The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-05-23
BILL ARP,S LETTER.
william Hears Different Opinions Ex-
pressed on the Orange Crop.
atlanta Constitution.

SOme pOTtluH VI WeSI loIlud ok
still in the piney woods and very lone
some. Travelling overland / found
the habitations several miles apart on
the main road, but was told that the
little grass-covered roads that branch,
ed off right and left led to somebody
house, where clever people lived and
cultivated orange trees for living.
"This is a great country" said a
settler, "where the climate is worth
800 an acre and the land amt worth
a darn. It 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"
"It seems to produce fine oranges, "
said
eyes" said he, "but what's
oranges? The more oranges he has
got the poorer he is. The price has
got down to about 20 cents a 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. I found Mr..
Starr packing $500 boxes of his own
crop and he said that his net profit
would be so cents a box, and that
would pay him we'll on his investment.
He is an optimist and is increasing
his acreage every year. I found Mr..
Robinson near Leaard with 10000
trees and he is entirely content with
his business. His twenty acres of
bearing trees have paid all the ex:
penses of increasing his acreage, and
all will be bearing in two years more.
Like every other trade or calling more
depends on the man than on the bust
ness. Mr.. Sampson has shipped
thirty carloads Of lemons and is get
ting rich. But I see many neglected
groves and some that have been aban-
doned. You can tell the thrift and
industry of 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, and he, perhaps,
was born tired. The other day we
came to where the road forked and not
knowing which to take we drove to
dirty little house not far away for di-
rection. ''Take the right hand" said
a big, gray-bearded man with news
paper in his hand. II have to tell
somebody that most every day"
''You might put up signboard, said
I, "and that would save you the
trouble" ''Then they wouldn't drive
down here to ak me-" said he, "and I
wouldn't get chance to see 'em. No,
I won't put up no board, for I likes to
see folks once in a while, specially
women" The poor old man was liv-
ing there alone watching grove.
With constant care and attention
there is still big money in growing
oranges and always will be. It is a
simple business and is easy and at
tractive. Many citizens add to it in
small and profitable way by growing
lemons, lines, grape fruit, shaddocks,
guavas, mangoes, peentos, cumgost
oranges and other tropical fruits. l
have seen acres of casava, from which
tapioca is made. The pentoos, 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 off 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 ALI
gator scales on them, but, Of course,
they are not killed and will soon sprout
again and cover the earth with their
fan-shaped leaves.
I 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 cul
tivates tropical plants for the pleasure
it gives her and gives those who visit
her. I cannot give the botanical
names as she gave them to me, but
she had more curious plants than l
ever saw before. There was the date
palm and thistle hemp and camphor
tree and eucalyptus that I remember,
and there was an oleander in bloom
that was nearly a foot in diameter,
and there were cactus vines running
over the house and tea plants and cof-
fee plants and many curious things
that I never saw before. As for ole
anders, they are common enough
everywhere, and some on the side
walks in Clear Water are twenty feet
high, and are now putting on their
beautiful garments. The fora Of
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
Lakeland, gave me 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-the east wind that
comes 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
4honn hauo Il hnt want Soma Of nn1