The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-06-10

man on reaching home one evening
rushed into his sitting room where
it was only dimly lighted. Seeing what
he took to be his wife in the corner
he threw his arms out and gave a
warm embrace only to find it was
an irresponsible wooden model made
for the purpose of fitting his wife's
dresses that he was hugging. His
disgust was about as great as that
which man who has been fed on
Florida fruit feels when he under
takes to eat Californias so-called
grapefruit and oranges.
FIorfda's Coming Progress.
FLORIDA will make more progress
in the next ten years than it has
in the last twenty 1t will not build
so many miles of railroads. but it
will reconstruct what it has, and
double track most of them. 1t will
double it's tourist business, much
more than double its fruit and vege-
table industries and probably quad
ruple its general agriculture, such as
cCrn, oats, hay, etc, and its livestock
interests; it's actual increase in popu-
Ia ton will probably be greater than
the actual increase in the last .wen-
ty-five years. Its wealth will doubt
less advance from the $500, ,000, 900, as
the true value of its property at
present, to as much as $1.2OO.OOO,00O
Double Tracks Necessity.
Under these conditions Florida
railroads will need to be up and do
ing in double ira king and better
| roadbeds, or the traffic will SO ear
out grow their facilities as to cause
a physical brea kdown
"The East Coast railroad people
found out last year that traffic had
suddenly outgrown their facilities to
their great surprise. They tried to
move heaven and earth in order to
move freight and passenger trains.
The East Coast section under the
splendid leadership of that road has
made marvellous advance.
Bankers Views.
'"Three years ago Baltimore bank
er who had been studying 1t said that
in ten years the East Coast would
have a larger population than the
whole State then had. That was a
rather bold prediction but it was
made by very conservative banker
who has always been very careful in
statements as to railroad and business
growth, many millions have been in
vested.
As to the West Coast.
Unfortunately for the West Coast
and the interior there has not been
since Mr. Plants death any great
masterful leadership such as the East
Coast has had The time has come
Of railroads
should develop genius for leader
ship and take hold Of the West Coast
with such broad conception as the
East Coast railroad people have given
| to their territory.
Development Haphazard.
| Heretofore Florida's development
has been somewhat haphaZard. Its
vegetable and citrus fruit industry
has not been we'll systematized; there
has been no adequate work to guard
| against tree disease. Now these
things demand attention. The grow
ers of the State, or both, should en-
ploy one or more men of the very
TO constantly inspect all fruit trees
in order to detect any enemies and to
safeguard against them.
| "Any diseased tree likely to inture
others should be Immediately de-
stroyed under State auspices. Con-
stant study should be made by such
a man or men of the best ways to
sort and pack oranges and grapefruit
| so as to avoid the amount of badly
packed fruit which often ruins box
and reflects on the whole State.
Orange Growing.
For ten or twelve years I have
bought from one grower at Rock
ledge my table fruit and in the ag-
gregate some hundreds of boxes for
Christmas presents. In all that time
| and in all these boxes there has not
been found as much as a dozen i'm
perfect fruit. 1 can depend abso-
lutely upon getting the same fine, big,
clean, delicious oranges in every box,
$50 carefully are they gathered, Sc
lected and packed.
| The grower charges accordingly,
and the trade is profitable to him
land satisfactory to his customers. All
FLORIDA oranges are not handled that
way. but they should be. Experts
Iare needed to protect the trees from
ldisease, 10 safeguard the future, 10
encourage careful cultivation and
packing, so that Florida orange Will
Everywhere he known for its excel
Hence,
| Healthy Rivalry.
IF the State cannot do this work
then the growers ought to do It at
their own expense. Possibly the East
Cost. the West Coast and the in
terror should each employ such eX-
perts and thus develop a friendly
rivalry to produce the best fruit and
to market it in the best condition
The value Of the work would be a
hundred times its cost
| Figures Submitted.
But coming back from FlOrida'S
iaffairs to the progress Of the whole
South. in which bankers and al
others are interested, it is a surpris-
ing fact that the South of today with
a population of ss,oO0,OOo is in many