The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-12-08
AND OvERPRODUCTION
Florida Orange Growers Are Dis
cussInE the Subject NOW.


attracted me attention Of James Mott, !
a nursery man of Orlando, who publishes /
a card in the Reporter Of Monday after /
noon, under the head Of No Blizzard /
This Winter" in which he rather ridi- /
cules those of us who have needed Hicks |
warning and are seeking to protect what
we have saved from last winters de-
structive blizzard.
1T is he says, everyday talk with
some that we are to have another freeze
this winter. Hicks says we will get it IN
January. As l see IL, the signs all point
10 an open winter-a winter OF no inJurl-
Gus cold. j do not make my calculations
quite as Hicks does his-from the plan
[ ets-but from things down here. notlce
people are already preparing for II. A
/ friend has written me to be sure and bank
up two certain trees 1 have, from which
he wants 10 get buds, and L see others
are piling earth well up around the trees.
I Some are winding up into the limbs with
WlSpS or straw, moss or paper. have
never known cold winter to follow when
everybody got ready for IL. The last one
found us not quite ready. Like the lame
Dutch colonel, I guess gets ready, too "
One thing is certain. If Mr.. Mott does not
get ready he viii surely get left, if he is
not already in that condition. He says he
does not so by the planets, as Hicks does,
but by things down here Wei, on
Wednesday morning and this morning he
has enough things down here" frozen TO
death TO convince him that a wise Chris
tian man had better look aloft. Rev.
Ire Hicks does in search OF information
about future weather conditions Monday
was the day Mr.. Mott made his prediction
of an open winter of no injurious cold.
Z Tuesday night Hicks predicted cold snap
came along and left us minus our tOma-
toes apd other tender vegetables and
plaBts. Then last night the second section
arrived, leaving us this morning minus
/ our bananas castor oil bean trees, zine
apples mot covered and many other val
/ liable growing things
! with this close-at-hand sad experience
/ before my eyes, prefer to reject Nursery
/ man Motifs predictions of an "open Win
! ter" and accept the wiser alyice Of
| Hicks, to make due preparations FOR cold
I snaps, and perhaps a blizzard n January.
! The frost this morning was a heavy white
/ one, much heavier than on Wednesday
morning. Then the thermometer was at %
| degrees, and this morning it was down to
81 degrees, a point seldom reached here
| at this early season of the winter. 1t has
settled the fate of castor bean
/ culture and given black
eve to banana growing for fruit produc-
ton. OF course, our winter gardens are
/ blighted in this favored region, but in
| many other parts of the state the damage
must have been greater Where pineap-
pies are under cover they were not dam
aged, but those in exposed places must
| have suffered.
l still stand by my letter of caution ana
and other tender trees from Hicks pre-
dicted blizzard in January. That he
| says il may not he as severe as that of
last February should not make us care
less. We must give everything we wish
to save all the protection possible. Our
losses last night VIII stimulate us 10
prompt and full preparation, now think.
No man in the south has given Hicks
/ weather prediction more careful study
than l have during the past ten years,
and have found him the only correct
forecaster in the business. He is a de-
VOut minister of the gospel, has studied
the planets enthusiastically from his
youth, and drifted into his present en-
ployment only from force of circum-
stances growing out of his ardent study
of the connection of the planets to the
weather conditions. So far l have never
known him to make a mistake in the time
and character of a storm. AS to precise
localities, or the full effects of the storm,
he has never claimed to be able to fore
tell. He does not furnish local city county
or state forecasts to order, a thing
which, Virgins and other sensational
prophets have done.
In a letter published in the Sunday Morn
ing News Of Nov. IL, referred to the fact
that the California papers said out freeze
of last winter had started extensive or
ange groves on the Gulf of Mexico the
West Indies, etc. In this weeks Florida
Agriculturist | find a letter from Presi-
dent Dudley w. Adams of the State Horti-
cultural Society, in which he refers to the
same fact as showing that the freeze has
not settled the vexed question of overpro-
ductlon or oranges in Florida. l said In
my letter, as l say now, that those pro-
posed new fields of orange culture will
hardly affect the sale of Florida oranges
: Then President Adams alludes to the
new groves being set out in this state,
and that the Jacksonville Daily Citizen
/, Will be revived. and adds this inquiry:
; Where are we at?' Answering his own
question, he claims that if the new fields,
! new home groves and the 80 per cent. re-
sumption of old groves is true, clearly
the problem of overproduction is only
postponed, and will in a few years reap
pear in more formidable proportions than
ever. Somebody is mistaken Is the man
! who thinks he can restore his Florida
answer this inquiry by saying that
= nearly two-thirds Of the Florida men are
I mistaken mist. who think they can restore
their groves on the dead stumps of frozen
i trees. There need be no fear of over pro-
ducuon being dug out of its icy grave by
1 this process. As to new groves. they are
: few and far between and do not begin to
e outnumber the really abandoned groves
e in the state. 1t is useless to dwell or
4 these unpleasant topics, even to keer
! down the ghost of ''oVerproduction'' thai
] haunts the bedside and disturbs the sweet
I slumbers of our genial, hearty and pros
porous friend. President Adams
n l still believe. even with another mildei
: freeze free IN January; that orange culture
G Florida One class of invalids must live
o here all the year round, while another
: class is obliged to dwell here during the
a cold months of the year. Then we have
: the tourists and pleasure seekers None
o of these can do without oranges anC
l. other semi-tropical fruits, and the cul-
e ture of such fruits will go on here as lone
e as the world lasts. Big groves may dis
J, appear and orange spectators become
u unknown. but orange trees will still
r flourish in numbers sufficient to supply
IL home demands and crafty family de
: lights. As to over production under tn,
q most favorable outlook now, it is so fal
= off that the naked eye cannot see it.
: If the severe frost of last night has dis
i | couraged any one, let that person heal
d in mind that all other sections of thi,
: country have their calamties. Think Of
q the western billiards, the prairie fires
a etc, of the west; the snow banks ant
: freshets of New England, and the fire
s quent destructive Overfiows of great riV
n ers in other southern states We have
d fewer calamities than any other state.
L climate usually mild and heathful anC
a soil always ready for some kind of ;
crop the year round The development
of Florida during the past ten years ha
astounded me, and so has the fact tina
neither fire nor freeze, yellow fever no
l. ruinous speculation has been able {,
oh ., do, bo ~ =,