, 1905-04-19
FLORIDA ORANGE CROP
AN UNCERTAIN ONE
ST. AUGUSTINE
The Fashionable City of Hand
some Hotels and Narrow
Winding Streets. From
Savannah to PhiladeI-
phia by Steamer

odVdnndn 10
phia by Steamer
Letter No. 6 from the "Elmer Fines"
| left Manatee early in the morning
of April 3, for st. Augustine, which |
reached between nine and ten O'Clock
that night.
At Waldo / met Mr.. George P. Nor
ris, brother to Rev. R. H. Morris, of
Elmer.
In the section of which Starke is a
centre, immense shipments of straw
berries were being made. | was told
that 500, 900 worth of strawberries
were shipped from that immediate
neighborhood last year. All of the
section from Jacksonville south for $50
miles has passed through an evolution
in the past 25 years. If shattered
hopes, lost fortunes, disappointments
and buried ambitions were all marked
with grave stones, that country would
be one great cemetery. 1t was adver-
tised as an orange growing paradise
and from all over the north, east and
est, investors put their money (often
their ALL in orange culture. The peri
odical cold snaps in winter, proved
through bitter eX Experiment., that there
is no point within $50 miles of Jack
sonville where oranges can be grown
at a certain profit or with any assur-
ance that whole orchards will not be
ruined in a night, not the crop only
but the tree itself which bursts when
frozen. | saw orchards more than 225
miles below Jacksonville where many
large orange trees have been cut back
to within Y inches of the ground, as
a result of the freeze of January last.
The section of buried orange hopes,
after a period of almost DIES lation, has
taken new life as it has been found
that the proper use of the soil is grow
iog early vegetables and berries, and
not trying to grow oranges. The
place for Citrus fruits is in southern
Florida and even there the white fly,
blight and various fungus diseases,
compel the growers 10 earn all they
get out of it.
ST. AUGUSTINE
/ took the trip to st. Augustine, 81
miles south of Jacksonville, on the
east coast, because in addition to being
the reputed oldest town in the United
States, it is unique in character and
entirely different from any other city
| know of. The hotels Ponce De Leon
and Alcazar, are two of the finest in
the world. The former with its fur
nishiugs cost about $1,000 900. The
magnificent gariens of topical foliage
and fountains, and the electrical dis
play, combined with the old time
architecture, o%utrivals l think Allan
tic City's greatest hotels.
The town dates historically from
1865 when a colony of French Hugue.
nots were massacred by the Spanish
in command of Pedro Menendez.
There are a number of 'oldest''
houses in the town and the visitor is
free to decide as to the merits of the
various claims. All that is oldest in
style and architecture has been pre-
served in st. Augustine. There are
the narrow winding streets. the CHIEF
of which, st. Georges is a veritable
Worlds Fair "Midway" in many re.
spects. The number of stores '~'selling
out below cost and the various auc-
tons, remind one of Atlantic City's
boardwalk shops, at the close of the
summer season.
There is not a street car in the city
of St. Augustine, but fine horses,
wagons, automobiles and bicycles are
everywhere seen. Every foot of street
and sidewalk is of asphalt or other
smooth paving material.
Many of the houses were built OF
Coquina, a rock composed of frag'
ments of shells gathered from Anas'
tasia Island. OF this same material
the old City gateway (still standing)
and the old Fort Marion, were built
and are yet in excellent state of preser'
walton. These permanent reminders
of the days of Spanish occupation are
exceedingly interesting to the tourist,
as are the sea wall, plaza, U. S. GENE
terry, barracks, etc.
There are two monuments in the
plaza; one inscribed in Spanish was
erected as a tribute to Spain when the
Cortez granted a NOR liberal govern