The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1907-03-22
FLO9IOA's FRUIT GROWERS.


Of the earth with printers ink. is in
Florida and writes Interestingly for
the Washington Star Of the great
fruit growing industry Of the state
Of flowers. He says.
Northern Florida has never entire
. Iy recovered from the big freeze that
happened several years ago, and there
are many abandoned orchards whose
owners have gone southwark below
the frost belt Orange growing is
not an easy proposition. experienced
people down there will tel. You. and
more money has been lost than has
! been made in that business because
50 many terderfeer went into ir orig
inaIly without knowing how. r looks
easy, but there is no more difficult
farming In the early days Of the
Florida boom a multitude Of north
/ erners came down and bought land.
thinking that all they had 10 do was
10 plant a grove Of orange seedlings
and sit on the porch and watch them
grow. but the impression has been
corrected. That falacy does not ex-
Isl any longer. and. as a gentleman Of
long experience and reputation for
sagacity remarked yesterday. such
people have since found their vocation
in raising chickens.
The tourist is the most profitable
crop in Florida; pineapples come
next. and then grapefruit IN a few
years the grapefruit orchards will ex-
coed the oranges. The industry is in
icreasing very rapidly. Four times as
many grapefruit trees are set out ey-
cry year as oranges
There is more money IN grapefruit.
II sells for s. a crate. while oranges
sell for s., o. it takes fewer grape
fruit to fill crate Therefore a man
can get more boxes off tree. The
grapefruit country lies between Rock
ledge and Miami and on Merritt is
land. and there is plenty Of room in
that district for il TO grow.
1T takes Ten years for a grapefruit
orchard to bear, and good pineapple
farmer can pick eight crops while the
is a bug waiting for every grapefruit
and for every orange all along the
line Eternal vigilance is the price
pf a crop Of oranges Or grapefruit. bu.
pineapple is tDO tough - die Young
ana mas no natural enemies.
"'WhO introduced the pineapple
here I asked
Thomas T. Richards. Of Paterson.
y. j.. came down here in 1880 and
tried 10 raise pineapples on the sea
shore thirty miles above Palm Beach.
He failed because the soil wasn't
adapted to the plant. After two years
of experiments he moved over TO the
mainland planted again and this time
was remarkably successful but there
were no transportation facilities down
here in those days and he had to sail
up Indian river as for aS TituSyille to
get his fruit on train. There was
no competition. however. and they
brought him from 81 to- $40 a crate
of thirty pineapples. The original
seed were from the Bahamas.
They usually plant $4,000 to the
acre from suckers that come ont from
the bottom of the apple. There is no
! seed. The plant looks like a cactus.
and | understand II belongs 10 that
family. The fruit grows right out Of
the center of a short stalk. It takes
two years for plants to bear, and if
they are well cared for the yield will
he about 10000 pineappleS to the acre.
which will sell for an average of ;
cents each f. q. D. on the cars at any
station along the East Coast railroad.
Buyers some here from all parts Of
the country-from Cleveland. Pitts
burg Buffalo. Detroit. Kansas City,
Omaha and even as far OFF as Denver.
as well as from the New York and
| Chicago markets.
! 1T requires rs much brains to raise
Ipineappleg as il does tn raise oranges.
or anything else. although the crop is
mot SO delicate and il is not so much
/ exposed To pests \ first class farm
/ or will get nine pineappleS of each
plant. one year before replanting
! hut the average farmer will not get
more than five or six That is about
the way they run through the cOun-
try. There are now about 10000 acres
in pineappleS lying on both sides of
the Florida East Coast railway for a
distance Of about thirty-five miles.
north and south of Palm Beach. and
nearly every farm is owned and cult
waited by northern men. Some of them
stay down there only part of the
year. when the crop needs looking af-
ter. from April to August Then they
leave the place in charge of one OF
the hands, All the pineapple planta-
ltious We now have here are descend.
ants from Richards original acre.
and the crop is worth at least $500. 900
year. The industry grew very slow
ly AT first until the railroad went
through in 1903. The acreage quad.
lrupled that year. just as soon as the
people were assured of TRANSFORMATION.
In To I'll