The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-09

ing to the size of the fruit, the average
 in box being 175 There are usually
 about 100 trees in an acre. This makes
 an average yield of more than 20O00( oranges to the acre.
 The average value of these oranges
 on the aes would be about $12O0, Il
 the trees are twenty years old the above
 estimate of the value of the crop per
 acre might be safely doubled. Pine l apples are now raised to a considerable
 extent on Indian river. They yield a
 greater profit, it is said, than oranges,
 During the last few years bananas
 have been raised with great success in
 this region.
 Our new New Haven has history of
 scarcely more than dozen years. How
 rapid it's progress has been during this l time may be learned from the follow | ing: Eleven years ago Clayton Garvey
 of Cincinnati, a young man of scarcely
 more than twenty years, without for | tune, came to Rockledge and bought | eight acres of river property for $10O,
 which he has since sold to later set
 tiers (some of them New Haven people,
 for $75,OOO.
 said the scenery was of the finest in Florida, Speaking from the experience
 of many far more travelled than l, it
 might be said to belong to the finest tropical scenery in the world. There is walk along the western shore of In- dian river which Is a great favorite with tourists. It runs for several miles with a view of the river on one side, and on the other the residences hidden in a for est of palmettos and live oaks, festoon- ed with Spanish moss. These long boards of gray moss are the peculiar charm of the Florida forests and give them singularly weird look-make them verltable fairyland. The writer recalls a we'll known drive along the shores of Santa Cruz, a famous walk through a botanical garden along the sea wall at Domenica, another under the palms and cocoanut trees at Fonta- belle on the shore of Barbados and does not hesitate to say he prefers the walk at Rockledge, nor to add that 1t is even more tropical in appearance than those he has mentioned.
 The hunting and fishing in this region are good There is plenty of wild ducks and quails. The deer are quite as numerous as in the Adirondacks, and there is no scarcity of wild tur- keys.
 The orange trees that have reached the fruit-bearing age are not seriously injured. A large part of those of younger growth are killed. Many groves of these young trees are totally de- stroyed.
 I have said that the weather in the winter was a constant June. This may present a violent contrast to your re- cent telegraphic reports of "the great freeze" But there are only two or three freezes" in generation; the last was in 1886. The usual winter temper ature at midday is 70 degrees The mornings and nights are just pleasant ly cool, like those of early June in Con necticut. On the morning of December 2S last the temperature before sunrise at Rockledge was 20 degrees. The pineapple and banana crops are totally ruined. So far as I can judge from the opinions of experts, think from one-third to oile-half of the orange crop on Indian river will be saved. The crop further north is practically total loss. The rise in the price will proba- ply almost make good to the proprie- tors along Indian river their loss in fruit. How foreign to the climate this freeze was Is shown by its effect on an- imals The smaller fish crowded in great schools to the shores to get warm. Large fish were seen floating on their | backs in benumbed state. I saw a 1 group of seven alligators caught in q condition on Banana river, | about three miles from Rockledge, the | largest of them being about ten feet | long, the others from six to seven feet | long. Alligators are very scarce now at Indian river, and in Florida general l ly except in the Everglades. The cold | lasted only three days. New Years | brought us another bright June day. According to the probabilities of past | experience, there will be no more win ter at new New Haven for years to roOna A