The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1910-12-09
GREAT STATE
OF REPUBLIC
E.Roy MeICent Writes interesting
Iy in Cosmopolitan Magazine
FLORIDA'S RESOURCES
Depicts Great Future for Land of Flow rs,
and Compares Conditions With the
States North of Us.

81 have been all over the great State
of Florida" writes E. Roy Melcent.
IL have been up one coast and down
the other. ! have seen all the famous
show places Of the State. have dip
ped into the amethyst waters of Bis
cayne Bay, and l have slept all night
at a turpentine still close beside the
stockade of convict camp. | have
seen the mighty results of Florida's
wonderful and Incompatible soil. Last
year saw the trend of human tide Of
travel that was pouring over the bor--
ders of Florida, like great army of
invasion. have seen land values rise
several hundred per cent in only few
months because of this tremendous de-
mand for Florida land. ! know the
beauty of her exquisite climate, her
growing verdure. her draped trees,
festooned with the dreamy moss, her
pines, palms, and palmettos her won
derful streams unlike those of any 9TH
err region in the world, and | have felt
the gripping charm of her Out of doors
that seems to hold one entranced.
'All the wonders of Florida it has
been my peculiar pleasure to have Wis
tied and viewed during the past two
years. | am wholly and completely
subdued and infected with the index
finger on the right hand of the world.
Here are soon to come the tireless grey
hounds of the sea carrying full cargoes
to all parts of the universe on their
way to and from the Atlantic and Pa
ciic oceans through the Panama canal.
This entire state is one gigantic field Of
activity. Development is in the air
everywhere. The madness of money
and opportunity has grasped Florida,
the peaceful, in its unrelenting hands.
The government has appropriated many
millions for the improvement OF Florida
waterways. This points to the nearby
future when Florida shall stand forth
to the world with the most important
ports of call for the thousands of ocean
vessels which will have directed their
courses towards the Panama Canal and
Florida. There are more stupendous
undertakings in this great State than
in any other section of our Union.
FLORIDA has been known heretofore
as the rich mans playground but 1T
has become the poor mans paradise.
We people of the North and East and
West do not really know what life is I'M
til we have spent some time in Florida.
1.-The beauty of the sky and landscape,
the bounty climate and health, the vo-
luptuc usness of foliage and farm, are
nothing to be compared with the great
and limitless opportunities for the man
of ordinary means to establish himself
upon lust few acres and make those
acres give him all there is in life to own;
81 have seen ten acres OF Florida land
produce at the rate of more than Ss0o
Der acre. The man who owned this
garden patch of ground came to Florida
to die, after he had sickened his body
bending over dirty desk for fifteen
years in a northern city, and mark you,
this man knew nothing of farming when
he came. Today he is rich beyond his
widest dreams of youth. He can go
out any day of the year and pick grow,
ing things for his table. His wife and
babies are simply bubbling over with
generous health, and this mar Is every
bit as much prince as though ages.ot
royal blood flowed through his veins. i
I
onies which have sprung up over lori.
da, and have seen there more peace
pleasure and profit to the square inch
than has ever been my good fortune to
behold before. .,
mind YOU, these Northern men and
women who are filling up Florida are
not a few hundreds in numbers but they
can be seen by the thousands and scores
of thousands. You may talk with them
from the windows of your Pullman as
YOU travel along and the universal an
swer to your question is, i would not 90
back home for anything in this world.
"Now, when the whole North Is set
ling down to six months of ice, large
coal and plumber bills, and the North
ern farmer is doing nothing but chop
wood and mend fences, the Florida
farmer is tlling his fields, planting his
third crops which he will send to mar
ket in midwinter and sell for prices
that would set northern farmer by
the ears with envy. This is the beauty
of Florida. You buy the land and pay
for it according to the number of acres
YOU contract for, the climate, the sun
shine, the ability to walk around every
day in your shirtsleeves, these things
belong to the land and come to you free
from nature. Prof. Knapp. of the De-
partment of Agriculture. once said, IN
speaking at banquet in Jacksonville,
Fla. From an agricultural standpoint
it NAV be reckoned in this wise with re-
spect to the values of her lands: Ten
per cent soil, eighty per cent climate
and ten per cent man, and the more
| vou nut into the question the greater