Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-06
FRUITS OF FLORIDA
Orange Growing Not So Easy as
Many Have Thought.
PROFIT IN PINEAPPLEs
Very Rapid Increase in the Grape
Fruit Industry.
PLANTERS MOSTLY FROM NORTH
Great Game Country-Tameness Of the
Ducks at Palm Beach-Curious
Driftwood From Wrecks.
BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
| Record Herald.

BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.
PALM BEACH, Fla, March 1, 1907.
Northern Florida has never entirely re-
covered from the big freeze" that hap
pened several years ago, and there are
many abandoned orchards whose owners
have gone southwark below the frost belt.
Orange growing is not IAN easy PROPOSE
tion." experienced people down here Will
tell you, and more money has been lost
than has been made in that business De-
cause so many tenderfeet went into II
originally without knowing how. 1t looks
easy, but there is no more difficult farm
ing. In the early days of the Florida boom
multitude Of northerners came down and
bought land, thinking that all they had to
do was to plant grove of orange SEED
lings and sit on the porch and watch them
grow, but that impression has been cor
rected. That fallacy does not exist any
longer, and, as a gentleman Of long expe-
rience and a reputation for sagacity re-
marked yesterday, such people have since
found their vocation in raising chickens.
The tourist Is the most profitable crop IN
Florida; pineapples come next, ana tnen
grape fruit. In a few years the grape
fruit orchards will exceed the oranges.
The industry is increasing very rapidly.
Four times as many grape fruit trees are
set out every year as oranges.
There is more money in grape 1rult:
1t sells for S. a crate. while oranges sell
for 81" said Capt. Andrews of Palm Beach
the other day, land it takes zewer grape
fruit to fill crate Therefore Tore man fran cah
country lies between Rockledge and Miami
and on Merritt Island. and there is plenty
of room in that district for it to grow.
TT takes ten years for a grape fruit
orchard to bear" continued Capt. Andrews,
land a good pineapple farmer can PICK
eight crops while the grape fruit man
is waiting. And there is bug waiting Tor
every grape fruit and for every oranse
all along the line. Eternal vigilance is the
price Of crop of oranges or grape frult,
but a pineapple is too tough to die young
and has no natural enemies
The Pineapples.
"Who introduced the pineapple here?"
asked.
Thomas E. Richards of Paterson, N j.,
replied Capt. Andrews. He came down
here in 1880 and tried to raise pineapples
on the seashore 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 main
land. planted again and this time was re-
markably successful, but there were no
transportation facilities down here in those
DAYS and he had to sail up Indian river
as far as Titusville to get his fruit on
train. There was no competition, however
and they brought him from 81 to $40 for
a crate of thirty pineappies The original
seed came from the Bahamas.
'"They usually plant $4,000 to the acre
from suckers that come out from the bot
tom of the apple There is no seed. The
plant looks like cactus, and understand
it belongs to that family. The fruit grows
right out of the center of short stalk
1t takes two years for plants to bear. and
If they are we'll cared for the yield will be
about 10000 pineapples to the acre. which
will sell for an average of 3 cents each
f. O. b., the cars at any station along
the East Florida railroad. Buyers come
here from all over the country-from
Cleveland. Pttsburg, Buffalo, Detroit.
Kansas City, Omaha and even as far off as
Denver. as well as from the New York and
Chicago markets.
ut requires as much brains to raise pine
apples as it does to raise oranges. or any
thing else although the crop is not so
delicate and is not so much exposed to
pests frst-class farmer will get nine
pinapples off every plant, one year before
replanting, but the average farmer will not
get more than five or six. That is about
the way they run through the country.
There are now about 1000 acres In pineap-
pies lying on both sides of the East Florida
railroad for a distance of about thirty-five
miles. north and south of Palm Beach, and
nearly every farm is owned and cultivated
here only a part of the year. when the
crop needs looking after, from April to
August. Then they leave the place in
charge of one of the hands. All the pine
apple plantations we have here now are
descended from Richards original acre, and
the crop is worth at least $1,000 a year
The industry grew very slowly at first until
the railroad went through in 1903. The
acreage quadrupled that year, just as soon
as the people were assured of transporta-
ton.
How Two Crops Were Produced.
Eve begin to pick the regular crop in
June and ship up to the beginning of Au-
gust. Then we pick another crop from the
late plants in October and November This
second crop, which is about 10 or - per
cent as large as the first, is a mystery. 1t
was unknown until few years ago. At
the time of the great freeze things got
twisted somehow or another and 10 or II
per cent of the plants We're four or five
months late in bearing the next year. And
they have continued to be four or five
months mon late every year since, until now We
look regularly for a second crop. The
plants got into the habit of bearing in Oc-
tober and there is no way to prevent them
from doing so.
"Are you safe against frosts now?"
"No. wise man will always make sure
of his crop by protecting it from the frost
by screens of thin laths. You saw mile
after mile of these screens from the car
WlHuo"S DIS you Cdlle uOWn tGe ROAD. Ihey
are supported posts about eight feet
from the ground. The laths are placed two
or three inches apart and form a sort of
roof for the entire field. Screens are not
absolutely necessary. A man may harvest
dozen crops without them, but they guar
antee full crop, and wise farmers who can
afford the expense, which is about $500 an
acre, will protect the plants in that way
Good pineapple land costs all the way
from fifty dollars to one hundred dollars
an acre, according to it's location OF
course, you can buy land from FIVE dollars
an acre upward, but If a farmer wants
to be successful he had better pick the best
soil he can find. 1t costs about $500 an
acre'all around to buy the land, clear it,
set out the plants and harvest a first crop.
which, as j have told you, comes the sec
ond year. The first year you get nothing.
You have to fertilize twice a year, which
costs about sixty dollars an acre and a
| twenty-fve-acre farm will cost you ten dol
| lars an acre for labor. The second and
| subsequent crops will cost in the neighbor-
hood of $40 an acre, but man who un
derstands the business will realize a thou
sand dollars an acre. After the plants have
ceased to bear that Is, when they have pro-
duced from six to nine pineapples, we pillow
them under and set out new suckers. The
old plants make the very best Of fertilizer.
| The land will not need any other for q
year or two.
Tameness Of the Ducks.