Delaware gazette and state journal., 1896-08-06
Grass Turning Yellow During
the Rainy Season.
THE CROPS GREATLY DAMAGED
Sun Scorching and Roasting
Everything,
Those Who Remained After Their Orange
Groves Had Been Destroyed by Freezes
Engaged in Raising Peaches and Pine
apples Hut Not Meeting With Success.

country luis Wouiu pb bdiu nun ~
my hearing the other day, and he put
big chunk Of solid fact in these few
words. Here we arc In thel midst OF
the SO called .'rainy season." with the
grass turning yellow and the leaves of
the young orange trses curling up under
tho aridity and torridity Of IA days.
Not very long dry Bpell, you may
think, but it Is an almost vertical sun
beating down on, parching, scorching.
roasting q soil OF sand. And, what
makes II particularly hard, this tortur-
sSg llrouth comes at sagson when we
have the right to look for rain in
superabundunce.
| am here to tell tho truth about
Florida--the bad as we'll as the good
came down here nearly two years ago,
in the fall OF 1884, to find this country
covered with grand groves laden with
their buunteous wealth OF ripening
oranges, and prosperity smiling on the
land. Men didn't trouble their heads
about free silver and fiat dollars then;
they didn't have to pinch and struggle
and count every penny they spent.
Within three months saw those golden
oranges transformed into balls of ice;
within six months saw the trees
themselves frozen to the ground and
ruin and deBolation stalking in the
footsteps of this recent prosperity. The
blow was terrible one and abandoned
groves and deserted houses, fast going
to wreck. still meet the eye in every
direction as silent but saddening re-
minders OF the devastation it wrought.
Those who remained have been aud
. still are struggling along many liter.
ally living from hand to mouth, wait
ing for their groves TO grow up again
and meanwhile trying, and few sue
ceeding, to support themselves and
families on other crops. Unquestion-
ably this can be done, but for men
who have been accustomed to stake all
on the "main chance" it takes more
than year or two to make success
out Of side issues. Besides some Of
the most promising of these side issues,
for example peaches and pineapples,
take two or three years to come into
profitable bearing
This Is ground which | have treated,
perhaps ad nauseam, in former letters,
but recapitulation is necessary to an
understanding of the genesis of the
general impoverishment and discon-
tent which have given the silverites a
strong foothold in Florida and will
probably add its electoral vote to the
Bryan and Sewall column. Only those
on the ground can realize how com
pletely this disaster knocked the bot
tom out of everything and how tedious
and wearing is the work of rehabilita-
tion, necessarily dependent thus far on
annual crops, as beans, tomatoes, egg
plants, melons, and the like. Now 1t
is the winter market which Florida
must chiefly depend on for most of its
vegetable products and they must run
the gauntlet of our ordinary freezes and
drouths. Fortunate owners of irriga-
ting plants can fight the drouths with
some success, but il the thermometer
drops to 32 degrees or below, your bean
or tomato patch is in peril. And you
are not safe from such drop at any
time between November and April
when nor'wester comes bowling down
from Manitoba. Last winter was q
fair average one, quite genial on the
whole, but there we're three occasions
when the mercury tumbled low enough
for skim of ice to form on water
standing in shallow vessels.
The last of these close shaves was or
March 2lst, when minimum of 3S de
grees knocked out some watermelon!
I'D other tender plants, and it wal
:, just two days before that, on Marcel
Z. 18th, that the last satisfying rain fel
= that we were to see until tine opening
of the rainy season on May 2Sth
During these 10 weeks not enough rain
fell at any one time to fairly dampei
tho surface. In fact, the Eusti
weather record showed the total rain
fall of April to be only one half inch
This has been the worst drouth sine
1890 and, of course, most growing crop
were either killed or injured.
In former years Florida produce ha
brought, on the average, prices com
pensatory of these risks and losses
But latterly this has not been the cas-
and the reason appears to lie that tn
masses in northern cities have not hal
the money to spare for early vego
tables. Take this years melon crop a
an illustration. The successful grower
had to protect their vines in variou
ways from the cold snaps referred to-
watermelon planting begins here il
January to water them frequentl
during the drouth. A few were mar
keted about juno lst and by the mid
die Of June prices had fallen SO tina
shipments became risky, in some case
not covering freights and other charges
AS consequence thousands OF carload
have been loft to rot where they grew
1t Is customary to lay the lions shar
of the blame for this upon high trans
portation rates-and | am not gainsay
ing the reasonableness or Justice of th
complaint and shall not be surprise
TO see some radical legislation, Oh til
regulation of railroad traffic, at Tala
hassee next year-but the fact remain
that IL these melons had brought til
prices such early fruit should bring
not less than S25 per 100, there woul
have been enough for ths grower afte
the railroads had taken their share
In years gone by have seen Jerse
melons, not bit finer. sold in August
by the sloop load, in Wilmington, 1
$40 per 100
The result has been desperation
Recruited, as the population of Florid
has been in recent years, almost er
tirely from the North, East and Wei
and being, therefore, distinctivel
American in tone and training, ST
has been slow among the States OF III
South to drift from her old moorine
out into the perilous and unknow
currents OF Populism. She Ront d
vided delegation to Chicago. Thes
delegates were chosen by conventio
In which gold Democrats wei
still In the ascepdancy. And there al
many Democrats still left who woul
welcome the opportunity to vote ft
candidates representing sound Demo-
racy. But they will hardly endorl
the Republican ticket. The party