The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1894-02-06
Bill ARp ON

AtlaDita Constitution.
Some portions of west Florida ere
stiu in the piney woods and very lone
SOME. Travelling overland 1 found the
~bhbitations several miles epart on the
&ain road, but was told thai the little
(grass-covered roads that branched off
rightand left led to somebody's house.
where clever people lived and cultivat-
ed orange trees for o living.
"This la q great country" said q
settler, "where the climate is worth
800 an acre and the land amt worth
a darn. 1t is risky for a man to die
here and be buried for there is not
enough virtue in the soil to make him
rise when Gabriel blows his horn"
ut seems reproduce fine oranges"
said /.
Yes said he, shut what's oranges?
The more oranges he a got the
poorer he is. The price has got down
to about 20 cents q hundred on the
tree, and he can't keep up his grove
for that"
That man was a pessimist, and there
are thousands Of them. l found Mr..
Starr packing $500 boxes of his own
crop and he said that his net profit
would be 60 cents q box, and that would
pay him we'll on his Investment. He
is an optimist and is increasing his
acreage every year. 1 found Mr..
Robinson lear Lenard with 10000
trees and he is entirely content with
his business. His twenty acres of
bearing trees have paid all expenses
OF increasing his acreage and all will
be bearing in two years more. Like
every other trade or calling more de-
ponds on the man than ON the bust
ness. Mr.. Sampson has shipped thirty
carloads of lemons and is getting rich.
But L see many neglected groves and
some that have been abandoned. You
can tell the thrift and industry of Il
! man by his orange grove. Then there
are hundreds OF groves that belong to
people who live away off and have got
tired. They get some poor fellow to
live in the little shanty and look after
things, n he, perhaps, was born
tired. The other day we came to
where the road forked and not know
ing. which to take we drove to q dirty
little house not far away for direction.
"Take the right hand" said q big
gray.bearded n with q newspaper
in his hand. 81 have to tell some
body that most every day" "You
might put up a signboard," said l,
land that would save you the trouble"
Then they wouldent drive down here
to AK me-" said he, land 1 wouldcnt
get a chance to see 'em. No, 1 won't
put up no board, for I likes to see
folks once in while, specially women"
The poor old man was living there
alone watching a grove.
With constant care and attention
there is still big money in growing
oranges and always will be. 1t is a
simple business and is easy and at
tractive. Many citizens add to it in a
small and profitable way by growing
lemons, lines, grape fruit, shaddocks,
guaVaS, manages, peentos, cumgust
oranges and other tropical fruits. |
have seen acres of casava, from which
tapioca is made. The peentoos, when
ripened on the tree, are said to be the
most delicious of all peaches. The
trees are now in bloom. Strawberries
are just coming into market. The
gardens are supplying us with all
kinds of vegetables. The woods have
been burned of and thousands of acres
of low bush palmetto killed, leaving
their great roots piled across each
other in promiscuous confusion. They
look like great snakes with alligator
scales On them, but, of course, they
are not killed and will soon sprout
again and cover the earth with their
~fan-shaped leaves.
went out in the country to see the
fruits and flowers of an old lady who
lives in primitive simplicity and loves
Florida and her humble home and
cultivates tropical plants for the plea
sure 1T gives her and gives those who
visit her. | cannot give the botanical
names as she gave them to me, but
she had moro curious plants than |
ever saw before. There was the date
palm and thistle hemp and camphor
tree and eucalyptus that 1 remember
and there was an 0leander in bloom
that was nearly a foot in diameter,
and there was cactus vines running
over the house and tea plants and cof-
fee plants and many curious things
that | never saw before. AS for
oleanders. they are common enough
everywhere, and some on the side
walks in Clear Water are twenty feet
high, and arc now putting on their
Florida is SO easily grown that most
people take little pride in it. What
we grow at home in greenhouses and
pits will grow and flourish here in the
woods, or even in the big road if
planted there. Mrs. Goodwin, of Lake
land, gave me q bouquet Of %the'finest
roses [ ever saw-a bouquet that an
Atlanta swell would have given s. for
to present to his best girl.
But the climate-the climate on the
gulf cOast-the coast where no east
winds prevail-thc east wind that
IN over the Atlantic ocean and
brings aches and shivers and cold and
asthma and catarrh-the east wind
that was accursed from way back, for
job says, HE filleth his belly with
the east wind" If our northern
brethren want it on Indian river let
them have it, but | want some of our
southern folks to come down to Clear
Water and take it with its balmy west
wind and it's odors from the pines and
get well of all pulmonary and bron-
chlal affections. | mean just what /
say. We have bought two lots here
and there are plenty more for good
people and | want to ~colonize them.
My niger, Bob, wasted q whole week
at a big meeting up the road while |
was gone away, and when l complained
OF 1T he said, "well, now boss, you
musent get mad wild me, for you know
how it is-you white folks is done got
dis here world and we niggers is just
fxin' a trick to get de next one" Just
so our northern brethren have done got
east Florida, all the way from st.
Augustine to st. Lucic, and now let
us fix up a trick to capture west Florida
and be happy. or course we won't