The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-03-15
Cooperation In Florida

aores set out wholly to Inc ci,,
'onss This variety originated with
d FLORIDA Chinaman few wears 400
as IFS name Implies
The Year Book also Cow. ..-,,
location of the greatest ci,r,,
nurseries OF the state are in POLL
county. with their hundreds of
thousands of growing trees shows
ial'h that intelligent men have in
us future as citrus GROWING SOC
'ioh Furthermore: The high ele-
Nation Of the Polk county hills, and
the thousands of clear water Iakes
which dot its surface. are naturo,,
own safeguards against killing frosts
ana infinitely better than ANYTHING
that man could devise.
The Florida Grower. published at
Iampa. which prides itself in tell
ms the truth about Florida" saws
the corporation method of grove
ownership and production is becom-
ing popular in the state, because II
is founded on good business sense
II IS one form of operation. and CO.
perat;on in production. as well as in
marketing is right in principle and
effective in practice
On these healthy Florida hills. the
best orange land can be boucht for
$500 and over per acre Saw ten
acres cost $l,250; clearing and alow-
ing SO an acre; fencing about 81 a
rod; trees for ten acres and setting
$500; and one good man with a mule
can tend eighty to 100 acres during
the entire season. Fertilizer will be
an additional cost The fifth year
there will be fruit to sell, and in ten
years there will bet according to
past experience, not less than $500
worth of fruit per acre, the pur-
chaser doing the gathering and mar
| keting
Cooperation in caring for groves
reduces the cost per acre, and OBJ
tainS the best results. OF course,
creating a citrus grove is more than
the work of a day or month, nor is
| il a venture that can be carried on
for four or five years without capital;
but what one person going alone is
unable to accomplish. several by CO.
operation can accomplish in a first
class manner, and with as great a
degree of certainty as accompanies
any human effort in the line of pro-
duction.
But neither Florida nor Polk coun-
ty are dependent upon citrus fruits
alone One of its truck farms has
234 acres under cultivation, 100 of
them making crops certain every
winter by a system of overhead irri-
cation. and his reported profits aver
age $4,000 a year. The vegetables
most generally and successfully
grown are English peas, Irish and
sweet potatoes, egg plant, peppers,
cabbage, lettuce, celery, string beans,
cucumbcrs, squash, tomatoes, onions
and watermelons, while many thous-
ands of quarts of strawberries are
expressed northward every winter.
Lakeland, the leading city of Polk
county, is famous strawberry cen
ter, and from Plant City, few
miles west of Lakeland, S,46O
quarts were recently shipped north
in one week. prices averaging 20
cents quart to the growers, and
bringing for the weeks shipment
S6,S99.6O. The total shipments to
the end of that week from Plant City
totaled 97,OS9. When the price
dropped to 10 cents a quart for the
growers, shipments end
! The strawberry shortcakes we
have been having at Crooked Lake
in February were as finely Favored
as any that ever met the require
ments of a normal human appetite,
and the bass that A. -. and j.. +.
yelling take from the lake almost
daily are of a quality unsurpassed
anywhere else.
| Il w RARRE,R.