The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-07-09
FLORIDA OFFERS YOU
WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITIES
(Tampa Tfmes.)

Florida offers so many and such
varied opportunities to the energetic
and progressive lover of the soil and
the outdoor life that they constitute
veritable embarrassment or riches.
It is brad for the man who wishes
to get back to the farm, to choose
from the many branches of agricul.
ture that seem equally attractive and
prosperous. Fortunately there is
great diversity of tastes and DISPOSE
tons in the mass of mankind, else
some professions would be over
crowded, while others would not have
enough followers to keep them going.
Florida has this pre-eminent adj
vantage over most of her sister states.
She offers greater variety OF choice
than any of them. Does the mans
taste run to stock raising? He will
find here vast acreage of vacant
land covered with nutritious grasses,
with abundance of water and a eli
mate that reduces winters care and
feed to minimum.
Is it hogs that appeal to him?
Where do they thrive better and in
crease faster than in Florida? Where
can greater variety of feed be
grown, from corn to peanuts, and
with less trouble and expense? With
the establishment Of packing houses
all over the state, which will come as
fast as they are needed, Florida will
be the greatest hog state in the
south.
Does he not care to bother with
stock Of any kind, there are innum-
cradle varieties of trucking to en-
gage his attention with the whole
nation waiting for his crop of win
ter vegetables.
If he thinks Of fruit growing there
is still a wide variety of choice with
citrus culture, the ne plus ultra OF
pieasureable horticulture, heading the
list. There is the avocado for which
the north is rapidly developing n
taste at long prices; the Japanese
persimmon, most delicious of fruits,
hardly known as yet in northern
markets; the humble guava, banished
for its unwelcome odor, but making
splendid jelly. Among commoner
fruits there is the peach, Of which we
have several varieties of rare excel
lence, especially adapted to this eli
mate. It begins to bear at two years
from setting, and reaches the north
ern market in May. the first Of its
kind to appear there and consequent.
ly bringing good prices. We have
! seen Florida peaches sent to the New
York market which netted the grow
will thrive almost anywhere in Flor
ida.
There is the grape, Of which we i'm
port many thousands Of baskets from
the grape regions Of Michigan and
New York every year, notwithstand-
ing the fact that our woods and hedge
rows are tangle Of wild grape vines
showing that neither soil nor climate
are inimical to the grape. Because q
few pioneers in the industry failed in
their efforts to grow northern grape.
in Florida we hastily concluded they
would not thrive here, and have been
sending away for our grapes ever
since, or contenting ourselves with
the half wild and half ripe scupper-
rong. But 1t has been demonstrate
ed that the improved varieties Of
grapes can be grown here success
fully. The Dade City Banner, in a
recent number, had an account of a
farmer near that city who had four
acres Of Concord and Salem grapes,
some of which have been bearing
heavily for several years, not miss
ing a single season. They are per-
fectly healthy in appearance, not be-
ing troubled with any disease, nor
bothered with insects. The vines
were grated on wild grape roots, and
the method seems to have solved the
grape problem for Florida. The
grower is enthusiastic about the fu-
ture of grape growing by this method
and we'll he may be. The man who
can successfully grow Concord and
Salem grapes and put them on the
market in advance of the northern