The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-12-02
The Land Values Of Florida
(By Albertus Vogt, C. Ed

Editor Telegram: have often
said, and Capt. Bill Kendrick said
it first, There is not an acre OF
land in Florida, worth less than
100000"
First, because the owners title
thereto goes down into the center of
the earth and legally reaches up
three miles into the most heart
g'addening climate that the air af-
fords. AS corroborative evidence:
Five years ago man bought sand
scrub on the Lakeland-Carters wag-
on road; he paid $25 per acre for
it. Since Andrew Jackson'E persecu-
tions of the Seminoles men have
cursed viciously that "Dam-San.
Sock" and since the purchase OF it
by the wise man who now owns it,
several Of those same smart yokels
and kicks have cursed themselves,
for the wise man began at once to
mine that sand and divide it in car
load lots, with his fellows, and to
rea,'sc at the rate of $3.50 per
acre for it. Some "Dam-po-fool,
that?
But, that Is as nothing.
Let us reason together: The Lake.
land Phosphate Co. Is now mining.
drying, grinding and selling raw,
unacidulated pebble phosphates for
SIS the ton f. o. b. mines. If the
strata of pebbles they are mining
may be only three feet in thickness
it means an average of 1910 tons of
pho: plate per acre, and that at
only So the ton is S3S,720, and if
it may cost the company $4 the ton
to mine and load the phosphate it is
$4,000 the acre net output. | did
the first prospecting work on the
land they are now mining and
know the strata of phosphate is sew
en- to 9 feet, and I would love to
have contract to mine and dry,
sack and load that ground rock at
$3.50 the ton, and ! think folks
know that l know the phosphate
mining business.
In June last I saw so prudent and
capable business man and farmer
as is my good friend, Capt. John
Wilson. pay Mr.. Mari of Dade City
$24 cash for two tons of soft phos-
phate natural unground deposit
| am watching the results of that
Wilson application Of soft phosphate
to his land.
Up at my Rosebank plantation in
Marion county, where used to farm
just to keep few pet negroes busy.
I used much soft unground, raw
phosphates on several kinds of
crops during at least 16 years on
such as corn, sugar, cane, orange
and grapefruit and truck. The re-
suits I obtained would make inter-
esting and entertaining reading. But
that is another story.
We have all Of us read about and
wished for the mines OF Ophir and
Golconda and Kimberly and the gold
coast and California and Colorado,
and the Klondike. Buff unacidul-
ated soft or ground phosphate proves
to be soluble phosphoric acid crop
nourishing food the. lands in Polk
county alone are easily worth a
million billions Of dollars. and that
! portion of Florida, South and East
of the Suwanee river and to Cape
Sable will be worth more to the
agricultural world of the now and
the hereafter than has been and |.
now and will hereafter be, all ant
every of the gold and silver mine.
on and in this earth.
And to think that am the instru
ment of Fate or destiny or chanc,
to discover and bring to the notic
of men and the assets Of Florid
this enormously prodigious SQUIRE
of wealth. beg of you here an
now please do not write humble in
strument " If there is any singl