The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1911-02-24
OPPORTUNITY
ASSUGARBELT
Climate and Soil Make Staple a
Money Crop for this County
IS NOT AN EXPERIMENT
Letter Written to Louisiana Relatives Pro-
claims Advantages Of 81. lucie County
as Great Future Sugar Producer

The following letter, written by b.
F. Hardesty, of Sebastian, to his neice
and nephew in Louisiana, will be of
general interest to our readers and the
prospectors in this section:
'Since | received your last letter, |
have sent you several newspapers from
this coast, in the hope that you and Ar
dis would become interested in this Sec
ton, and perhaps make up your minds
to come here to live. People may think
as they please, but Florida today is at
tracing more people than any other
State in the Union. We are literally
Overrun with prOspectOrs, and they are
not only prospecting, but are buying up
our lands and making homes tor them
selves and children for years to come.
1.-THE wonderful resources OF Florida
are only just now beginning to be COM
prehended; and commencing to be taken
advantage of. Land developing COM
panies are in operation all over Florida.
| have been working for one of these
companies since last August, until last
Friday, when ! had to stop to look out
for the disposing of my crop of fruit,
which is ready for shipment.
Ever since have been in the State,
have been looking for the time when
some person or persons of large means
would recognize the truth of what a
government surveyor said nearly twenty
years ago: That South Florida ought
to and could produce the sugar for the
whole United States At last, am
about to see it done. A company OF
large capital. has bought 10000 acres of
land In Dade county-in the everglades.
that was so much written about in the
Miami Metropolis which ! sent you
and they have sent to Cuba for seed
cane to plant twenty acres, and next
year will plant the entire product of
these twenty acres. If it grows down
in Dade as it did in my yard, the twenty
acres ought to plant not less than two
hundred acres next year, and perhaps
largely in excess of that.
I'm 1907, on the 4th day of June, |
took a stock of ribbon cane to the of
fee of THE ST LUCE COUNTY TRIBUNE,
published in Fort Pierce. This stock
was from bunch of cane that had
planted three years before, and it had
UtNeT Idu dIIy lCIthlZCI vi Suit'Not'Oh
and had to fight for its life with sur.
rounding guava trees and bunch of
hickory that came up by it. The stock
came up the first week in January, and
Notwithstanding the unfavOrable sur
roundings, on the 4th day of June when
cut, it measured over five feet for the
mill! Had fortified and cultivated it
as we do in Louisiana, in those five
months it would doubtless have cut
fifteen feet for the mill. Last year
cut stock of cane from the same bunch
and grown under the same conditions.
that in less than years growth meas
ured about eleven feet. The two crops
of sugar that | boiled for the Ferris
Company, at Barbreck Mills IN 1929,
would not have averaged more than five
or six feet for the mill, and those were
favorable years for cane in Louisiana.
81 have no doubt that the Huyler-
Comfort Company in Dade county would
be glad to get people from Louisiana,
who understand cane culture and the
manufacture of sugar; and make good
terms with them to come and engage IN
the business under arrangement with
them. OF course, | cannot say that
such will be the case, but it is only
reasonable to suppose that 1t would be.
THE Felsmere Farms Company, with
which have been engaged for several
months, have no doubt will follow suit
with the Huyler-Comfurt Company, of
Dade. do not see how they can resist
it. Sugar is destined to be the staple
crop of South Florida. Oranges, pine
apples, grapefruit and winter crops of
vegetables will continue to be raised
here on large scale, but the day of
sugar Is at h5nd. Why, just think of
it, cane does not have to be planted Of
tener than once in five to seven years
That alone is profit for the cultvator,
hat ought to satisfy the most exacting.
When the sure returns from sugar cul-
ture here is once realized, the stampede
for it will equal the days of 49, in the
rush to the gold fields of California.
long to, and firmly believe that in spite
of my advancing years. will live to
see the day when this dream is realized.
1.-THE Fellsmere Farms Company lands
are principally located in this, st. Lucie,
county, and embraces almost every va
riety of soil known to Florida. Their
lands begin about three miles from Sc
bastian. understand that their tract
contains about 10000 acres. People
are already coming in numbers to in
spect the lands, and some purchases are
being made, though the company is not
vet ready to market the land. Like the
everglade land, large quantity of it
has to be drained; and to show their
faith in their investment, the company
now has on the ground in the neighbor.