The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1919-07-04
THE KLONDIKE
HAS NOTHING ON
SkTE OF FLORIDA

Thenost marvellous stories are be-
ing ton of the accumulation and dis
tributifh of money in different places
in south Florida. Indeed, all tell the
same xfory including many alluring
and aHtgether authentic ones from a
NUMBER of truckers inSMarion county.
Aro,t7id Miami Fort Myers, San
ford, Ktssimmee, Bradentown, Plant
City, E&rgo and number of other
places 4he same story is told.
The Fuckers and fruit growers are
deliriod& with wealth Automobiles,
sparkliag diamonds and all the COM
comitan& of wealth are in evidence
In thatHHxection to an extent that
leaves m5 doubt of the prosperity of
the pedN,e.
For Example the following extract
is takeIiy from a letter from CORE
spendebE at Palmetto to the Tampa
Times M recent date:
Up tO44ate there have been approx
imately ,119 cars of vegetables un-
der iceHshipped from the Palmetto
section: Shnd 600 cars of tomatoes,
which were not iced. That makes a
total ofe,71s cars. These shipments
were mSfe, up Of egg plants, lettuce
celery, Mmatoes and cabbage mostly.
Egg plasats brought net average
' price of2&3.50 crate; lettuce brought
an average of So; celery an average
of $4; peppers $3.50; tomatoes SO;
and cabbage $3.50. Adding up the
prices 8u get s1750 total Divide
this by six, the number of varieties
of vege@ bles and you have nearly
an aveTNge of So per crate for the
whole Hhere are $50 crates of egg
plants t0sthe car, 400 lettuce, 400 cell
cry, 35G peppers, 400 tomatoes and
400 cablflge. Add these and you
have nea4ly an average Of 400 crates
to the cag for the whole. An average
Of 400 eiAtes to the car bringing an
average Df SO per crate means that
each car brought $1,000 net to the
grower. There were over 2,700 cars
shipped but for easy figuring we viii
use justssth 2,70O That number of
cars at 81 200 car means net total
return of $s,240000 to the producers
Besides the above enumerated vege-
tables btting shipped quite a number
of cars 81 beans and beets we're also
shipped, Sbut they went by express.
Beans averaged 81 net per crate and
beets averaged $3.50.
In the.sImonth of May there were
$40 cars of vegetables shipped from
the Palnietto section. These bring
ing an average of $1,000 a car makes
a total d sS14,sOO received in one
month aiSne.
We haven't been able to get any
where near exact figures on the num-
ber OF CARS Of oranges and grape
fruit shipped from here last season,
but we bdlieve we are safe in saying
there wefe at least 1000 cars for
warded. The fruit packs an average
Of 800 critics. to the car ,at least that
many. Dranges and grapefruit
brought ID average net price of So
box eath. Three hundred boxes
TO the caM at SO per box means that
each car pfought 5000 net. Two thou
sand carsE3t 5000 car makes a total
Of sI.sO0dpO that was received by
the fruit Growers of the Palmetto
section. s.
The twfpty-seven hundred cars of
vegetables at $1,000 a car. making
total of5three million, two hundred
and fOrtyN3housand dollars added 20
the two th6nsand cars of fruit at 5000
a car, makhg a total for fruit of one
million, eieht hundred thousand dol
lars, makesea grand total of FIVE mill
lion and fofty thousand dollars for
both vegetables and fruit that was
realized by bur growers for their sea-
sons works OF 1858. The above
are net figptes received by the grow
ers and notSwhat the stuff brought in
the markets The figures are aver
aged as the prices varied at differ
ent times. Some growers received
from IS to 81 for some Of their prod
ucts.
The grand total of $5,040, 900 means
a great deal TO this section and has
placed our3growers and truckers at
least on easy street for some time 70
come. Do $ou understand now how
they mana8 to replace their Fords