The National tribune., 1909-04-15
THE COLONY.

1 A force of surveyors are at work In
the colony tract between Lakes Tohope-
Ikaiiga, East TohopeEalitEl, Alligator and
GENTRY, carefully running the lines and
boundaries and preparing accurate plats
for the work Of allotment. The plats
Twill be prepared as rapidly as corps
Iof craftsmen can accomplish the work
latter the surveyors have secured the
necessary data Work of this kind
must be done with the greatest accu-
racy and care, but it is being pushed
forward with all the rapidity consistent
with these requirements.
More thoro acquaintance with the
tract strongly confirms and increases
the finst prepossession in favor of it. 1t
| is piece of unusual good fortune to
secure in one body so much land of
the highest fertility in a climate which
has no superior and can hardly be said
to have an equal on earth. The town
| of Kissimmee is in latitude of % de-
grees and so minutes north, or within
exactly five degrees of the Tropic of
Cancer. This places it at least 10 de-
grees nearer the equator than the far
famed climate of Italy. Southern Italy,
which has been for all time famous for
its sunny skies and balmy, equable eli
mate. extends from Rome, which is in
AZ degrees north latitude. to the south
ern point of the island of Sicily, which
is in 81 degrees. or eight and half de-
grees farther north than Kissimmee.
The first degree of latitude south of
Kissimmee, the 2Sth, passes thru the
of Algeria and Tunis, and crosses south
ern Egypt and Arabia. The climate is
far more equable than in southern Italy.
without the extremes of temperature in
that land of the cypress and myrtle"
Osceola County, of which Kissimmee is
the Countyseat, and in which the col
ony is situated, is the next County south
of Orange County, which has attained
such remarkable popularity as Win
ter home for Northerners. In Orange
County are the well-known Orlando,
Winter Park, Maitland, Sanford and
scores of others which have been built
up in recent years with homes for
and prosperous truck
farms.
According TO the census Of 1900 there
were 1874 people in Orange County,
and 1t is believed that this has been
doubled since then by the influx of
Northerners seeking that gentle and
health-giving climate. Kissimmee is
only Is miles south of Orlando, the
Countyseat of Orange County, and ac-
cording to the same census Osceola
County has only 1922 people. There
fore, it is bound in the near future to
take quite as extraordinary growth of
popu'ation as that which it has been
the good fortune of Orange County to
is as desirable for settlement and resi- |
dences; its soil is as productive; the !
range of its possibilities is as great as
those of Orange County. All that is
necessary is to have the tide of immi-
grafton directed thitherward, which it
will now be by the success of The Ma
-ional Tribune colony. OF the 1922
people in Osceola County in 1900, 1880
were in the town of Kissimmee. which
lies six miles northwest of st. Cloud, our
colony town.
AS far as human probabilities go the
of our colony will make
)sceola County the garden spot of Flor
da. The accession of thousands of ac-
i've. enterprising Northerners, with
heir varied industries, their keen per-
eption of the possibilities of soil, cli-
nate and vegetation, viii make a trans
scene that will excite the
Wonder of the country.