Live Oak daily Democrat. (Live Oak, Fla.) 190?-190?, 1907-06-21
GOOD OLD FLORIDA FOREVER.
c.orv of New England Couple Froze
Out There But Happy at Last
In Florida.

(mf I0cTt Dot x10RRy ~ 1s$St
In Florida.
v p. Simmons, resident of the
,sre region Of Polk county, contri-
hutes the following interesting state
uent TO the Barlow Courier-Inform-
ant:
Our northern friends often en-
ouire, what are the inducements Of
FLORIDA farming? i have passed the
three score and ten years mark. Mine
has been a checkered life-having
lived under I'VE national flags-and
an something like thirty states and
territories In the United States. Mine
has mot been quite the experiences
M Daniel De Foe, whose poem on his
ms and downs of life began, 'Thir-
,seu times rich and thirteen times
NOR vet ours is our fourth start in
the world, and the best Of the four.
and that, to, since we passed the
city years land mark.
From being a mechanic, sailor,
sp,dier and gold miner Of the Rocky
Mountains, In the early seventies, /
married and settled down upon a Con-
necticut farm. For thirteen seasons
wife and myself worked early and
late. often even In the longest days
IN the summer, lighting up at both
ends of the day for labor-wife teach
ing school In addition to the house.
hold and dairy work, fruit picking
and packing. Sometimes of a morn
ing sorting and packing about hun
dred baskets of strawberries, then
riding two miles to her school, to
get there a little past s a. m. Ours
was a fruit farm, we grew apples,
peaches, pears, plums, apricots.
nectarines. ounces, cherries, straw
berries. raspberries, blackberries
eranberries, gooseberries, currants
and grapes, turning every year hun
dreds of dollars worth of fruit into
money, besides our regular farm pro-
ducts. While on the outside / earned
as much more on the road selling
fruit and ornamental trees, plants,
etc.
During all these years our mort
gage, cost Of help. improvements, etc.,
was fully two dollars day. Having
reduced our mortgage thousand dol
lars. set thousand new fruit trees,
improved our buildings, we lost by
two freezeouts fully two thousand dol
lars and broken in health, gave the
place up to the mortgage, and with
an aged father, four small children,
ny wife and myself started for Flor
Ida We brought up In Polk county
March 4. 1895. With our poor health
and struggles to settle a homestead
Il was fully three years before we
we're able to own a cow. Well, here
We are now comfortably situated at
Frost Proof, near Lake Clinch, with
good home and nearly a thousand
nut trees. We are growing grape
ruit, oranges, lines, kunquats. pea
mes pears. plums. Japan persim-
49, aons loQuats, lemons, guavas,
mpes. pineapples. etc., working only
All the hours a day we worked in
- VA rocky New England, with no
- so'sage. no Doctors bills, no freeze
.,ss ~e enjoying the quiet of our home
,,,sx 1a0ng the Lakes. with plenty of liter
v,r a'e' friends and Gods blessings,
-a'ea privileges and fish from the
NO. We are very happy in our de-
aaing years.
m, We would be glad to again greet
New England friends whom we
q, n 1894. upon turning our faces
A u award. but we want no more of
tasiaud's ehangeable climate.
sol, hurry and rustic for (
az mood As for good people we
, 81 A' taem everywhere, but for
give US the far south-penIn-
a Florida. If you please"