The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-03-17

Damage that will run into the
millions of dollars was caused by
yesterdays heavy rainfall, which
practically wiped out the tomato
growing industry and which shattered
all previous rainfall records of the
local weather bureau office The city
was flooded by the heavy rain, the
streets being filled with water, over.
flowing the curbstones and, last
night, the greater part of the bust.
ness district was flooded, the citys
storm sewer system being absolutely
inadequate to handle the heavy down
pour.
Reports from the country districts
of Dade and Broward counties. while
incomplete, indicate that from fifty to
ninety per cent of the tomato crops
were ruined. This is a heavy loss
for heavy movement of tomatoes had
scarcely started and less than ten
per cent of the estimated crop had
been shipped.
In Dade and Broward counties,
| 1900 acres of tomatoes have been
set out, representing nearly ali OF
| Florida's winter tomato crop. At the
present time, growers received 81
| per crate, t, o. b., and as the pro,
duction runs between 225 crates to
as high as $50 crates of tomatoes Ia
the acre the damage inflicted by yes
terday's rain will mount into mil
lions of dollars.
The section north of Miami was es
pecally hard hit, including the rich
farming communities around Ca
loosee hatchee, Fort Lauderdale and
DANA At DANA is one of the largest
tomato acreages in this section, in
Guiding several hundred acres owned
by Captain Hardie, who also has sew
eral hundred acres in the southern
portion Of the county.
| Up to noon, yesterday, the world S
] latest tomato field, at Peters, owned
| by Tom Peters, of 1400 acres. had had
all the water it could stand, and the
rain continued through the afternoon
and night, thus causing heavy dam
age there. 1t had been estimated
that Mr. Peters crop would be worth
more than one million dollars.
West Of Larkins the tomato acre
age of E. P. Fritz was under water,
and much damage was done at the
McAdam tract of 300 acres IN the
southern part of the county.
County Demonstration Agent J, s
Rainey reported yesterday afternoon
that in some localities, the tomato
crops had been entirely wiped out
after less than ten per cent of the
crop had been shipped.
1t was pointed out that many young
plants that had not yet started bear
! ing would not be a total loss, as
these would be able to bear tomatoes
later in the season.
For the old plants, however, there
is but little hope, for the heavy rain
has caused the fruit to get soft, max
ing 1t impossible to ship. A part
of the tomatoes will be salvaged
through canning and in making cat
sup, but only small part of the to
matoes will be saved thus.
Rain Breaks All Records.
All previous records of the local
weather bureau were shattered bv
yesterdays downpour. During the "a
hour period ending at 1915 p. m.
yesterday, more than eight inches OF
rain had fallen. The previous rec
ord of rainfall within a 24-hour per-
iod was that of November 21-22, 1917,
when TIA inches were recorded. Up
to s p. m. 81 inches had fallen.
This was nearly four times the
greatest amount that had ever fallen
within "a hours in the month of
March, the greatest previous one-day
rainfall in March being 2.OS inches,
recorded March 1918, 1913.
The record for rainfall within a
single half-hour was also shattere /
last night, 2,25 inches being record
ed in the thirty minutes between
$3.50 and 10 p. m, or more than had
1 ever fallen in an entire day duripu