, 1905-04-05
FLORIDA LETTER
A Description of Manatee River.
Tampa and the Western Coast
of the Gulf State.

HAMMOCK LAND

hSiS - hph h1illi'1lS Vi dCIGS Vi
untitled land in southern Florida. The
Everglades, containing at least three
millions of acres, form a tract much of
which has never been explored by man.
and which has until recently been re-
garded as a useless, malarious section
given over to venemous reptiles, but
now it is believed to contain some of
richest land in the state, which can be
reclaimed by labor and drainage. An
other portion, forming a part of Man.
aztec county is made up of pine lands
and what is known as Hammock land.
| visited a farm in the Hammock's
this week, saw the owner gathering
crops, and such productive land |
never saw before. A number of men
were gathering celery from a two
acre plot, packing in crates for ship
ment to northern markets in refrigera-
tor cars; 1000 crates per acre is the
yield, and it is now bringing 81. 80 per
crate at the railroad station here. A
crate contains from three and a half
dozen to seven dozen celery stalks. |
estimate that at least $1,000 per acre,
clear of all expenses, such as labor, fer
tll'Zer, crates, ETC., is being realized.
The celery is bleached by placing ten
or twelve inch planks each side of the
double or triple rows of plants. As
soon as the celery is gathered tomatoes
will be set out and thus two crops gath
cred on the same ground each year
Cabbages set out last October or No
vember have all been gathered and the
ground is now ready to start another
crop.
Hammock land is from two to five
feet deep of muck, composed of de-
cayed vegetable matter. What is
known as Lille bottom is reclaimed
by drainage and is in reality the bot
tom of shallow lakes or ponds where
the chief growth has been wild lilies
and grasses. Willow bottom is thickly
studded with willows and is cleared at
a cost of 500 per acre. Hammock
land made up of these bottoms, in till
able shape, reasonably neal a shipping
place, is worth from 5000 to $500 per
acre which is not a big price when its
wonderful productiveness is considered.
While it is naturally very rich land,
commercial fertilizers must be used in
large quantities to get the proper bal
ance for raising crops. For celery, a
fertilizer rich in nitrate soda is used.
Lime is of very little benefit to it. Ad-
joining the hammocks are thousands
of acres of hard pan land almost worth
less for any purpose, in fact much of
it is not worth owning as it will grow
nothing but scrubby palmetto.
A MUSICALE
Near Oneca, five miles from Braiden-
town, the chief nurseries of the south
are located, owned by Mr.. Reasoner,
who ships stock nearly all over the
world. Mr.. and Mrs. Reasoner gave a
musicale at their splendid home on the
evening of st. Patrick's Day, and | was
fortunate enough to receive and accept
an invitation. The musicale program
was very interesting. The program
vas written on a card on II side of
which was painted a shamrock leaf.
Each piece of cake served with ice
cream had a shamrock leaf delicately
iced on it in olive green, on top of the
white icing. The sherbet on top the
ice cream vas favored with %apricots
and was shamrock green in color.
UP THE MANATEE
On Saturday morning William Rich
man phoned me an invitation to ac-
company a small launch party up the
Manatee river. The day was ideal in
summer weather and | shall not soon
forget the wild tropical scenery along
the eighteen miles we sailed. After
leaving Braidentown four miles behind
us we entered an undeveloped section,
seemingly as wild as the heart of Africa.
We were constantly watching for alli-
the engine warned them of our APP
proach, and except for a commotion at
the waters edge ahead of us now and
then, we saw no evidence of the big
fellows which live there, although we
saw many wild ducks and fish jump
ing in the stream. Some of the fish
our pilot pronounced tarpons. We
ate our lunch in a shady place on shore,
starting homeward soon after one p. m.