The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-06-27
THE SOUTH AND THE WEST IN
COMPARISON
To the Editor Ocala Banner:

Having made a trip through Cali
fornia. Washington and Oregan last
summer, could not then help con-
trasting the farming conditions OF
that territory with those of Georgia,
Florida and the south. There. Wnere
miles and miles of mountainous coun-
trv. not a foot of which could be cul-
tiyated. with now and then vallay
in which a few farm products could
he grown. while in Georgia and Flor
ida. with a climate fully the equal OF
those gulf-stream states, and nearly
every foot of land cultivatable. What
ever of our land not high and dry to-
day. can at a reasonable cost be re-
claimed by using a dredge to thor
oughlv drain it. AS an evidence of
this. I invite your readers to visit our
auckland Island prairie, consisting OF
5000 acres, situated along the Ottawa
ha river, between Silver Springs and
Leesburg.
! We can grow a great variety of pro-
ducts every month of the year, and
where transportation facilities are all
that could be desired, reaching direct
the best distributing markets of the
world, and yet farming lands in Geor-
gia are selling at $40 to 500 per acre;
! in Florida, in the Hastings potato sec
ton, at SIS to $780, an acre in the
celery sections of Sanford Manatee
and our auckland farms, $500 to $1,000
per acre while in Washington, Ore
gon and California, with poor trans
portation facilities and a long dis
lance from market, when only one
crop a year can be grown and very
| limited variety, land sells for $1,000
per acre.
1t is a we'll known fact that thou
sands of excellent families from the
east and middle west are immigrating
to the Pacific slope, and paying hand
somely for a patch of ground in the
valley or on the hillside where they
may establish a home Why is this?
Not because the soil is especially fer
tile, not because the markets for their
fruits and garden truck are near at
home, not because the climatic condi-
tions are superior What, then, is it
that makes Washington, Oregon and
California so attractive? One of the
great attractions, and one that has in
duced many a family to locate there,
is the joy of being located among live
people Their methods of advertising
have been so successful as to interest
newspapers east of the Rocky Noun
tains. 1t is an old saying that only
live fish swim up stream" What
would be the result if the people of
the south would adopt some of the
kwestern methods that have been so
successful? Georgia and Florida
s\Ave many acres of uncleared and I'M
Unclaimed fertile lands that can be
ought at very reasonable prices;
nds that will grow a greater variety
"a products and furnish more satisfac-
4hry net results than the $1,000 per
iare lands of California, Oregon and
Washington. May not we who love
our southland study our condition
until we are bubbling over with its
marvellous opportunities, and laying
aside our modesty, proclaim it from
the housetops" and elsewhere, that
the southern states are but half de-
veloped, and that hearty welcome
awaits all good people-even Califor-
mans who will come and locate with
US.
Nature has done everything for the
south, and engineering skill and mil
lions of Uncle Sans money have con-
structed canal, connecting the two
oceans, that will soon be open to COM
merce, affording quick passage of
steamships bearing southern products
from every. Atlantic and gulf port of
the south. to every market of the ORR
ent Is it not time for us to assume
the role of immigration agents for our
southland and speak upon all occa-
sions for, and advertise in every con-
ceivable way, the innumerable posi-
bilities of our Dixieland?
DAVID H. KIRKLAND.