The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-08-29
Tne CARNEY INVESTMENT COM.
pANv's Grove ON LAKE WEIR


terprises In the County, and sus-
tains Her Reputation as An Orange
Growing Section
I presume that almost every one OF
our readers remember the old days
when there was no other orange on
the market than the Florida. These
were the days Of the true orange aris-
tocrats. and In those days to be an or
ange grower was to have title in the
growers nobility: they were the
kings OF the agricultural line, and
proud were they Of their standing.
They little realized that they were
90 soon TO face the crisis of their
lives. that their reign was over, that
their Fall of the Bastile" was just
ahead. Many went down in that fate
ful year OF 1895. that spelled ruin to
so many IN Florida. and which chang
ed the map of citrus Florida.
In the good old days the orange
raising section OF Florida was some
degrees north OF where it is now. At
that time Ocala was the largest ship
ping town in Florida: now it has not
a single packing house. Marion coun-
" was the great producing county,
the natural home of the orange. Here
II was that the earliest settlers found
wild groves growing in profusion. and
the making OF a grove in those days
was very simple. They trimmed out
all the trees they did not want and
budded the remainder to some favor
tie variety and in very short time
had a producing g-ove that was coin
ing money for Their.
When the great freeze came it
spelled utter ruin for the growers. 1t
had seemed as though there could be
no end to their prosperity and they
had not been frugal: they had no
money to carry forward the work of
regeneration. and in most of Marion
county they never attempted to res
urrect their groves, allowing them to
fall into a state of neglect and decay.
Many OF the trees were utterly killed,
and all the rest frozen to the ground.
They largely went into other lines of
business and left what of orange
growing there was TO be, to the ten
derfoot or those OF more lion-like
courage than they at that time pos
sessed.
on the west shore of Lake Weir in
Marion county. Their surroundings
were so naturally beautiful that none
there we're but were fully impressed.
Near the ruins of one of the old-time
mansions of one of the depossessed
kings, they discussed the ruin that
had come to the county, They were
standing in a most impressive grove
of water oaks, live oaks and magno-
Has. their moss-draped leaves giving
an impressive and peculiar charm to
their surroundings. To theeast tney
could look across beautiful Lake
Weir. their immediate bank being
thir,v feet above the surface of the
shimlaering watcrs.
Spoke w. b. Gray of Tampa: Gen
tiemen. want $1,000 from each of you
with which TO get an option on this
property. We can pick it up cheap.
We will form a company, go to the
different owners and heirs, buy up
their holdings and make stock prop
osltion of it," and so the Carney In
vestment Company was born, six out
OF the seven gentlemen present agree
ing TO put up that amount Of cash.
paid my first visit to the Carney
estates this week. think that there
are at least two larger groves in Flor
ida at this time, but the concern has
200 acres in bearing, very largely. in
fact. almost wholly of the famed Par
son Brown variety. This orange is
well known as a particularly early
fruit, ripening long before an yother
orange In Florida, in fact being sweet
before Il is colored at all, and ready
TO ship by September 18th each year.
II was the success that the early and
green-hued Parson Brown achieved in
the markets that tempted other ship
pers with varieties less sugary to the
taste. to either mark their fruit Par
son Browns or to ship it out regard
less OF ripeness to take its chances,
that has brought the early Florida or
ange into such disrepute in the mar
kets Of the country. and which has re-
suited in such an agitation to prohibit
the shipping of fruit until it has at
tanned a certain sugar content.
n