The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1896-07-22
DOWN THE EAST COAST

| VIGIL OhC AAOCo OVCA TIC Last NOdSt
Railroad he is struck with the vast amount
of wild land all along its entire length and
wonders where it can get The business that
supports it, To us that is also a mystery
but we are not so much interested in that
as we are in how the inhabitants that have
homes all along the line make their ex.
penses and if possible lay up something
for rainy day.
| Last week we were over the line from
| New Smyrna to Miami and was greatly
pleased with the improvements over one
year ago. The pineapple industry is ra-
pidly recovering from the freeze and very
few fields today show the effect of that ter
rible blast, and in another year or two the
crop will equal if not exceed the output of
any year previous to ga. In this respect
they are much better off than the orange
growers for even this year they are ship.
ping large quantities of fruit and getting
enough money to keep everything going at
an easy pace.
If the land on each side of the entire
length of the railroad was as we'll covered
with productive fields as at Eden and len
sen it would require another track to bring
in and carry out the freight. There is
however, very little danger of that happen-
ing for some time. At Jensen the fields
have about all been replanted and are in
pretty fair shape. Mr.. J. I. Aliens plan
tation has so far recovered that scarcely
trace is left to tell what was. He expressed
himself as we'll pleased with the growth
made and expects large yield next year.
At different points along the road large
sheds were being erected over the pines
following the plan adopted by growers
further up in the state, whose first object
was protection from the cold.
Conversation with the growers as far
down as Palm Beach showed that they
were all'pleased with the returns from their
fruit which they attributed to the methods
that the pineapple growers association has
adopted this year for disposing of its fruit.
The plan is that all of the fruit is shipped
to Jacksonville and their agent there sees
to the rest. When the fruit arrives at
Jacksonville car load lots are made up and
sent to agents appointed in the principal
cities through the north east and west,
With but three exceptions there IS but one
agent in a city so that no one else has pine
apples from Indian river or Lake Worth
for sale. In this way the agent is able to
maintain better prices. and as the agent at
Jacksonville has the directing of all the
shipments he sees that no more is put on
any one market than that place can con-
sumo at good prices.
The working has been most satisfactory
and Mr.. E. P. Porcher the agent deserves
great credit for the manner in which he
has conducted the entire business
Every grower that we talked with above
West Palm Beach expressed himself as
satisfied with its working and thought that
they were all getting pretty good prices.
In contrast with this the growers below
West Palm Beach not belonging to
this association complained of poor prices
and had the general amount of abuse for
the commission merchant. Their general
expression was that the price of pines was
down and the outlook very poor. Here
were two directly opposite conditions of