Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1909-02-24
INDUSTRIES OF FLORIDA
DEVELOPMENT OF VEGETABLE
AND FRUIT RAISING.
As Lumber Industry Declines, South
erens Raise Vegetables for
Wholesale. Oranges Also
n Great Crop.
Palatka, Fla, Feb. 20, 1909.

While it is a fact that the large
lumber and turpentine industries
of Florida, of which | wrote in a
former letter, are at present sources
of great wealth, it is also true that
if the present rate of consumption
is continued, it will not be long
before both are exhausted. For
tunately for the future of the state
the people have been for years been
wide awake to this fact and have
turned their attention to other
things, developing and fostering
such interests as seem to be best
fitted to prevailing conditions such
as the climate and the composition
of the soil. The climate is semi
tropical and the soil light and sandy.
Land is valued all the way from
$1.25 to $1,000 an acre according
to its location There is little diff
ference in the quality of the soil,
it is all sand.
Owing to the Importance of the
Florida orange in the markets of
the world, one is liable to lose
sight of other fruits, as also of the
extensive vegetable products of this
really wonderful state. Truck farm
ing is rapidly coming to the front;
| it is at the present time one of the
most important of the wealth pro-
ducers, giving employment to many
hands. 1t is thought by some that
| in the near future it will become
| the chief source of revenue. Cab
bage, beans, caulifiower, tomatoes,
| lettuce, celery and Irish potatoes
are all extensively grown in this
section. / have been told that at
Hastings, little place nine miles
east of Palatka, 10000 barrels of
Irish potatoes were shipped north
last year. Celery is grown further
south. Near Tampa, and also near
| Kissinomee, there are some rich
muck lands which produce heavy
crops of a fine article of celery, lit
tie inferior to the best Kalamazoo
product. 1t is shipped in bulk, the
cars being arranged in tiers or
decks and when properly refriger
ated, carry their contents in good
| condition. / have been surprised
to note the attention given to the
production of lettuce. Immense
quantities are grown in this part
of the state, not merely for home
consumption but for shipment
north; indeed lettuce is one of the
best paying vegetables in Florida
and as consequence large areas
are given over to its cultivation
The raising of vegetables in Flor
ida is a very different proposition
from market gardening in the north,
hence people who come here with
only northern experience. are, at
first likely to become discouraged
and denounce vegetable growing in
this state. A more intimate knowl-
edge of conditions, however, tends
to remove that prejudice and iii
time it disappears.
Among the fruits for which the
peninsular is noted, the orange of
course, is chief. 1t is said to have
been brought here by the first
Spanish settlers, and the Indians
becoming very fond of it, carried
quantities about with them in their
canoe excursions TO be eaten at their
camps on the shores of the numer-
Gus streams. The seed dropping up
on the ground soon terminated and
from them sprang the sour orange
groves which became so numerous
in all parts of the state. So the
Indian became an unconscious pub
lie benefactor, doing in his ignor-
ance, for posterity, what Johnny
Appleseed" did for Ohio, when in
early days he carried with him from
New England large bag filled with
appleseeds, which in his hunting
expeditions through the forests Of
| Ohio he scattered here and there
Z a IL ,ha oh "a
come after him.
1t is said that the orange was
originally berry about the size of
marble, bitter and full of seeds
and has been brought to it's present
astonishing development in size and
favor by the patient efforts OF cul-
tivators from the most remote times
down to the present. In the last
twenty-five years there has been
steady growth in the output of the
state, with the exception of the
years 1S94-95 and 1856, when
the great freeze destroyed the trees
in the northern and central parts
of the state. From 1884, when the
crops amounted to 100000 boxes,
to 1894, it had increased to $685.
367 boxes; from which it dropped
in 1906, to 100000 boxes. Since
that time it has been steadily re-
covering with fine prospect for the
future. Last yeai the output was
something over 100000 boxes
this year it will be larger. The
average profit realized by the orange
grower is $1.00 per box which, all
things considered is not very great.
The fear entertained by the orange
growers that he may lose his crop
and his trees by the frost fiend is
always a Encouragement in the
north and central sections of the
state, since the great frost or
1859. At the same time 1t is point
out that that freeze was due to a
circumstance so unnatural that 1t
might not occur again in centuries.
A freeze in the preceding December
had defoliated the trees, and as the
orange is an evergreen it will start
sooner to leaf out when defoliated
than it would under ordinary circum-
distances. Hence the trees were full
of tender growth, and the sap was
in motion, when the second freeze,
in February-an occurrence without
without a precedent so far as any