The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-26
WAR AND DROUGHT.
TWO THINGS WHICH AuE TROU-
BLING; FLORIDA.

Something About Little Fishes.
Orange Trees Losing Their Leaves.
silk CuIture-SOme Facts About Its
Culture in Florida.
Maitland, Fla. April 25.-Verily, we of
Florida are just now between two fires,
both 'red-hot;" one being war on our
coast, and the other long-continued and
destructive drought. Like the fellow be-
tween the devil and the deep sea, we
don't know which way to turn. Perhaps
Tampa and the railroads will reap some
benefit from the war but they will lose
in the end, it now appears, all they thus
make by heavy losses of freight and BUSH
ness by the drought.
Nothing like the present condition of
things has been known here for years and
years, if ever before. Not drop Of rain
in weeks. and every day hot, parching
sun is burning up crops and whitening the
leaves on the orange trees. Only irrigated
groves, gardens and lawns are being saved
from injury or destruction. The leaves on
some of the finest groves in the state, in
the absence of irrigation, are curled up
tight like little tin tubes, and will finally
fall off, thus denuding the trees, and the
oranges also will drop.
In a recent letter 1 referred to the visit
of an. expert" representative of big
Boston, Mass, fish concern who had been
to Key West, Tampa, Cedar Key, Apa-
lachicoa, and other points in this state, TO
investigate our fish industry. His chief
purpose seemed to me to be to find out
about the little fishes" so numerous on
the coast, and decide upon their merits
as substitute for "sardines 90 such as
the Maine fishermen are putting up. Since
the visit of that expert the statistical
| field agent of the United States fish COM
mission, who is John N. Cobb, has given
his views ON the subject and here is what
he says officially:
1.-The fishes, locally known as sardines"
as pchord as herring" and 'anchovy,'
exists in very large quantities along the
| Florida coast, especially at Key West al
Biscayne hay, and the lower west coast.
The only use made of this fish at present
is as bait in the Key West line fishery.
A number of firms in Maine have develop
ed large business in the canning of the
small herring as sardines' and I think
that the fish mentioned above could be
prepared by the same process as the Maine
| packers use, and it would be a good a
| substitute for the French sardine as there
is. If a sample lot of these were prepared
! and placed upon the general market the
| question of their adaptability would soon
| be settled"
| Here is a good hint to our Florida coast
| fishermen TO share in the profits the Maine
! fishermen are making out of their "sar-
Dimes" I understand that a Lakeland
| fisherman, who met the Boston expert,
proposes 10 try the experiment this year.
In a recent issue of the Morning News
you refer to a communication in the Union
Point review from Mrs. Jennie Hart Sib-
ley, in favor of silk culture by the ladies
of that county and stating that silk
worms will be furnished free by the agri-
cultural department at Washington, and
also suggesting the Usage orange tree as
a good food for the worms. No doubt Mrs.
Sibley intends to do her sex q favor by her
article, but all recent experiments in silk
culture have proved that it is not a paying
Industry No state is better fixed for sue
cessful silk culture than Florida, and no
state has tried 1t on bigger scale of late
years and of better prospects Of full sue
cess. and yet all such experiments and en-
terprises have proved dismal failures SO
far as financial results were concerned,
and In many cases a failure all around.
Granted that in colonial days silk culblre
hourshed in old Georgia, ii does not fol-
low that In our changed condition 1t can
be made successful. Readers OF the Morn
ing News who were interested in the Sib-
lev article will do well to Ego Slow in silk
ct1ti1re experimentS.