The Mena weekly star., 1911-03-16
AN ARKANSAW YER
VISITS FLORIDA
story OF she Trip Of W s. Jackson. Who
for Brief Period Thought OF Leaving
Polk County--but Soou Came lack.
Written for The star.

/ Written for The Star.
On February IA left Mena for
Florida by way Of Shreveport, Now
Orleans and Mobile. From Mobile |
went via. the L. 4 N. to Flooming-
ton. a small town situated on the
boundary line OF Alabama and flori-
da. From there We turned south
and for a run of about 35 miles to
Pensacola we saw no dwellings, not a
single one nothing but waste OF
white sand with nothing for miles
that showed any signs Of life but the
scoffing hills of the Salamander and
the turpentine industry 1.-THE greatest
business of Florida
We arrived in Pensacola at 6 p. m.
for a stop of 20 minutes where we
spent Is minutes of this in a hasty
tour of the beautiful city of about
%, 900 inhabitants, situated on the
south coast. From here we SWUNG
around the coast toward the south
viewing the gulf for % miles until
dark blurred our sight seeing.
During the night we passed over
$50 miles of the northern portion OF
the poor pine district Of the state
We laid over at Live Oak most of a
day. When we left Live Oak the
eomical part of the state sets in
you may talk Of the slow train
through Arkansas" but friends, Ar
sansaw is not in the slow train list
The train would stop every 10 or 10
miles to cut the palmetto and tn,
pine tree for fuel The roads us,
the old model engine with wide tor
smokestack which have been pushed
to the backwoods from the mors
progressive states.
Right here | must drop in a few
lines on the stock industry of the
white sand region" the Florida Pal
metto FANS" or in other words, the
original breed of cattle which are to
be found scattered among the farm.
ers. Their average daily yield of
milk when they are well cared for is
about one pint day. The average
weight of steer between the ages
of 3 and Is years is about $50 pounds
when in good shape. Cows and
calves in proportion.
Goats are raised for fertilizer only,
as they do not dress any more than
an Arkansas Plymouth rock rooster.
From Live Oak we journeyed south
to Lake City. the county seat of
Columbia county, dead little town
of about 600. Then we went through
Alachua county with brief stop at
GAINESVILLE. Here the moss of the
green trees hung from the top to
within 4 feet of the ground, and if
you saw a dwelling it was in reach
of the car window Our next stop
was at Ocla, a small village located
intheswamp region of Marioncounty.
From 0cla we went to Dade City,
county seat OF Pasco county, with a
population of 1874. Here the orange
groves and banana plantations be-
gin to show along the road. These
will grow fine with a great deal of
care and fertilizing. The next stop
was at Lake Land, thriving town
lof 500 situated in the southwest
corner of Polk" county.
! arrived at Tampa at 1870 D. M.
went to the worst hotel where
paid 75c per bed and SOC per meal.
Twill explain Tampa in a later issue. J
Our next stop was at Fivay Junction,
the center of Florida's lumber indus
try. owned by the Aripika Lumber
Company Here stopped 3 hours
and had the pleasure of seeing the
sale of one of the pork hogs. While
| was sitting in the office, presently
| saw trucker drive up in a one
horse wagon. whose tires widths was
3 inches, pulled by a good Florida
mule which cost $500 fact"
bought from the lumber company
noticed crowd gathering around
the wagon, so | reached for my hat
and strolled out to see what the
cause might be. Upon approaching
the wagon, | spoke to the driver and
saw he had hog for sale. said:
Weigh that meat" He did, and
it weighed 2 1-2 pounds.
| said; What is this shoulder
WORTH"
'Seventy-five cents, says he.
AT this rate the hog would dress,
at high rating, Is pounds, good
average for months old turnip-
fattened hog.
Continued next week.