The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1917-08-11

fore were prospects in the Okelanta-
Fruitcrest district so bright as now
The cross-state rock road from Palm
Beach to Fort Myers, to pass directly
through New Okeelanta and near
Fruitcrest, is assured, and contracts
for its construction are being let. It's
completion will bring the district with
In 1 IL to hours of the coast, &C
cerding to Thos. E. Mill, in the Miami
Metropolis.
With the rack road will come the
canal which, by connecting the Bolles
canal with the Hillsborough and West
Palm Beach canals, will give the dis
trict direct water communication with
West Palm Beach as well as Fl. Lau-
derdale. With the completion of the
Hillsborough and Miami canals, this
favored district will also have direct
water communication with Deerfeld
and Miami. Two railroads are also
promised.
The wild growth is breaking all pre-
yious records. The writer has recent
" measured wild millet heads over
20 inches long, and pig weed over 20
feet high.
Fine Crops Growing.
The cultivated growth is following
hard on the heels of the wild growth.
Some of the finest corn and egg plants
to be seen anywhere are now growing
at New Okeelanta. Had the district
but known before that it could raise
such egg plants, and sell them at such
prices as now prevail, it might now be
coming money out of this crop. Over
$1,000 worth of potatoes have recent
ly been dug from two and one-third
acres adjoining New Okeelanta. Ex-
periments in raising high-class grapes
are thus far satisfactory. The wood
growth is enormous and the vines are
beginning to bear fruit.
An imperative need of the great
treeless plain is forest tree. This is
being supplied by the Russian mulber-
ry. This tree, destined to furnish or
nament, shade, fence posts, fuel, wind
breaks and fruit, almost rivals the pig
weed in the luxuriance of its growth.
Further, it passed unscathed through
the unusual cold of last winter.
The grasses outdo themselves.
Among the leaders are Para, Rhodes
and st. Augustine. To these should
now be added the st. Lucie, which
promises to surpass all competitors.
Mich cows find an. abundance. OF. the
most nutritious feed. The region is
proving natural home for chickens.
$40 An Acre Rent Offered.
The new light tractors are proving
highly popular, and are already solv-
ing many problems in traction and
transportation. Wild land is being
cleared; and none too soon, for
home-seekers are eagerly inuuiring
for land to cultivate. Twenty dollars
per acre rental has already been re-
fused for one tract of saw grass land
three years under cultivation.
New Okeelanta is "the one bright
spot between Lauderdale and Lake
Okeechobee. Automobiles have al
ready arrived for local use. They run
easily on the home made trails, and
the settlers eagerly await the day
when these machines and manv more
will be running to the coast. Already
people are coming in, until the hous-
ing question is pushing to the front.
With the crowd that is practically
certain to arrive in the fall and win
ter, it threatens to become serious.
The opportunity for the investor who
would build houses to rent is excellent.
The Murvin boarding house has re-
Gently been enlarged, and plans are
on foot for second enlargement of
the Tilton hotel.
Need Capital Urgently.
Experience is teaching emphatically |
that the Robinson Crusoe plan of set
Ting and developing the great saw
grass prairie is calamitous failure;
and that success must be sought along
civilized lines, viz, settling in village
communities where neighbor can ad-
wise and help neighbor, and all can
stand together for common ends. With
the gradual solving of the problems
of pioneering, the "knocker" is pass
ing. The settlers, old and new, are
confident and enthusiastic, and firmly
hold that theirs is the beginning of
one of the greatest countries in the
world.
The one crying need is for money for
food-production, along safe lines al
ready worked out with toll, pains and
expense by the settlers. Practically |
the only obstacle, now, to magnif-
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OPPOSITION To GOVERNMENT