Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-02-28
LETTER FROM GEO. w. CLARK.
MIAMI, FLA, FEB. 2Oth, 1911.

a chance to see what it was like.
Well, l came as you know. partly be-
cause L had the rheumatism which
prevented my working to any salts
faction for the past four years. | had
the rheumatism just bad enough to
keep me awake nights whenever
worked, and as | read of many being
freed of same by going 20 Florida, |
thought l would go and see What the
climate would do for me. I have
been here about fifty days Gc~ and l
have scarcely felt anything Of my
rheumatism since the first two weeks,
and / meet people every few days, who
have been entirely freed OF same and
other ailments by coming here.
tell them all lack of having secured
a complete divorce from my rheuma-
tism is getting the papers signed and
that l will get them signed if L stay
till April. / can work now and sleep
good, too. | met a doctor from
Beaver Dam, Wis, who said he was
going to bring two daughters here to
free them of catarrh. I have heard
of number afflicted with tuberculO-
sis who have been entirely cured of it
by coming here and of others who
were much improved by the change
of climate, as this Florida climate
seems to be the finest in the land
January was like May in Wisconsin,
and February is like June. There
has not been any frost since | came
On Jan. 1st, | saw people going out
on the beach bathing; saw many
flowers, both tame and wild in bios
som. There are goose berries, black
berries and citrOns all growing on
trees here, only they call the black
berries null berries; they are begin
ming TO ripen now. The grape fruit
has been mostly harvested and the
trees are in blossom and so are the
magnolias. The truck farmers have
shipped an immense amount of green
beans, etc, and have commenced to
ship the tomato crop, etc. | have
seen about 600 acres of same on one
farm. There ale three kinds of land
here, the "Pine,' the "Prairie' and
the Everglades. The "Pine" is
only few feet higher than the other
lands, it is bed of rocks (white lime
stone) and is more or less covered
with white or gray sand and it is to,
dry to raise much crops of garden
stuff on during the dry season (Which
is on now without one of the
sprinklers which many have in use,
though the fruit groves do well on
aid land. The truck farming is
mostly done during the winter months
in the prairie marshes which are
mostly of clay or marsh and many
raise tomatoes in same without plow-
ing simply dig hole With hoe for
the plants in the thick marsh grass
later on hoe them a little and give
them little fertilizer. Some of the
everglades are being cultivated now
and | was at the edge of a 90-acre
tract of same which had big crop of
tomatoes, this tract was we'll ditched
but the bitches were being kept near
ly full of water within six inches of
the top to make the crops grow. That
was on the Comfort g. Huyler tract
which is to be all planted to sugar
cane and they are now getting boat
loads of the cane from Cuba to plant
the cane in joints instead of using
seed and this same company is to
build big sugar mill at the mouth
of the canal or near its mouth. This
whole section is on a bed of coraline
limestone which extends ali over and
under the everglades and is so close to
the top that they have to blast right
along ahead of the six big dredgeS
which are digging the canals to drain
the everglades. l went up the Miami
river to its head in the edge of the
everglades then eight miles or so up
the canal to see the dredge at work.
They work the big dipper about twice
a minute and take out two and one
quarter yards at each dip and work
steady day and night and so dig a
little over a mile a month with each
of the six dredges. / saw nine or ten
men working in the mire nearly waist
deep with long hand drills ahead of
the dredge and they arrange eight
shots of IA cartridges in each of dyna-
mite, then set them all of at once
with a battery and that dredge
has taken out a great deal more of
the coraline limestone than all else
combined so far Power boats run up
and down the canal right along.
That canal does not drain the ever
glades any to speak of so far because
they keep it damned up about one
and one-half miles from its mouth
| understand when this one is COM
pleted it is to be about 60 miles long
Thousands are coming from all over
the world and many are buying land
and all are delighted with the climate.
Scarcely any heating stoves are in use;
many houses have no chimneys nor
cellars and Well-tO-dO resident said,
when | spoke of an overcoat, "you
want to remember that the most of
us do not own an oyercoat." Butter
and eggs are forty to fifty cents and
living is about the same here as in
the north, though some things are
higher and others are cheaper. This
country looks to a liberal use of ferti-
liZer for its crops and | believe their
intelligent use will pay anywhere as
we'll as in Florida. To those interest
/ will be glad 20 answer any ques-
tionS. Come and see for YOUR
selves; the trip will pay any one.
Many groves are still full of fruit and
are fine sight. | saw one acre of
three year old grape fruit from which
500 worth of fruit had just been sold
and the trees were in blossom again; |
asked how much fertilizer had been
used in the three years on same and
was told $50 worth. | have seen per-
haps half dozen mosquitoes and three
snakes and but few house flies. The
most of the labor is performed by the
colored people and they are the best
lot of colOred people / ever saw.
There is scarcely any stealing going
on here, much less than in the north.
There is scarcely any double teams in
use here and most all of the horses
wear long ears. l expect to return to
WauSau in April, Tell any one af-
fiicted with rheumatism 70 try the
Florida climate and they will be freed
of same. Yours truly.