The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-07-21
LIVE, LOVELY LAKELAND AS
VIEWED BY PROMINENT VISITOR
tBy Editor Edgar A. Wright in the
Florida Grower.)

| teiiing you ABOUT their city their
eyes sparkle with enthusiasm; they
point with PRIDE" they eulogize,
they tell you what the city looked
like five or six years ago, and then
say, Look at it now They tell
You that twenty-four passenger
trains pass through Lakeland daily.
and that more railroad tickets are
sold at Lakeland that at anv other
city in all Florida You will gasp
and can hardly believe the asser-
ton. but they say that it is given
with the authority of the railroad
companies.
Look at the map and you will find
that Lakeland is located IN western
FOLK county, and that it is a rail-
road center, the lines radiating from
1t like spokes of a wheel. Nearly
every train that reaches this point
on time waits here twenty minutes.
and the city gets great deal of ia
vorable advertising from this fact
alone, for passengers are usually in
clined to walk about little within
the allotted time and certainly what
they see of Lakeland from near the
station is impressive and very attrac-
tive.
For one thing, Lakeland has one
OF the neatest railroad stations in
Florida. Paved streets surround it
on every hand, and in fact one can
not see an unpaved, unclean street
anywhere. Just back of the station
Is very pretty park block square
that is always kept in the pink of
condition. On three sides of the park
lies thebusiness section, and one can
see from the pictures given here that
Lakeland needs not be ashamed of
its mercantile houses.
can further say that the resident
lal section is more than in keeping
with the marts of trade. Lakeland
people seem to take pride in their
homes; their lawns are well kept.
sidewalks clean and streets shaded
with trees. All around about Lake
land we find pretty little lakes. I
believe there are nine within the
city limits, and the shores of these
lakes are the favorite spots for home
sites among those who can afford to
own such locations. Take it all in
all, Lakeland ranks at par with
other cities of her type in Florida and
exceeds many.
| am told that the last directory
census gave Lakeland a population
of 10000, but | find an inclination
among the people to be rather con-
servative, and they say that they do
not believe they have quite that
many people, but rest assured they
do not believe that number is to be
their limit, for Lakeland is grow !
ing without a doubt Lakeland has
never been tourist city. 1t has no
fashionable hotels. Up to year
and half ago it did not even have
a representative hotel, but it now has
one that is the equal of any state.
One old-timer remarked to me, Lake
land is essentially commercial
city, with little of everything that
any other city has
For one thing, this gentleman tells
me that Lakeland is the center of
phosphate industry of Polk coun-
ty, and he tells me that in normal
times payroll of the plants is two
million dollars a year. On account
of war these plasY> are all run
ming on short time; but every one of
them is running and deserve a great
deal of credit for that, or as nv in
fomant put. entitled to the very
highest praise that they do run in
stead of turning their workmen
loose. The indications seem to be
that the mills will gradually increase
the output from now on.
Lakeland is a producer of citrus
fruits; is one of the noted strawberry
centers of Southern Florida; is quite
a grower of truck, has many dariy
interests and Is a poultry center.
have no available statistics covering
these features, but believe that
Lakeland produces about 100000
boxes of citrus fruit, of which Flor
idt Citrus EXCHANGE handled So
00G boxes last season, of which So
000 We're oranges The returns per
box +. o. b. for last season. through
the Lakeland Association, as given
me by House ManagcrG. Z. Google.
were S16O for grapefruit and Sl.35
for oranges. All Valencias sold for
an average of $217 f. o. b. He tells I
me that the actual cost of packing
in this finely equipped house was
81 l-2 cents, the charge to growers
being 40 cents. He states that there
was an additional charge last season
Of cents a box for thepurpose of
raising fund to buy additional
He says that they bought
an additional lot for $3.50; paid
81, 100 for new machinery, have
l 900 in the bank, and that they
rebated the 3 cents to the growers
because it was not needed. Under
Manager Kinney this association has
unn an envia hle rnnlIfafinn for tic