
We were taken to the truck farm of
Major Foster, where we inspected fine
pineapple patch 60xl90 feet, said to
have yielded $500 worth of fruit this
year. We also found his banana orchard
very interesting. The banana stalk is
six or eight inches thick and twelve to
fifteen feet in height, ripening but one
bunch of fruit year and then dying
down, to be replaced by another shoot
that springs up from the root 1t is very
easy crop to raise, providing Jack Frost
does not interfere, and Major Foster
claims an income of $500 per year from
an acre of bananas.
Here i'm Orlando we found out the
full meaning of the phrase getting
down to hard pam, for some of their
finest roads are made of a hard, red
clay called 'hard pam, which is found
some twenty feet below the surface and
readily packs into a smooth highway
that will last for a number of years.
Orange county is very near the cen
ter of the peninsula, has very equable
temperature, seldom falling below 40 . +,