The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-09-14

NSAN
that every stick of timber used in the
buildings of barns and houses was
cut on the place and they have
enough lumber left to start another
town, which they propose to do later
As understand the plan 1t Is Co
operative one. No stock is sold. The
land itself is offered in 40-acre tracts
on four payments at $50 per acre
while another $50 is charged per acre
to pay for the clearing, fencing, plow
ing, seeding and harvesting. 1t Is
expected that this is all the Expense
that will ever be placed upon the pur
chaser; that the crop will after that
time pay all expenses and pay him a
dividend besides.
/ was interested to learn what pro
vision had been made for marketing
the crop, what price was to be ex
pected and the cost of growing and
preparing for the market. / am told
that there are firms at Jacksonville
and Tampa that will take all the hay
this concern can raise and pay for II
delivered at these places at $28 pei
ton. To verify this called UP the
leading hay and grain merchant Of
Tampa and he told me that while
there was not the demand for natal
that there was for timothy and that
there was differential in the price
that they could sell natal hay, and
that little later they would be in
the market for lot of it. / asked
him il he thought the output of this
big farm could be sold without trou
BILE and he stated that it could be
and he also told me that he bought
considerable hay from the concern
at Brooksville and that his recolIec
ton was that it was good, clean hay
What does it cost to grow nata
hay and what is the production pei
acre? Manager Haldeman of thu
company states that the cost Of pro
ductien is about SIS per acre per yea
and that they can cut from liz to
tons of hay a season from the sam,
land. II this is true and the concer.
can net 500 per acre per year
means 20 per cent. interest on tn
investment of 500 per acre, which
of course, has also paid for all tn
buildings, all the tractors, balm
machines, rakes, seeders, tedders
trucks, mowers and leaders, and thi
company certainly has them all Il
quantity.
Said Mr.. Haldeman: 1--WE use
about 400 pounds of fertilizer pc
acre this year, but what I want t
show you in particular is what GU
tivation has done for one Of our fol
ties. ! also want you to note tina
as we 60 along this roadway the gras
on either side much thicker and hig
er than out in the field. Do you knoy
the reason?" We did not, so
continued: "Just beyond here W
put in So acres Of watermelons, fror
which, by the way, we gathered
carloads and which we sold for, $50
per car. This road is pne over whic
We hauled the melons and there wa
necessarily much passing and repas'
ing of teams, and everywhere a teal
moved out of the road and stirred u
the soil there we have better vie!
of hay. This forty that / am goin
to show you is the first one we diske,
the work being done last Januar.
All the rest of the farm has bee
disked since that time, but only aftt
we saw what 1t was doing for th
one tract" Certainly the different
was more than noticeable; it ws
strikingly apparent. Here was graz
much thicker and taller than in ar
of the rest of the fields, and yet "
were assured that it had no more fe
tilizer and no more care than Il
rest other than disking. If the re
of the field would cut one ton sure
this forty would cut twice as niue
and no wonder the promoters are Q
Unused over the prospect.
/ understand that Congressmt
| Drane is the presiden of the compal
and that the affairs are being co
J Quoted with business ability. m
the resident manager who has char
of the farming operations, Fred
Pope, of Lakeland, and believe him
} be an able and experienced man.
/ tells me that he had q large farm
} his own near Lakeland and that
= was successful there until persuad
r to take over the management of I'll