The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-05-13
IN THE CELERY FIELDS
AT SANFORD, FLA.
Mr.. H. II. Bolton, of the Kansas City
Railroad, Talks Entertaingly of
His Visit There.

Railroad, Talks EntertaingIy of
His Visit There.
Mobile Register.
Il have just returned from the San
ford (Fla.) celery fields, where | went
for the purpose of studying the meth
DDS of culture, marketing, etc, of this
crop, at that point said Mr.. H. H.
Bolton, immigration agent for the Mo
bile, Jackson and Kansas City railroad,
to a Register reporter yesterday, land
the manner in which growers have ac-
cumulated wealth in celery growing is
almost beyond belief unless the figures
were accessible to prove the state
ments. The prosperity of the celery
growers has spread and many are
taking up lands, paying as high as
$3.50 per acre in the rough.
THE land, when properly prepared,
will produce a crop of lettuce and then
a crop of celery without injury to the
land. Thus far this season the lettuce
has averaged $1.30 to $1.40 per ham
per; lettuce produces 400 to 900 ham,
per per acre.
Il will give you a few instances of
the great profits made from celery
growing there; this Information is
from first hands, and from parties
with whom / conversed, visiting them
| in their fields, and observing their
methods of packing, etc. The parties
mentioned below are farmers and not
real estate agents having leands for
sale, and their statements are Daseu
upon actual results from crops grown
and sold from their farms:
Mr.. H. H. Chapple is one of the ex-
years ago, he informs the writer he
was a telegraph operator at the sta
ton; by dint of saving he got money
enough together to buy 206 acres of
land, paying $1.25 per acre for it. He
told me that the year he secured title
to the land he tried to borrow 5000 on
it but failed to find any one that would
advance the money. Mr.. Chapple now
has fifty acres of the land under cult
walton, sold one-half of it, bought
seventy acres more. He is today
worth $4,000, and has just completed
modern, up-to-date residence on "a
part of his property. Another grower
informed me that nine years ago he
was working for $40 per month. He
accumulated a little money and four
years ago purchased fifteen acres, part
of which he put in celery. Since then
he has sold celery enough to have
$4,000 in bank and still owns his
land. valued at $3.50 per acre. Mr.. B.
f. TaIash, a Hungarian farmer, had
four acres in celery this season; from
. this plot of land he sold 4,302 crates
of celery. averaging him 1.40 per crate
or a total of $6OO2.SO for the -four
acres; he also sold from one patch OF
sixty-gix rows, 275 feet long, $50 crates
for slips.
Mr.. ]. E. Pace is another lucky
man on celery. Ten years ago he
started without a dollar, as he put it
and today is worth 100000. One
block of ten acres of celery this sea
son brought him 1000. J. A. Allison
formerly a conductor on the Southern
railway, out of Charlotte. n c., had
one acre in lettuce which brought him
e $1,237, and two acres of celery which
I sold for S3.100 Mr.. c. F. Williams
who was formerly a locomotive en-
| gineer. averages each year about 80,
GOO from a patch of five acres of Gel
cry. Mrs Culp operated one acre or
shares with Joe Cameron, realizing no.
quite S1,70O from the acre planted il
celery. And so on to the end of ;
long list of such instances that
made a note of while there.
The most remarkable thing to me
| however" said Mr.. Bolton, lis how
/ they succeed in growing anything oil
i such soil as l found in that section
1t consists of pure white sand and al
solutely void of any natural fertility
This was explained. however, whel
one farmer stated that it required fror
four 10 six tons of commercial fel
tilizer per acre to produce these re
] suits
e "A few years ago Sanford was
~ small way station on the Atlanti
Coast Line Railway; today It is
thiving town of several thousand pes
pie. with fine hotels, fine banking fl
| cilities. and there is now in course {
building an electric street railway, \
being due TO the prosperity OF the &C