, 1905-04-05

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outlying groves have given it wide
publicity.
The Manatee Lemon Company have
three hundred and eighty acres i'm
lemons, grape fruit oranges, kumquats,
etc. The lemons have not proved pro-
htable and the trees are being cut down
and oranges or grape fruit grated into
them. Lemons here are picked while
green and placed in a building where
they are brought to the proper color by
sulphur fumes. If allowed to mature
they would be rough and unstable.
On this big farm are at least a hun
dred hives of bees in the care of one
man who gives them his exclusive at
tentlon. Bees are a necessary adjunct
to orange growing as they carry the
pollen from blossom to blossom, fer
tilizing them.
Fol seven years William Clark, for
merly of Woodstown, N. j., was book
keeper for the Manatee Lemon Com
pany, and resided on the side of the
farm bounded by Terra Celia bay, which
place | visited. Last October he left
the lucrative position to accept a stu
alton at Plant City. He has lived in
Florida about thirteen years in all.
In various parts of the big groves are
flowing wells four to five hundred feet
deep. The water is im%pregnated with
sulphur and not very palatable. The
extensive spraying apparatus used at
tracted my attention. One l saw was
operated by a small gasoline engine on
top of the tank which was builded on
a wagon. | visited a grove from which
thirteen hundred boxes of grape fruit
were shipped one day last year, bring
ing ten dollars a box.
We drove through the Atwood
Grove, the largest plot devoted entirely
to grape fruit in the world. The rows
of trees are three quarters of a mile
long. To start up one row and down
the next, and SO on to the end one
would cover seventy five miles of grape
trees. The orchard contains 30, 900
trees, set on 230 acres of land; 20. 900
boxes of grape fruit were shipped from
the orchard last year, but the freeze
last January which struck parts of the
orchard ruined great quantities of fruit
which still lies OH the ground. Hun
dreds of trees have been trimmed back
to one, two or three feet from the
ground. The mercury as low as twenty
not only ruins citrus fruits and foliage,
but bursts the trees.
L have not seen any clover here. Crab
grass seems to be a staple and sells as
high as SIS a ton. 1t attains large size
during the rainy season.
A TRIP TO TAMPA
Two steamers arrive and leave Braid
entOwn daily for Tampa, As miles dis
tant. | went to Tampa one day, re-
turning the next. On the trip a shaft
broke, disabling n of the big paddle
wheels of the steamer so that instead
of reaching Tampa at eleven a. m. we
did not reach there until nearly three
p. m. Breakfast and suppera are served
on the boat but no dinner and there
was a hungry lot of passengers landed.
The day was SO beautiful and balmy
that few were disposed to complain.
schools of porpoises and the big fish
would keep just clear of the boat for
perhaps five minutes, and frequently
the boat would strike them. In the
clear water here the %porpoises were
plainly seen.
Turkey, ducks and pelicans we saw
in great numbers. The pelicans were
so tame at st Petersburg they would
swim under the fishing poles of the
fishers on the pier. Most of the people
on our BOAT were bound for their homes
in the north and west after spending
the winter at the seacoast towns. st.
Petersburg has a normal population of
about $500 but the influx of northerners
increases the population to 1000 during
the winter months. The largest q. A.
r. Post in the southern states is here.
Tampa, West Tampa and Y'bor City
are practically one city under two mu-
nicipal governments with a total pop
ulation of about 40, 1000. Ofthese $1,000
are Cubans, Porto Ricans, Spaniards
and Italians. Y'bor City is a distinct
ly Spanish town. In the business sec