The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1897-05-26

Corn a DeluSfOn.-The writer spent
twenty-three of the best years of his life
in the grand states of Illinois and Iowa,
and he knows that more prosperous
and happy people were nowhere to be
found than there. And during all those
years, after the close of the Civil war,
corn did not average in Iowa to exceed
twenty-five cents. And if you give Iowa
twenty-five cents or it's corn, and Kansas
and Nebraska twenty cents, at their
home markets, they will never grow
sugar beets. But for several years past
the farmers have\ received only from ten
to fifteen cents for corn, and from thir-
ty-five to fifty cents for wheat; and be-
cause in part, that we of the south have
been determined to raise our own hog
and hominy and this to the absolute dis
regard of one of the greatest staple prod
ucts that God ever put within the reach
of any people.
Who is to blame for the sad necessity
of growing sugar beets in the great grain
belt of the west? 1 answer unhesitating-
ly we of the south. Louisiana for CEN
tury claimed the only soil and climate
suited for sugar culture, and with all the
fostering care of the government, and
the expenditure of millions of dollars in
levees on the Mississippi, it only furnish
ed pittance of our consumption.
South Florida and Louisiana.-South
Florida when it's vast areas of muck
lands are drained and cleared, can offer
something similar to Louisiana, and we
are glad that our two South Florida cor
respondents stand up bravely for their
section, and so ably present their posi-
bilities in this important line. But good
friends, let me hazard this statement:
If you stick to the black lands of Louis
lana, and Florida, you will find that
northern and western farmers will stay
where they are, and that in the next dec
ade California and other western states
will control both the grain and sugar
supply of the United States.
I regard it as a calamity to both Sec
lions that the great west is forced into
sugar beet culture maintain that Flor
ida alone has the best sugar cane lands
of the south, that we could and should
produce at least one-fourth of our vast
supply at the end of the next decade, and
that the very best soil for cane produc-
ton is the gray sand of West Florida,
where there is a good subsoil. Besides
CnlS, we OII0r three ClIu0S Tie IOIuulGI-
alton for labor and expense that is Of
fered by grain in the best part of the
west and the climate is even more desir-
able and comfortable for white farmers
than the north
Now Get to Work. am not opposing
my friends of South Florida, nor yet the
grand men of the sugar industry in Lou
siana I bid them all God speed;" but
I would arouse inquiry, even controversy,
if need be, to awaken our people to the
necessity of holding a great industry,
which God and nature intended for US,
before it is forever gone from us.
Now, to repeat the statement that the
valued correspondents named began at
the wrong end-if I have not made my
point, I would say that what Florida
needs is to show the great west and the
vast army of dissatisfied farmers of that
section that we have soil that will pay
| vastly better than grain, and better and
. freer from risk than sugar beets. Then
we will get sugar cane growers, and the
factories will surely come.
The writer holds a contract for the
building of central centrifugal sugar
| factory to cost $10O, 900 at this place, and
the only question ever raised has been,
and is, Are you sure you can grow the
cane? We stand ready to prove it.