The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-06-15

freight trains, except to haul fuel for
It's engines n supplies for northern
tourists was such as to make the move
ment Of freight very tedious. The
writer was delayed for six hours at
the terminal station on an East Coast
branch line because his passenger
train could o leave until tomato
trains from the south could be moved
from the branch track. upon which
they were run in the night to eXpe-
dite the movement of through passen-
ger trains. Those vegetable cars ex-
tended for miles and miles up the
branch track, and h a was no excep-
tlonal day. Stations along the line al
most experienced a grocery famine for
weeks because the railroad company
abandoned its local freight trains and
devoted It's energies to moving tour
lists and perishable freight northward.
Delay in transportation caused deteri-
Grafton and loss in shipment. In fact,
only those wv who produced the
1ghes grade tomatoes and were mar
keting them promptly We're able to
show a good balance on the right side
of the ledger. That fact was freely
stated in Florida newspapers.
This writer saw the celery farms
at Sanford and knows that trainload
after trainload of this fine vegetable
was shipped from that point. He
saw, too, just the other day, the potato
farms between Palatke and st. Angus
tine, with Hastings as a shipping CEN
ter. AS we passed the farms near
the railway hundreds Of men, women
and boys, the darker kind predom-
mating, were busy in the fields gather
ing the crops Inc placing them in
baskets aaa barrels for shipment
north. The potatoes are generally of
appearance. They We're selling in
Florida stores May 1 at 40 to 90 cents
per peck. The Florida climate is not
suited to h preservation of pota-
toes except in cold storage and that
fact accounts FOR the shipment Of po-
tatoes from the north SO many months
in the year. In this exchange the
transportation companies do not suf-
fer.
Fruits and vegetables only can be
proftably raised in Florida. Some
grass grows and there are native cat
tie as well as imported Jersey cows,
but even farmers use a great deal of
evaporated milk and the demand for
this product Of northern farms and
factories is such as to place it almost
among the staples in a country store.
The writer saw a few fields of oats.
One was in the shock near Hastings.
Perhaps there were three acres and
the yield may have been 20 bushels
per acre: Oats cannot be grown profit
ably and it is very doubtful whether
field corn will do nue. better.
Florida has an ideal winter climate,
dry and healthful, with a temperature
ranging near 70 degrees. It's summer
temperature ranges about 15 degrees
higher and the very hot days are
neither SO numerous or SO uncomfort-
able as in the north-a fact due to
the trade winds. There is always a
breeze in central or southern Florida.
But from June to September it rains
sometime practically every day and
from April to October insect life OF
variou. kinds = mosquitoes, gnats,
Sandfies and common flies as we'll
as ants, cockroaches, etc.-make life a
burden to most people and only The
"cracker" by birth or acclimation is
willing to stay in Florida the year
around.