Fitzgerald enterprise., 1906-10-23
FLORADORA COTTON.


About three years ago Mr.. E. j. Hogan, ct
this county bought from a man by the name OF
Stoney, near Charleston, S. Carolina, what Is
known as the Floradora seed. lie bought
three bushels at that time. Now about one
thousand acres of the cotton is being gathered
from that seed inthis immediate section. Some
of it, however, has been mixed, but there are
several hundred acres of this years crop
around Fitzgerald and Ocilla of the genuine, nnr
mixed Floradora seed. Where the seed is
pure the staple measures one and one half inch
es and is worth four 10 five cents per pound
more than the average short staple cotton. Al
most as much of the cotton can be raised on the
ground as of the short staple. 1t is hg boiled,
easy to pick and gins perfectly on the ordinary
short staple gin The slight difference in yleald
is the only bjectiou that can be offered to the
pie. which, perhaps amounts to tltteen 10 out
the price is fifty per cent better therefore
there is twenty five per cent gain in planting
the Floradora seed, which probably represents
more than the average net profit on the cotton
crop. &
The pure seed can be had from several re-
liable farmers in this section at reasonable
price, say about one dollar per bushel. Ofcourse
it is i'm portant to get the pure seed as mixed
cotton will not bring much, if anything above
the short staple price. AS this section of the
cotton belt seems to be peculiarly adapted to
the Floradora cotton the Enterprise would love
to see much larger acreage of that crop plant
ed next year.
The Egvptian cotton which has a staple
about one inch and a quarter IS also success
fully raised in this section and is worth cons1d-
erably more than the short staple, but the Flc-
radora has some distinctive advantages over the
Egyptian. A longer staple, which make bet
ter price, and large bolls. The average picker
can pick third more of the Floradora than the
Egyptian or ordinary cotton. Farmers who
have tested the Floradora claim that it is harder
healthier than the ordinary plant and holds its
fruit better.
A fire in the Standard Warehouse at mid
night Saturday night was extinguished by an
automatic fire protection system and the alarm
turned on calling attention to the trouble IN the
interior of the building when it would have been
impossible to discover the blaze until thousands
of dollars worth of cotton had been consumed.
A bale of cotton with spark inside had
been stored in the warehouse during the day
Saturday. The fire burned its way to the sur
face and spread to ad Joining bales when the heat
opened the automatic sprinkler overhead turn
ing loose a shower of water on the burning cot
ton bale simultaneously the big brass gong out
side set up an alarm that was persistent that
it was running long after the fire had been ex-
tinguished and the cotton bales removed from
the building. Only Sc ven bales we're scorched
and the damage is very slight, whereas without
the system several hundred bales of cotton
would have been consumed and the warehouse
greatly damaged. The name of the system
is the Automa tic Sprinkler.
81
Ocilla, the growing city of Irwin county, now
stands good chance to become the county site
of Irwin county. Fitzgerald is now out of the
running and Ocilla is the logical capital.-Fort
Gaines Seminal
County politics has practically side tracked
everything else, and in consequence we are
bound to lose some opportunities that will not
again knock at our door. We must not entirely
lose sight of our duty to the A. B. & A. r. R.
Co. which is now building their mammoth rail-
road shops here.
Mr.. J. E. Cameron, il charge of the con-
struction of the large plant tells the Enterprise
that he is now ready to order transferred, to
this place several of the foremen and asuf6cent
number of other men to increase the monthly
pay roll probably twenty thousand dollars.
There are no houses available for these
men and their families. Mr.. Cameron has
own family.