The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1910-02-25
FLORIDA THE
LEAD|NGSTATE
HIGHEST Production Per Acre OF
Any of the Big Crop States
S125,OOO,OOO INCOME
Yearly Orange or Cotton Crops More Than
Sum Paid Spain for the State -Phos.
phale and Lumber Big Industries


Just at the present time greater
curiosity is being shown by the home
seeking public, more questions being
asked and more attention being paid to
the State of Florida than to any other
state in the Union. And this is not at
all wonderful when knowledge of the
conditions and opportunities existing
there are known, says the Manufacture
ers Record.
This attention is not being attracted
alone bv reason of the splendid climatic
and other conditions making for pleas
ant and comfortable home life in that
state. but quite as much for the reason
that, while pleasant and comfortable
homes have been and are being estab-
lshed, the opportunities for profit max
ing from the soil are unsurpassed by
those of any state in the nation. And
this is true, not of any particular pOr-
ton of the state, but OF, the whole
state.
Florida, as a whole, has the highest
production per acre of any of the big
crop producing states. The United
States Department of Agriculture year
book shows earnings per acre at the
following figures:
Illinois, $3l.54; Wisconsin, $2S "a;
Pennsylvania, 500. "a; Alabama, $685. SO;
Texas, $54. So; Florida, $63.6O.
1t is not surprising that, with these
conditions as to both pleasant and profit
able life becoming known and under
stood by the people of the more inclem-
ent latitude, the farm homes of Florida
are being rapidly built up, and that more
lands are now being sold to homeseekers
each month than were sold during the
entire year only few years ago.
Florida has cheap lands as compared
with other sections of the country. 1t
| has the widest diversity of product. 1t
| is in latitude and has climate which
| makes the harvest time earlier, with
/ large part of the product going upon
| the market with little competition, thus
/ securing the best prices. 1t has long
er growing season, with as high as four
crops from the same land during the
year. Florida is one of the best timber
states and the cost of building material
| is reasonable, it is unnecessary to build
|
err brings no heavy fuel and clothing
bills and both home building and home
supporting expenses are at the mlnl-
mum.
With her system of rivers and inland
navigable waters. her enormous coast
line and her great ocean ports at Jack
sonville, Tampa, Pensacola and Miami
cheap transportation is an insured
feature and complete control of railroad
rates can be had.
United States Secretary of Agricul-
ture Wilson, in an address before the
session of the National Congress of
Farmers, recently held, said: 'The
place for the farmer now is the South,
for the soil in the South is friendly to
nearly every product of the country
To give few illustrations of the
speed with which settlement and devel-
opment is now going in Florida, mention
may be made of the following, culled
from our exchanges:
Fourteen thousand acres near Tampa.
known as the Keystone park Colony,
was laid out in ten, twenty and forty
acre farms last fall and soldn an
astonishngly short space OF time, and
the same people are now laying out an
additional ten thousand acres in the
neighborhOOd while developing many
thousand acres of truck lands on the
outskirts of Tampa.
AT st. Cloud last August there was
only sur, eyor's shack, but now over
zoo population. :.
Fifteen thousand acres southeast of
Lake City are being colOnized by Illinois
capitalists.
Other capitalists are colonizing 3d.
0OO acres in Orange. OsceoIa and Polk
Counties.
Sixty thousand acres midway be-
tween Orlando and Kissmmee is being
rapidly sold.
These are but few of many ilustra'
tons of the development now going on
in Florida.
Quoting Herbert N. Casson in Mum
sey's Magazine:
Florida is land of many colors "a
Rainbow land of green palm, red poln,,
settias, blpe waters, white beaches ana
yellow oranges.
Men are now finding gold in Florida
not in mines, but in forests, farms,
fisheries and factories. Not all the
gold that was found in Nevada and
Arizona last year, for intance, would
equal the wealth that went to Florida
for her fruits and vegetables; nor would
the total output of Alaskan gold mines
De enough to buy the cigars OF Tampa
and Key West.
There are enough golden oranges
and grapefruits in her groves this WIN
er to pay the price IS, 600. 600 that
ne United States paid to Spain for the
teSritory In 1921, She will have enough