Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1921-06-09
E. A. DUNN BACK
FROM FLORIDA
GIVES INTERVIEW ON HIS
TRIP-AGRICULTURE
GOOD

NIL idFOTdlIy AIN i impressed WIN
| the possibilities of that state and of
It's future" said Ernest A. Dunn, who
has returned home after five months
spent there in looking after his orange
and pecan grove near Gainesville and
TO which place he and Mrs. Dunn are
now preparing to move permanently
this fall
There is a general misconception
about Florida, its summer climate.
its agricultural resources, not alone
among those who have never visited
the state, but even among those who
have gone there for a number of win
tiers. In view of the fact that the eli
mate is so balmy and mild during the
winter months, the average person
naturally concludes that the summer
months must necessarily be unbear-
ABLY warm. AS a matter of fact, in
many parts of Florida, the summer
season is the most delightful of the
year. In the vicinity of Gainesville
! the average yearly temperature is
from GO to 20 degrees, and a case of
sunstroke is unknown. 1t is COM
mon belief, also, that malaria is very
prevalent. They have it in certain
sections of the state, but not up in
the district surrounding Gainesville
where the school children appear to
be as strong, vigorous, active and
healthy as it is possible for children
to be. s--,--.n.
Hurries Along
'The ordinary visitor to Florida
sees but little of the conditions Of that
state. He hurries through to one or
the other of the resort places. He
sees artificial farming on every hand,
truck gardens, orange groves, and a
great and dreary waste of fiat sand
land, and if you speak to him of hills,
OF great rolling country in the in
terror where people farm and have
farmed for half century, he is in
credulous Nevertheless Alachua
county, of which Gainesville is the
county seat, is fully as rolling as is
Marathon county. 1t is a real agri-
cultural section and it is because it
has been surrounded by this rich
agricultural land that Gainesville has
not only existed but has grown into
thriving, beautiful city, very much
reminding one Of Wausau twenty
years ago.
Here is located the University of
Florida, and the presence of this seat
OF earning is reflected in the people
who in culture and breeding will
compare favorably with those of any
community and are in great contrast
TO what we lind in the resort cities
where vulgar ostentation is so COM
mon as to almost be regarded as a
virtue
Not Intensive
While farming has been conducted
throughout the county for many years
with certain amount of success, it
has not been pursued with that inten-
sive spirit we are accustomed to in
the north, and the real need of that
section today is farmers of the stamp
that surround this city. A few such
farmers would revolutionize farm life
there. The real trouble is that nature
has been too bountiful. There is no
possibility of suffering hardship, or
even discomfort, and because of the
long season there is too much incli-
nation to prOcaStinate. There is not
a day in the year when it is not pos
slble to work the soil. Two days be-
fore started home | saw farmers
planting corn, and the same day in
other places | saw the corn in taSSel
IN the fields. | saw man scultivating'
his corn, and he told me that he ex-
pected yield of from 10 to Is bush
els to the acre, but in the next breath
he told me that seven years previous
on the very same piece of land he had
exceeded 80 bushels to the acre. Since
that memorable occasion his land has
never received any fertilizer of any
kind, and this year he was busy dur
ing the winter and instead of blowing
his land and preparing it for the corn,
he had merely run a furrow with
small pillow. dropped the corn and the
cultivation the corn was men re-
ceiving was mere blowing out of
the middles' With a similar treat
ment of land in Marathon county l
doubt even if we could hope to harvest
10 bushels.
For Ordinary Man
with the fertile soil to be had
there, the long season in which farm
work can be conducted, the fact that
| two and even three crops can each
year be harvested from the same piece
of land, that cattle and hogs require
very little shelter and can be raised
more cheaply than any place l ever
have seen, that the price of land is
/ cheap, that every spring some far
mers raise small truck crops of beans,
cucumbers, melons, ETC., as cash crops
and from which they realize from $500
! to $1,000 or better an acre, can con-
ceive OF no place where man of or
| binary means can go and do better
and live more care-free. Add to this
the fact that there is splendid edu-
cational system and that the people
as rule are church-going and Cod
fearing, that there is not a month in
the year but what you can have in
4 your garden or grove fruite OF some
sort, and that while it may take few
years TO mature grove. one can be
set out. either pecans or citrus fruit,
4 preferably the former. with the as
surance that when il begins TO bear
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