The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1911-04-28
fAMOUSFARMS
At fELLSMfRE
The Aomeseeker Predicts a"
w. Early Nation Wide Fame
A GREAT DEVELOPMENT
a. ua,;oo Dollars Being Spent in Drain
W. ~ and Developing This Rich Body
$4,000 Acres in ST. luoie

No.. uttle is known of Fellsmere
Farms ~u, at present, but it is certainty
i ra'" within reasonable time they VIII
w t'1 h1araIded all over the country as the
famous Fellsmere Farms:
" Tha Eelsmere Farms Company owns
&C.,, a"t townships, or about 1l5, 600 acres
n Wand in st. Lucie county. This vast
.. ,S" lies about nine miles west of Sc
t s"t; M on the Florida East Coast Rail.
w u"S The tract is reached by railroad
owned by the company. connecting at
S Sshsstian with the main line of the
T,ar;da East Coast Railway, and ter.
r n at present at the town of
, paIIsmeTe on the eastern boundary of
the company's tract.
VI The holdings of the company are
avided about as follows: 62. 400 acres
Of black muck land; $4,000 acres OF
nra;rip and sandy loan pine land; 5000
.cras Of right of way for the railroad;
90O acres of virgin cypress land, and
S0OO acres which is covered by Lake
Wilmington, a clear body of fresh
wster five miles long and three wide,
living on tne WeSteii' sue VI viz ''"S'
IKE Felsmere Farms Company is now
engaged in constructing one of the most
throngh drainage systems along the
East Coast OF Florida. This work was
manned by the well-knOWn firm OF JIG:
White & Company, of New York and
Iondon. celebrated for their success in
Milding vast drainage propositions all
over the world. Their plans, which are
now being executed, embrace a system
Of gravity drainage of canals, laterals
and bitches that will lower the water
to more than five feet below the surface
Of the tract.
Four large excavatOrs, with buckets
Of one and three quarters cubic yards
capacity, are at work day and night ON
the eastern end of the main canal,
which empties into the middle fork OF
the Sebastian river, just to the north
of Sebastian, on the coast. These eX-
cavators are working through the pine
ridge, which forms an elevation sufilc-
lent to impOund the water that sub
: merges the vast tract during the rainy
season.
At another point, four and one-half
miles west from the eastern boundary
Of the tract, is being constructed an
immense two and a half cubic yard
bucket dredge, by the American Steel
Dredge Company, which will begin
work the middle of May on canal
twelve miles in length, from point
where the eXcayators reach the prairie,
westerly to the western boundary of
the tract, and from thence sOutherly to
and through Lake Wilmington, to the
southern boundary of the cOmpany's
land.
While this is being done another steel
dredge, with bucket of one and half
cubic yards capacity, will he constructed
to cut some of the main laterals from
north to south through the four town
ships, while the eXcavatOrs will be kept
at work digging main laterals through
the sandy loan soil south and north
through the eastern portion of the tract.
And when all of this equipment is at
work on main canals and laterals,
smaller machines will be employed in
cutting snb-laterals, or bitches between
Inc subdivisions of ten-acre farms.
Without doubt this il the most through
system of drainage ever undertaken by
land promoting company in this or
any other State. 1t represents an ex-
pendlture of about one million dollars,
ana 1t will be fully assured of final com.
pet'on before any of the land of the
company is fully paid for and ready for
occupancy
r Inc operations of the Felsmere
Farms Company has been known in the
sclmIEof its property for the past
year, but there has been practically
aotnlng published up to the present
t'me' Tor the reason that the company
.ss summed publicity, prefertNg to
eeVole all the time. energy and money
10 development work. -" =.
Vne observes evidences of substantial
.u;rvelopment upon entraining at Sebas-
San' on the spur paralleling the main
., ,,;s OF the Florida East Coast Railway
WIN DE seen either the locomotive, pass
ST,,Eer coach and freight ears of the
rsn Farms Company, or the chm
pany motor car. The main line of the
;ompany is eleven and half miles, TAX
t" s passengers and freight direct to the
"wn OF Fellsmere. 4,
d. At Felsmere signs ii progress and
StSHse'opment are seenon all sides. First,
s'e Is the demonstration farm of the
f "sy IN charge of R. az Conk,ing,
uo a.y OF Tillman, where he-was for
y; successful truck gardener and
sacss. srower Mr.. Conkling has ten
Soss s under cultivation, and his garden
sihs s produced, and is now producing, all
III ths sse'aoles that are grown anywhere
in s an sSuthern portion OF Florida, and
"a Scattered ahont tha to.,..;,o ~ Falls.