The Palatka news and advertiser., 1917-03-02
FLORIDA CLIMATE
SUPERIOR.
Richard H. Edmund Com
pares Conditions in Diff
ferent Sections

Last week the newspapers of the
country were flooded with Associated
Press dispatches from the West, tell
ing of the blockade of railroad trains,
which in Wyoming was said to be the
worst snow blockade in the history of
the Union Pacific road. Trains were
from twenty-four to seventy-two
hours late, and from Denver it was
reported that that city had received
but little Eastern mail for five days,
and that the trains between there and
Ogden, Utah, were from two to three
days late.
At the time when the Western
country was suffering from these
death-dealing blizzards, the South was
reveling in the glory of a splendid
climate, of outdoor life, of freedom
from storms and SHOWS and in the OPP
portunity Of the railroads to run un-
obstructed and for the business inter-
ests to pursue the even tenor of their
way This condition was true as to
very large part of the South Allan
tic Coast, of Florida and the Gulf
Coast, where, while the blizzard ragged
in the West, and the SHOWS blocked
the trains for days at time, the
flowers we're blooming, the birds were
singing, and all nature was vocal with
praise for the blessings Of such a eli
mate.
Contrast the conditions of added
cost of business, of sickness and suf-
fering and death in the West under
such snow blockades with the lessened
cost in the South and with the joy of
living in a region where such trying
ordeals on life and business do not ex-
list.
On the very day on which these
dispatches from Wyoming and from
Denver were published, the people in
FloriGa, for instance, were living an
outdoor life-windows and doors were
wide open-summer weather, or rath-
er, the perfect days in June of which
the poet writes, were in evidence.
The Western trains were blocked
by SHOWS and billiards.
The south-bound trains were crowd
ed to the limit of their capacity with
people seeking to escape from the ice
bound regions of the North and West,
and the north-bound freight trains
were burdened with hundreds of cars
of strawberries, of lettuce, of pota-
toes, of peas, Of celery, as well as
of oranges and grapefruit
On one side of the line there were
the death-dcaling blizzards and the
bitter cold, without the possibility of
farming or of much outdoor work of
any kind; on the other side was the
advantage of summer life, with all
of the freshness of vegetation, of ear
ly fruits and vegetables in abundance.
Which side do you prefer?
Last weeks freeze in Florida and
in other parts of the South where free
zing weather is rarely seen brings
out all the more strongly Florida's
unusual advantages where intense cold
weather is the exception and not the
rule 1t is true that this freeze,
which was probably the severest in
this section since 1895, has done
large amount of damage, but the re-
operative power of the State and of
the Gulf and South Atlantic portions
of the South is so great that this loss
will not seriously retard their pro-
gress nor affect their permanent pros
perity.
In contrast with the blizzard and
zero conditions which exist for so
large a part of the entire winter
throughout the North and West, the
advantages which Florida and other
Southern States enjoy in the rarity
of these cold spells and in the splendid
climate which makes outdoor life and
outdoor work practicable during the
entire winter is very great.
No one need for a moment suppose
that the effect of this freeze in Flori-
da and other South Atlantic and Gulf
States will be more than temporary
in it's effect. Even while it lasted
the weather was brilliantly clear, and
the air was crisp and free from damp
ness and SHOWS of other regions.
On the prosperity of Florida it
will not have more effect than a short
grain crop has on some of the western
states. Last year some of the Wes-
tern States averaged only three to
five bushels of wheat per acre, but
nobody for a moment has imagined
that this would in any way seriously
lessen the prosperity of those States
or retard their progress.
With the warmth Of its sunshine
and the productivity of its soil, re-
spending quickly to cultivation as it
does, the section of the South injured
by the freeze will quickly rebound and
the losses of last week, though tenn
porarily serious to many individuals,
will not halt the progress and pros
perity of these rapidly-growing re-