New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-05-05
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most interested in were the statistics, such
as, Mr.. So and So gathered thirty boxes OF
grapefruit last season from one tree; mar
ket price. five dollars a box. One tree brings
in a hundred and fifty dollars. One hun
bred trees would Weld net income of fifteen
thousand dollars. Figure it out for your
self And did figure. | could see where
could clear two thousand dollars year on
celery alone. while | was waiting for my
trees to grow into bearing. And | should
be a free mani Ny wife would get back her
health In ten wears we should be spending
Our summers abroad
81 see saws |. "Built up some rosy
dreams, Ell? And then"
"Thcn | sent the ROYAL Palms Improve
mcnt Company two hundred dollars as part
payment on ten acres of land at forty dol
lars an acre, and agreed to pay ten dollars
month until had paid up the balance: Next
| threw up my job and we started for FLORIDA
and fortune.
X/ELL, we got off at little station with
w Our traps and couple of tents, and l
hired a man with a mule team to drive us
out to our plantation. 1t was SIX miles from
the nearest store, two miles from another
house, and all there was in sight was scattered
pines. palmetto scrub, and green-scum swamp
land.
mo flowers says |. :,
"Not even weeds says he: lust SAND
and swamps. My wife had some sense she
cried and wanted to back out then. but |
wouldn't. | was pigheaded. | said We
STAY right there and make the best OF It,. l
found a little raised hummock of land that
was dry. pitched the tents, and bargained
with the driver to bring US out supplies once
q week. In the course of a month had
knocked together something we called a
house. And perhaps you can imagine the
kind of a building a city bred bookkeeper
could make with an Ak, hammer, and TIN
saw"
81 can't, says l. "But what next
"Clcaring land says Alec. according
to the pamphlet, | was to have had this
work done for me by a lumber company who
would pay me for the standing timber hat
scheme didn't work out. In the first place,
all the big trees had been cut off and the
smaller ones that had been left had been
boxed for the turpcntlne so long that they
were fit only for fircwood. So | went at
chopping them. Between times | grubbed
out palmetto roots. And Of all the hopeless,
uncnding Jobs a misguided penpusher ever
tackled, guess that's about the worst; for
a palmetto scrub, with half a dozen leaves
two feet high and as useless as Canada
thistle. will have a root ten feet long and as
thick as your leg, with a thousand sucker
roots trailing off in every direction
$50 YOU gave up, CHI says !. 9,
49," says he, 81 was trying to get ground
enough ready 50 could put in that crop OF
celery. worked. My wife worked. We
lived like wild beasts in dirty shack. We
got up at daylight, and grubbed and ditched
until it was dark, and then we dropped on
our shakedowns. We grew sullen, morbid
For weeks at a time we hardly saw another
human soul, and we didn't care. You know
how people get to be, off away from every
one
He stopped long enough to rub his hands
over his eyes and shuddcr. Then he went on.
at was 4 nightmare, says he; but
nothing to what happened when the rams
came Then the swamps began to close us
in. After the third day the water was barely
an inch lower than the floor boards. We
were living in lake. | splashed out and
found that there wasn't a square yard OF my
whole ten acres but was covered. SO knew
the liz was up. | went to town and asked a
I .,,,,i tho. tho land Il