The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-03-04
FAIRY ISLAND GROVE

Harry Borland and Lewis Yonce and
R. r. Carroll and this scribe were not
at Sunday school Sunday morning is
because they were aboard an auto
mobile, hitting lively gait for Fairy
Island Grove.
The said grove is in the northwest
corner of Sumter county, 231z miles
southwest of Ocala. You can go there
in an auto, a horseandwagon, on horse
back, on footback or in an airplane.
An airplane is best, but as the wan
is using them all the party took the
next best, which was an auto. 1t used
to be thirty miles, but Jimmy Thomas,
who is nothing if not direct, found
fault with the rule that the longest
way round is the shortest way found,
and cut road thru the scrub short
ening the trip six miles or so.
Yonce drove the car. He used to be
a printer, but has reformed, and now
gets more miles out of gallon of
gas than any other man we know.
Thomas and Borland and Carroll sat
on the back seat and talked oranges
and autoes. Nobody paid any attention
to the scribe, who sat meekly by the
driver and watched the Sunday seen
cry. The route was out Orange ave-
nue., and it was easy to tell by the
way the ground is being prepared that
the farmers out that way don't in
tend to Hooverize after the crops are
| in.
The scribe kept a specially bright
eye passing thru the Pedro settle
ment. Pedro is famed for fine farms
and good-looking girls. We lamped
several of the latter looking out of
windows, and saw one specially pref
ty one right by the side of the road.
We don't know who she was but if
we were thirty years younger and had
car we'd make it our business TO
find out, and we would surely burn up
gasoline on the Pedro road.
Just beyond Pedro, the car turned
west, and after passing two or three
more thriving farms it struck into the
road that Jimmy Thomas cut dag
onally thru the scrub. Jimmy is a
public benefactor, or would be if the
commissioners of the two counties
would back him up, for his road
would shorten the route to Inverness,
Brooksville and Tampa by a dozen
miles less than the one by Dunnel-
lon, and at least six less than the one
by Stokes ferry. 1t runs over a nat
urally good route, too.
The party arrived at the grove
about 1915 and put in the next hour
and half looking it over. The grove
was called fairy because previous to
the freeze of little over year ago
| it was the best place in Florida for
fairies to romp in, and island because
| it is an island of cultivation in an
ocean of forest; also, it is really,
truly island, because you can't go in
without crossing one creek and you
can't get out without crossing an
other.
The grove was once big, sour
orange grove, and then some smart
man came along and grated sweet
oranges on the sour stock. This man.
was one of the original grafters,
which were different from the kind
we have now. When you see a man
doing that sort of work these days,
you had better say he is budding, for
| if you say he is grating he will hit
you unless you are much the biggest.
This graft at Fairy Island was better
than the one now suspected to be on
at Hog Island, and the fame of the
Fairy Island Grove pervaded all this
part of Florida.
A couple of years ago, Fairy ISL
and's trees were loaded with bloom,
and if the perfume thereof could
have been bottled it would have
scented all the weddings in the Unit
ed States. There isn't so much bloom
now, cause in January 1917 there
came a freeze that made US poor
crackers draw up like so many burnt
like the wrinkle in the neck of an
elephant. That freeze didn't observe
rules anymore than zeppelin; it
bounced right over the protecting
hammock line and sat down in the
middle of Fairy Island like tramp
in fowerbed. Also, instead of
freezing things for one night and
then going back to Saskatchewan, as
any respectable freeze would do, it
kept on freezing, till all the wood for
firing the grove had gone, and still
kept on freezing until Fairy Island
looked like Goblin Island.
The trees looked like they would be
of no more use except for firewood,
but Mr.. Thomas has a lot of that
spirit which won't let a man know
when he is beat, so he went to work
to rehabilitate the grove. 1--WE amt
sure rehabilitate is the right word,
but it looks good, and we mean he
tried to restore the grove to its for
mer splendor). That he is succeed
ing fairly well is evident; for it is a
pretty good-looking grove now, ana
getting better every day. He had all
the trees trimmed, some cut back al
most to the original stock, and the re-
suit is that nearly all are looking
well, and some are much finer trees
than many in groves that were I'M
touched by the frost.
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