The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-06-15
AN IOWAN IN FLORIDA
s. NJ. stouffer's Letter to the Sac Sun.

1t vas the privilege OF his writer
heforo leaving Florida for d return TO
the north to make a visit to the In
terror of the state and to get a
glimpse OF the agricultural develop
ment of which SO much is said In
the literature of real estate boomers.
There a be no question that
Florida is attracting IN increased per-
manent population, though 1t must
be recalled that the census of 1910
was taken in April, before the tran
s1ent population from the north had
all returned home. If the eager census
enumerators sometimes counted win
ter residents among the permanent
settlers perhaps it was not altogether
unfair; for a state that has a climate
sufficiently alluring to call back year
after year for four to six months the
same people from the north deserves
to nave some credit for it.
Much of the and surface Of Flor
ida, perhaps most Of it, until recently
was covered with virgin pine forest.
A considerable part of this forest
remains, but it is rapidly disappear
ing. First comes the t~urpentine work
er, who drains the trees of their sap
year after year until their vitality
is gone. Then the trees are cut down
for the sawmill or the wood yard.
Where the trees were cut years ago
forests Of oak and other hardwood
navy 6rONI lilStcdu. IL Is Tie CuIOVeT
land that Is purchased in large tracts
by northern s~yndicates at a cost per
acre insignificant and then, after judi
clous exploiting, resold to inst2llment
purchasers from the moth at prices
ranging from $25 per acre upward for
small tracts.
The man who has spent a consider
able time in Florida and made a study
of the soils, fertilizers and adaptable
fruits and vegetables nay be able to
buy intelligently of these syndicates,
but the man of limited mean who
buys without seeing is headed for
disappointment Inc probable financial
loss.
There is a wide diversity of soils.
Perhaps all Of them may be made to
produce something; but that does not
mean profitable cultivation. If the
soils We're all of equal value there
could be no question about Florida's
furnishing agricultural attractions for
many millions Of people. AS yet but
little of the land is cultivated. San
ford is the center of the earlier efforts
to develop trucking of the
state, and 1t is claimed that a larger
percentage of land acreage is
under cultivation there han at any
other place in the state. 1t is dis
played on large posters at the San
ford railway station that in the vicin-
ity of the "Celery City, no less than
$500 acres are cultivated. Consider
ing h a ove 300 square miles Of land
lie within a radius Of 10 miles of the
city and noting that less than 10 of
them are cultivated, one can readily
see that there is plenty of room left
and no need to hurry about buying.
They do raise vegetables in Florida,
and that in quantities so large as to
surprise any but the most credulous
believers of the real estate exploiters.
In March and April the Florida East
Coast railway vas blockaded for sew
eral weeks with tomato trains from
the Everglade country. So pressing
was the demand for transportation
that cars and men and ever engines
were borrowed from other railways,
but the lack of sidetracks on a rail
road that hitherto has had no need of