The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-01-27

when they bring the highest market
prices, and our neighbors in the north
are only too glad to pay for such
tender, fresh vegetables.
There are so many things a man
can raise on a Florida farm, that
hesitate to attempt to discuss them
with you. Every one knows of the
great successes that are being made
in truck gardening. | am devoting
myself largely to cabbage, lettuce,
Irish potatoes, onions, etc. A neigh
Dor has two acres in celery--someone
thing, some another but all money
makers, if properly taken care of.
Some people here prefer to devote
themselves to the raising of all kinds
of citrus fruits, pecans, Japanese per
simmons, ETC. A man in Florida who
has five to ten acres planted to pecans
will have a fortune in eight or ten
years. The pecan market will never
be overrun in your and my life time,
for did you know this. country inn
ports several million dollars worth of
nuts each year.
Japanese persimmons are good
money-makers. They bring two and a
half cents apiece in the local market
of a nearby town; while the little
kumkuarts, belonging to the citrus
family, have sold on the open New
York market already this winter, net
ting the shipper $8.S5 per crate (32
quart boxes to the crate.) 1t is need
less for me to take up the growth of
oranges, grapefruit, etc. Everyone
knows something about that.
One crop which thrives in most
parts of Florida, is sugar cane. 1t is
sometimes called "a lazy mans crop, .
but it brings the money just the same,
from $4,000 to $4,000 per acre, and
has only to be planted once in every
three to five years.
Tobacco does well in Florida.
visited one tobacco farm and saw the
weed growing to height of from
eight to mine feet.
Rice is another profitable crop, and
while Their are many people who claim
that Florida is no state for corn and
oats, am ready to testify to the con-
trary. have been in fields where the
oats were growing higher than my
head, and if you want to know what
III have been able to do in the way of
corn, just look up some of the New
Florida magazines. published by the
New South Farm & Home Company,
and note the pictures of my corn
fields.
As l said, l have been all over this
state, in localities where one thing
thrives better than another-strawber-
ries, celery, potatoes, ETC., and have
visited Hastings (the great Irish po-
tato center) where $4,000 an acre is
made from one crop of potatoes alone,
besides one or two other crops which
are planted the same year.
| know people in this state who
have received s1.00 per quart for their
first shipment of strawberries, and the
prices kept up well until the northern
berries came into the market. The
beauty about raising strawberries in
this country is that they bear from
February until June, so that they get
in ON the early market. as well as the
late
Some people have fear that all
these new colonists coming into the
state will over run the market with
produce, but have no fear of that for
many years to come. There is not
enough raised in Florida yet to meet
the demands of it's citizens, and Stats
tics show that our imports are very
large
Then too, buyers; come into Florida
to secure eggs for Cuba and other
West Indian markets, and cannot find
ienough here, so are compelled to sup
ply their neds in Georgia, Alabama
land other near states. We have a
large field open to us in supplying
fashionable hotels on the east coast
for their winter guests, where quality
land not prices are considered.
Speaking of the shipment of eggs
Florida is great poultry state, and
There are not half enough people en-
gagged in that business here. The elm
ate seems particularly adapted to the
comfort and growth of young chicks
and both eggs and fowls bring high
prices at all seasons of the year.
i It's a great state too. for the raising
of hogs, mules. etc. in fact l should
Ibe willing to try almost anything but
wheat, and perhaps apples. although
II am assured by the nurseryman thai
there are some species of the later
which do quite nicely here. This is
lalso g00d country for neaches. Dears