The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1921-07-29

/ with opportunity. The soil responds
lavishly with intelligent care and
treatment. The climate contributes
| generously to the health and joy of
the people. With interminable re-
sources and scenery as varied as it is
beautiful Florida enthralls and fas-
cinateS.
! The search for the fables perpetual
fountain OF youth is now only
memory, but on the other hand we
found those things which spell long
life and happiness. The song of birds,
the perfume of orange blossoms and
flowers, skies of ethereal blue, nights of
velyety softness with myriad stars of
SURPRISING brilliancy-th these and more
are yours to possess without let or
hindrance.
Florida, to many who have yet
to visit here is a mass of contradic-
tions. Exaggerated reports and mis-
| leading literature of an earlier day
coupled with ruthless explorations of
lands oftimes wholly unsuited for
agriculture, are largely responsible.
Happily all these things are almost
wholly in the past Well marked
rails now lead to wherever the travel
er may most desire. A mass of infor-
nation is his for the asking from
L nV,f OF tn
tricts. A network of splendid roads
of asphalt and brick are at his dis
posal and make readily excessable al
most every part of the state. The
early explorers were not long in re-
porting as they frequently did that
the whole country was underlaid with
gold. 1t was and is. 1t simply was
left for the generations to mine and
this is being done today at the rate of
$35,000,0G0 yearly from her products
of agriculture and livestock alone and
this is only the beginning.
With the states almost limitless
resources, it would be difficult, even
for those who have carefully measured
the possibilities, to overestimate the
value of her products in the years just
ahead. With an average annual value
of farm products of $4,000 per acre;
with billions of feet of standing TIM
Der, sufficient, when sawed, to build
homes for twenty million people:
with an annual production of eighty
per cent of the worlds phosphate:
with yield each year of turpentine
and rosin valued at millions, with
an outgo of more than fifty thousand
carloads of fruit and vegetables the
past season, Florida has taken her
place in the front ranks as wealth
producer
When you add to the foregoing, the
millions of dollars yielded each year
| by her eggs and poultry, dairy pro-
ducts, of honey, cotton and tobacco,
sponges and seafood, not forgetting
that Florida, commercially, is just i'll
her infancy, you may grasp something
of what the future has in store.
AT all points our entertainment was
lavish,- mowers strewn in our path
way. orange and grapefruit, and bar
rels of iced orange and grapefruit
juice were served US. n profise-
ness OF ~F1oridian entertainment
proved great generosity in both spirit
and purse
Florida is land of infinite variety.
Each city and section has its own pc
culiar and distinct features. The
state has spent $1,000 on direction
signs and is spending $4,000 in plac-
ing them. Many thousands of acres
of the most productive land in the
world have been reclaimed from
swamps, hammock, and pine forests
in the last year. Millions now just
as good remain to be developed. II
is simply matter of enterprise and
capital. 1t is true that the tourist
who sees Florida from the car win.
| dow views much that is sand and
barren waste but touring as we did
the interior by automobiles, we found
it vastly different.