The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1918-08-01
ALL THE YEAR ROUND
CROPS IN FLORIDA
Neither Winters Cold Nor Sum.
mer's Heat Prevents
PERENNIAL PRODUCTION
Fruits and Vegetables Every Day
in the Year.-Every thing in
Vegetable Kingdom Can be
Grown.-Corn, Cotton and 9th
er Staples Yield Bounteously.

C1 SGdP1cS lClu oOuAbOOuo4y'
Florida was looked upon almost
entirely as a winter producing
state, in conjunction with it's well
known ability to entertain winter
visitors, until a very few years
ago, but the possibilities of the
sunshine state are being gradual
ly exposed and the exposure is
startling and gratifying to its res
idents and also to it's visitors, who
have more than a passing interest
in what Florida is doing.
The original product of Florida
was the orange, which was and is
a winter crop, and later this was
augmented by grapefruit and 9TH
er members of the citrus family
1t is true that the pineapple was
an important crop feature for a
time in Florida, and pineapples
were shipped in summer, or at
least late in the spring, during
May and June, mostly. Then eel
cry and lettuce and tomatoes were
taken up and grown in extensive
quantities in the winter, and
little later came strawberries and
Irish potatoes and cucumbers and
beans and every other kind Of
vegetable, and these were grown
in the winter and shipped North
in the late fall or early spring.
So much money was made, on
most of these crops that the grow
ers thought they ought to have a
rest in the summer and no effort
was made to raise much of any
thing in the summer until corn
was started a few years ago, and
then gradually it was found that
forage crops of all kinds could be
grown successfully and with little
effort in the summer. and this in
dustry spread rapidly. Water
melons and cantaloupes had been
raised as late spring crops. but it
was found that these could be ex-
tended into the summer and they
now furnish fruits of most desir
able quality and flavor late into
the summer. One by one the sum-
mer crops have been added to and
the summer activity on the farm
has been extended, until nearly
everything needed FOR home con-
sumStion is now raised in various
sections of the state
ln his connection an article in
the Moore Haven Times last week
gives concrete evidence oe the gre.
cess of summer crops and furnish.
es an idea in detail of the things
that are being grown in summer
in Florida. Moore H%'eG IS a
new town and a new section on
Lake Okeechobee, first opened for
cultivation two years ago iast
month and now has ahout - n00
acres under cultivation In pnb-
fishing the appended list VI things
that are now being grcwn IN the
summer, the Times says that this
list is what is being gathered in
June and July at a time when
most people residing in the NORTH
imagine it is so hot that white per-
sons cannot exist down here. CT
course this fallacy has been ex-
ploded in the minds of most peo-
pie in the North in recent wears |
still there are many that believe
that it is dangerous to go about |
much during the middle of the
day in the summer in Florida,
while, as a matter of fact, the Of
fetal records of the temperatur.
for the entire country show light
now that Florida is cooler than
"reat many points in the North:
and. % there is always a hreezs
here, the days and nights are vast
ly more comfortable than in many